Rice at UTEP Preview
This week is Halloween, and what could be more fitting than bringing you the fright fest that could occur when the Rice Owls travel to face the University of Texas-El Paso Miners. Rice comes into this game 4-1 in conference USA play and 5-3 over all. Thanks to the Rice defense not playing like zombies they marked another in the win column last week against Tulane. Texas El Paso despite not registering on many people’s radar aren’t playing like Frankenstein’s monster. The Miners are currently part of a three way tie in Conference USA and are 4th in the strong western Division. The Miners are 3-1 in conference and 3-4 over all right now after playing a strong non-conference schedule early on, but most importantly for the Miners, they had a week of rest prior to this game and they are in the Sun Bowl this week. Rice head coach David Baliff isn’t shifting his focus this week either, he knows the threat El Paso can bring and he isn’t worried about the post season yet.
Once more the senior quarterback Chase Clement will take the field, and I don’t see much changing. The Miners will have to bring their A game, and probably the A game of The University of Texas at Austin to slow down the Rice attack. The Rice Owls are 14th in the nation in total yards, and 9th in passing yards averaging 325 yards per game. The Owls are also averaging 40 points per game, another top 10 national statistic. Despite the statistical disparity El Paso head coach Mike Price is confident and hopes to have the community behind his team this weekend.
On the notion that there will be a lot of points scored I couldn’t agree with coach Price more, but I doubt he’s going to like which side of the score board is being lit up. This Rice team has shown it can overcome just about anyone this year, well, as long as they’re in Conference USA and they don’t play in Oklahoma. Nonetheless the similarities between Rice and Tulsa this season have been evident, and the Miners have already faced that Tulsa squad, the outcome was not pretty for the Miners as they fell by a large margin.
The three headed monster that is Chase Clement, Dillard and Casey is going to be in full effect on Saturday and I doubt the Miners have much that can contend. Barring some sort of revamping of the Texas El Paso defense, or some miracle play for the Miners, this one is going the Rice way, and doing so quite impressively. Once again, I’m putting my perfect record on the line and on the backs of the Rice players as I’m confident they will drive the steak through the heart of the Miner’s hopes and come out on top in this one. My prediction, Rice Owls 49, Texas El Paso Miners, 21.
