UTEP leaped happily into their second bye week after a thrilling homecoming triple overtime win against new Conference-USA foe Kennesaw State.
But Nov. 23 the time came to face the now No. 7 team in the nation Tennessee, who were looking to make a statement to the entire nation.
The Volunteers were coming off a daunting loss against the No. 6 ranked Georgia Bulldogs and slid down four spots in the AP Top 25 ranking.
Their response was a near-flawless showing against the Miners, winning Saturday’s contest 56-0.
It’s the Volunteers second highest scoring game of the season, trailing their 69-3 victory over Chattanooga in Week 1.
UTEP was strong in the first quarter, shutting down Tennessee’s offense from putting up any points. Sophomore quarterback Skylar Locklear was able to give the “blue blaze” offense the game’s first shot at putting up points, however, junior kicker Joe Bowman couldn’t knock down the burdensome 49-yard try.
With over 100K roaring fans, Tennessee found its groove in the second quarter. Junior running back Dylan Sampson showed up first to the scoring party with a 14-yard touchdown run.
Out of the Volunteers eight touchdowns, the most important for their fans was a pair caught by senior wide receiver Bru McCoy.
McCoy has an NIL deal with a company called Moonshine Mountain Cookie, which offered Tennessee fans a free cookie if McCoy scored a touchdown.
Prior to Saturday’s game, McCoy hadn’t found the endzone all season. That changed with the senior’s two scores versus UTEP, satisfying the sweet tooth of Tennessee fans.
True freshman quarterback JP Pickles got some snaps in and completed 10 of 15 passes for 72 yards, had no turnovers, and showed promise.
When under pressure on third and ten, Pickles rolled out right and threw a pinpoint pass to senior wide receiver Trey Goodman, who despite the tight spot, was able to stay in bounds.
With the win, Tennessee (9-2, 5-2 South Eastern Conference) is now tied with Georgia (9-2, 6-2 SEC) and both are behind Texas (10-1, 6-1 SEC) for the most wins in the SEC, but are still out of the SEC championship game.
The Volunteers’ losses to Georgia and Arkansas (6-5, 3-4 SEC) leaves them out of the title match in Atlanta, due to a common opponent tiebreaker.
On Saturday night the SEC office confirmed that Georgia clinched a ticket to Atlanta and will face the winner of Texas versus Texas A&M (8-3, 5-2 SEC).
If Tennessee handles business versus the Vanderbilt team (6-5, 3-4 SEC) they should have no trouble making the 12-team College Football Playoffs. The task got easier after Alabama’s (8-3, 4-3 SEC) 24-3 loss against Oklahoma (5-5, 2-5 SEC) on Nov. 23.
UTEP (2-9, 2-5 CUSA) now heads into its last game of the season. At the finish line of Scotty Walden’s first year as Miner head coach is rival New Mexico State University (3-8, 2-5 CUSA). The Aggies, like the Miners, have had a turbulent season under a new head coaching regime.
After making the C-USA championship last season, Tony Sanchez has struggled to keep NMSU a strong program after former coach Jerry Kill, and senior quarterback Diego Pavia departed to Vanderbilt.
UTEP hasn’t lost in Las Cruces since 2019 but were held under control in their prior matchup by NMSU on home turf with a 28-7 loss.
Despite this year’s struggles, both Walden and Sanchez can go into the offseason with a case that their program is on the up in C-USA with a win.
Sebastian Perez-Navarro is a staff reporter for The Prospector and can be reached at [email protected]
