UTEP Football Game Week: Miners Face Big Ten Power Nebraska

The months of build-up for year one of the Scotty Walden coaching era led to this: week zero game week for UTEP at Nebraska.

Kick-off is set for Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. MST from Memorial Stadium (Lincoln, NE) and the game can be heard on our partner radio station 95.5 KLAQ FM. The first MinerTalk Watch Party will take place at The District West (3233 N. Mesa) and MinerTalk will hit the airwaves on 600 ESPN El Paso as soon as the game wraps up.

UTEP is 0-37 all-time against Power-4 schools (0-28 on the road) since 1998. They are 1-58 against teams in power conferences, with the only win (14-7, Ole Miss) coming in the 1967 Sun Bowl, the last time the program won a bowl game. The Miners are 0-3 all-time versus Big Ten schools after recently losing to Northwestern 38-7 last year. They will play the Cornhuskers again in 2028 and Michigan in 2026 as part of UTEP's future non-conference slate.

Nebraska opens the week as a near four-touchdown (-27.5) point favorite over UTEP.

What: UTEP at Nebraska (-27.5) 

Over/under: 48.5

Where: Lincoln, NE

Time: 1:30 p.m. MST 

Listen: 95.5 KLAQ 

Watch: FOX 

Scouting the Cornhuskers

In year one of Matt Rhule in Lincoln, the Cornhuskers finished with a 5-7 record and positive momentum leading into this season. They tout prized recruit in quarterback Dylan Raiola, who was ranked the No. 2 quarterback in the 2024 On3 Ranking system. To no surprise, Rhule named Raiola the starter against the Miners last week.

On defense, they return several key contributors, including leading tackler Isaac Gifford, along with Jimari Butler and Nash Hutmacher (combined 10 sacks last year). They held opponents to 18.2 points per game (13th in FBS in 2023).

Nebraska has won seven of its last eight home openers. And, despite the promising finish to the season, fans have high expectations for the Cornhuskers. They lost four close games, where they scored 17 points or less in each of the games. The 2023 season was highlighted by a 5-1 stretch in the middle of the season that fans are hoping will propel them this season.

Final notes for the Miners

The 2023 season (3-9) finished as disappointing for the Miners as it started. As a result, they fired Dana Dimel, who spent six seasons with UTEP, and UTEP hired Walden from FCS Austin Peay.

Walden was 26-14 with the Governors over four seasons and won the United Athletic Conference title in 2023. Upon his hiring, Walden recruited CUSA's top recruiting class for the class of 2024 and quickly reshaped the roster at UTEP.

The Miners wrapped up their final "mock game" on Saturday and intend to name a starting quarterback this week. Redshirt junior Cade McConnell started the final six games of the 2023 season for UTEP, finishing with 1,437 yards and six touchdowns to four interceptions. His competitor is Austin Peay transfer Skyler Locklear, who is a redshirt sophomore, knows the offense and is known to be a mobile quarterback.

Edge rusher Maurice Westmoreland expects to be a standout for the defense, as he was last year with 7.5 sacks to rank second in CUSA. Cornerback AJ Odums is also returning to the team from last season. He will join a talented secondary made up of transfers Xavier Smith, Kory Chapman and Jaylen Shelton.

Offensively, they will flex an up-tempo approach to try and catch opponents off guard. They are known to run a 3-3-5 defense under new co-defensive coordinators J.J. Clark and Kelvin Sigler.

Head coach Scotty Walden will address the media at his weekly press conference Monday.

Nebraska prediction

Despite the back-and-forth quarterback competition that has dominated most of the storylines this fall camp, I would be surprised if the team had a clear-cut answer. It doesn't appear to be far off to speculate that both quarterbacks could see playing time on Saturday, even with a starter named.

With stout veteran running backs like Jevon Jackson and hybrid Kam Thomas, I expect this team to lean on the run. On defense, they will have to try and make the freshman look like a freshman.

It's an uphill battle for UTEP in the trenches against Nebraska and that's where this one will be won. Let's see if the Miner offense can get some points on the board.

Prediction: Nebraska 42 - UTEP 13