First the good news.  The Miners needed only two plays in overtime to defeat the Stony Brook Seawolves 31-24.  The bad news; the Miners needed overtime to defeat the Stony Brook Seawolves!

Mike Price now has two claims to fame concerning overtime.  He told the media he coached the first overtime game in NCAA history, and he is now at least tied for the shortest overtime session in history.

As easy as it would be to bash the Miners for struggling with such a seemingly inferior opponent the truth is Stony Brook is a good team.  They are experienced, well coached, and have a lot of size on the lines.

Senior wide receiver Donavon Kemp talked about how surprisingly physical the boys from Long Island were.

The nearly 30,000 fans at the Sun Bowl watched in stunned silence when Stony Brook's Jonathan Coats took a fourteen yard fumble recovery to the house to give the Seawolves a 24-10 lead late in the third quarter.

Doing his best Joe Montana or Tom Brady impression, UTEP quarterback Nick Lamaison didn't panic.  He calmly led the Miners on two scoring drives, both culminating with touchdown passes to freshman tight end Eric Tomlinson.

Lamaison talked about playing in his first ever D-1 football game.

Mike Price and the coaching staff deserve a ton of credit for the victory as well.  Now calling the plays on offense, Price attempted to pound the ball in the first half to no avail.  The Miners were only able to gain 36 yards on the ground against Stony Brook.

In the second half Price took the training wheels off Lamaison, and spread the ball around.  In his first start for UTEP Lamaison threw for 365 yards, three TDs, and two picks.

Despite being gashed for 231 yards on the ground, Andre Patterson's defensive unit bent but didn't break.  When Stony Brook inexplicably abandoned the run they were ineffective moving the ball through the air.

Underneath the excitement of the overtime victory are some major red flags.  The offensive line was a huge question mark coming into the season, and they were unable to create holes for the running backs.

Stony Brook had a huge line and decent backs, but the Miner run defense looks like it is going to be suspect all year.  Especially against the more physical teams from the eastern division of C-USA.

The good news is that I believe in Nick Lamaison.  The guy is a winner, and as long as number 7 is under center the Miners will have a fighting chance.

Win or lose Mike Price assured us this will be an exciting Miner team!

 

 

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