The gap between the UTEP football team and the top college football programs, so cavernous throughout their recent history, has narrowed dramatically this season.
However, the quest to end the nation's longest bowl-win drought will have to wait another year after a 31-24 loss to heavily favored Fresno State in the PUBG Mobile New Mexico Bowl.
Playing with looseness, verve and adventure as the biggest underdog of the 84 bowl teams, the Miners led by nine late in the first half and trailed by two in the fourth quarter before the nation's 14th-ranked offense took their measure.