Sun Bowl Smash: The UTEP Miners Grind Out a Win against the Memphis Tigers
by Adrian Mac on Sep 26, 2010 12:05 PM MDT
in UTEP Miners Football
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PrintThis was exactly the kind of game that last year's team would have found a way to lose.
If the UTEP Miners still ran Osia Lewis's 3-3-5 defensive scheme, last night probably would have turned out differently.For the first time in a long time, credit for a win lies squarely with UTEP's defense. The defense faced bad field position the entire night, but time and time again the Miners found a way to stop a physical Memphis offense.
Oh, and Dakota Warren helped out a bit too. On a night when UTEP's offense couldn't punch anything into the end zone, Warren booted three field goals, including the game winner as time expired and two of over 50 yards, that were the difference between an ugly win and an even uglier loss.
When the chips were down late in the fourth quarter, last years team would have rolled over. Last year's team would have shot themselves in the foot. This time, Jamie Irving & Co. stopped a Memphis drive that took the ball to UTEP territory with under four minutes to play. Memphis, having held UTEP to under 200 yards of total offense up to that point punted and pinned the Miners down on the 2 yard line.
Then, the offense finally woke up. And, we got a taste of what UTEP's offense could look like now that Donald Buckram is back on the field. Vittatoe, Buckram, Kris Adams, and newcomer and serious weapon Joe Banyard, marched the Miners 95 yards in just over 2 minutes.
- Donald Buckram, rush for zero yards.
- TV hits Elijah Goldtrap for 10.
- Buckram rush for 11 yards.
- Buckram rush for 6 yards
- Vittatoe to Buckram for 3 yards (huge first down on 3rd and 1)
- Buckram rush for 8 yards.
- Trevor Vittatoe pass to Kris Adams for 30 to the Memphis 28.
- Joe Banyard rush for 8 yards to the Memphis 20.
- Joe Banyard rush for 18 yards to the Memphis 2 with 35 seconds on the clock.
Before that drive, the Miner offense has mustered only 193 total yards of offense. Then, the Miner offense rolled 95 yards in 98 seconds. The Miners, despite the momentum, again failed to punch the ball into the end zone, but luckily, a field goal was all they needed.
Buckram finished with 13 carries for 59 yards and caught 3 passes for 15 more. On UTEP's final drive he pitched in 28 yards, Kris Adams had 30, and Joe Banyard rushed for 26 more. It was a total team effort, and as Donald gets his feet back under him, Banyard has proven to be a reliable threat with a nice combination of power and speed. He finished with 45 yards on nine carries and scored UTEP's only offensive touchdown, a 6 yard run late in the third quarter.
Mike Price said "It was a great team victory. It was a great character builder for the guys. It was a tough game but we got mentally tough as the game went on. The more adversity we had the better we did and that's what I want to dwell on. The defense made big plays and the offense when it came down to it, on the 2 yard line take it 94 yards to the other end. It was quite a deal."
Yes, it was. For the first time in a long time, UTEP faced adversity late in a game and found a way to win.
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Nice write up!
Defense was the difference, but special teams were great last night, also. The field goals you mention, but McClure’s kickoff and punt returns were really important, and Ian Campbell had a punt downed inside the 5.
MINERS!!
Miner's punter also shanked one badly!!
There was one shanked punt by the miners——and it caused some damage later when Memphis took advantage of it.
Defense rose to the occassion although to limit Memphis drive.
Here's my takeaway....
We managed to eek out the win…..but, on a larger scale, this was a bigger win than what the final score indicates. What differentiates championship teams from not is the ability to pull out the ‘ugly win’ on a day when one of the three facets of your game isn’t clicking on any cylinders. We’ve seen this with championship teams throughout history. Now, I’m not saying we’re on the same level as the Alabama, Florida’s or Ohio States, but I will say that each of these teams were taken to the brink at some point and due to their ability to ‘eek out the win’, it allowed them to turn the proverbial "corner". How many times have we seen our beloved team be ‘oh so close’ yet not convert when we needed to? I’d venture to say more times than we care to admit. Coming into this specific game, the phsycological edge belonged to Memphis. All week, all we (and the team) heard was how this was going to be the toughest defenses we would face all season. Couple that with their history of victories over our squad; the fact we couldn’t make a reception; couldn’t make a breakout run; gave away field position with a 6 yard shanked punt and an interception; couldn’t manage to take a lead throughout the game and allowed them to hang around for 57 mins.
So what did we learn? Do we chalk this one up to a bad Memphis team? – Maybe?! Do we allow the nay-sayers to put in our heads that we simply lucked out? – Perhaps?! This time, I say ABSOLUTELY NOT! This win, more than any other win we’ve had in recent years (including the Houston win last year) will produce far more dividends. This win allows us to ‘get over the hump’. Not the hump of beating Memphis, but more importantly, the hump of overcoming the self-inflicted losses we’ve suffered for several years.
Early this year, I predicted that this season would be a special year for Miner Nation and now, I’m more confident than ever that this is going to materialize. Once the squad views the tape of this game and sees how they did everything in their power to give this one away and realizes that the only way they are going to get beat is if they beat themselves (including Arkansas) we are going to see a lot more focus, confidence and determination from this team than what we’ve experienced in the past. The future looks bright Miner Nation, get ready to make some national noise!
Could not have said it better myself...
This win allows us to ‘get over the hump’. Not the hump of beating Memphis, but more importantly, the hump of overcoming the self-inflicted losses we’ve suffered for several years.
Time and time again, it looked like we could roll over and die the way the team did against Tulane and Rice last season. But, the defense kept finding way to make plays and I saw energy on the defensive side of the ball I haven’t seen in a very long time. 3-1 sounds damn good right now and the schedule still looks very manageable.
Marshall is getting more and more banged up- their defensive front is better than Memphis’ in my opinion, but we have a month to improve with a nice path of winnable games before us. Last season, each week was a crap shoot. This season, so far, has shown that the seniors are going to fight for each win.
As the defense gets more and more confident, the ceiling for this team just continues to climb.
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