The enthusiastic crowd of 35,422 fans eagerly anticipated the Miners first victory over a Big 12 opponent as UTEP was driving for the winning touchdown with a little more than 2 minutes remaining in the game.

UTEP's Autrey Golden returned a kickoff 52 yards and a facemask penalty gave the Miners exceptional field position, but UTEP could only manage four yards before turning it over on downs.  It wasn't meant to be for UTEP as they lost the game 30-26 to Texas Tech.  Surprisingly the Miners deviated away from their running game on their final drive, this after they had tremendous success on the ground all night long against Tech.

Aaron Jones had another solid performance rushing for 147 yards on 23 attempts and 2 touchdowns.  Jeremiah Laufasa also gained 47 yards on the ground and scored a touchdown.  Quarterback Jameill Showers had a mediocre performance completing 9 of 25 passes for 116 yards and no TD's.

There is no doubt that the Miners should have won this game, they played well defensively,  dominated the time of possession, and showed that they certainly weren't deserving of being 20 plus point under dogs.  After two games it is obvious that this team is much improved from last season, and if the Miners can balance out their offensive attack they should be able to win 5 or 6 games.

They host 2-0 NMSU next Saturday in what has all of a sudden has become a rather intriguing matchup.  On paper UTEP should beat New Mexico State easily, but as any fan of this long time rivalry knows, games aren't played on paper and anytime these two teams face one another you never know what can happen.

Here is the complete post game press conference from UTEP coach Sean Kugler.

 

 

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