With the Miners down and out against Houston, Mike Price decided to throw the Cougars a curve. He sent in Blaire Sullivan to play the rest of the game at quarterback.

Four touchdowns and 300 yards later, the question is: What took so long?

Against a Houston team that had clearly eased off the gas and had no game tape on the sophomore, Sullivan threw for 246 yards, ran for 54 in the 45-35 loss; but the four touchdown drives he engineered were the most by any Miners' QB since Lamaison put up four against NMSU.

Against the Cougars, Lamaison threw four interceptions and backup Carson Meger lost two fumbles, thus the expectation is that Sullivan will start for the Miners Saturday afternoon in the Sun Bowl against likely Conference USA champion, UCF.

But Price is not liable to play into anyone's expectations -- especially the Knights'.

The loss to Houston guarantees UTEP of its seventh straight losing season. What do they have to lose?

We find out, Saturday at 5 p.m. MST.

 

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