UTEP easily defeated Houston Baptist 42-10 on Saturday night at the Sun Bowl in front of an announced crowd of 15,977.  It was the smallest crowd of the season for a UTEP football game, and quite frankly, there couldn't have been more than 5,000 fans actually in attendance.  Despite winning two of their last three games, attendance continues to drop, and it has become a sad site to witness so little fan support at Division I football games.

What even made the dismal crowd even more of a difficult scene to witness was the fact that the UTEP men's basketball team offered a 2-for-1 basketball/football ticket promotion where fans who purchased a ticket for Saturday's exhibition game verses Alaska Fairbanks received free admission to the football game against HBU.

The Miners played a solid game against a Huskies squad that was clearly outmatched and overwhelmed by their dominant ground game.  Aaron Jones had a career day by rushing for 228 yards, and scored two touchdowns in a little more than two and a half quarters of action.  With his tremendous performance, Jones tied Miner greats Donald Buckram and John Harvey for the second most 200 yard rushing games in school history with three.

Photo by Brandon Cohn
Photo by Brandon Cohn
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Miners' QB Ryan Metz played extremely well by completing 16 of 21 passes for 191 yards and three touchdowns.  UTEP is now 3-6, 2-4 in C-USA, and will play their next two games on the road at FAU, and Rice.  The Miners must win their final three games of the season in order to become bowl eligible.

 

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