Mike Price has led the UTEP Miners to six straight losing seasons, and yet he still has a job. He is in the final year of his contract though, so unless this team has a better season this might be his last year in El Paso. UTEP has made a habit of starting fast and then falling apart late in the season. <\/p>\n
Conference USA 2012-2013 College Football Previews: UTEP Miners<\/strong>
\n Head Coach: Mike Price<\/strong>
\n 2011 Record: 5-7<\/strong>
\n UTEP Gambling Odds from JustBet to win BCS Championship: (Part of Field) +1,800<\/strong>
\n UTEP Gambling Odds from 5Dimes to win Conference USA: +1,500<\/strong>
\n UTEP Team Page \u2013 Players Stats \u2013 Roster \u2013 2012 Schedule \u2013><\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nCan the team put together a winning season this year?<\/p>\n
UTEP has an extremely difficult non-conference schedule this year, so they\u2019ll have to try to navigate through that and get to a bowl game. The Miners lost quite a few starters from last year\u2019s team, but there are a lot of guys returning who have had some experience on the field in the past. Let\u2019s take a look at the strength and weaknesses of this team.<\/p>\n
Team Strengths:<\/h3>\n
Mike Edwards is the leader of a strong group of wide receivers. Edwards is only 5\u201911, but he runs terrific routes and has a way of finding open space. He\u2019ll likely be one of the most productive receivers in the conference this year. On the other side, Jordan Leslie had a solid freshman year and the team expects big things from him in his sophomore campaign.<\/p>\n
Germard Reed and Horace Miller give the Miners two starts on the defensive line. Reed is a big defensive tackle who can really plug up the middle of the line. Miller is an impressive pass rusher because of his quickness around the outside. Both of these guys have great motors, and they will be leaders on the field this season.<\/p>\n
Team Weaknesses:<\/h3>\n
UTEP must replace all three starting linebackers from last year. Jamie Irving, who missed all of last year due to injury, will be plugged into one of the spots. The rest of the linebacker unit is a major question mark. UTEP has several undersized and inexperienced guys that will likely be on the field here in 2012.<\/p>\n
The running back position is a question mark this year as well. UTEP badly needs a consistent running game in the year ahead. Sophomore Nathan Jeffery will be the featured back, but he doesn\u2019t have much help around him. Can the youngster handle a heavy load every week?\u00a0\u00a0[soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n
The Miners secondary isn\u2019t very good, which is a big problem in a conference where teams air it out at every opportunity. DeShawn Grayson is a solid safety at the back, but the Miners cornerbacks have had trouble staying in front of people the last couple years. UTEP must do a better job limiting big plays.<\/p>\n
2012-2013 UTEP Miners Football Prediction: 4-8<\/h3>\n
I don\u2019t expect this to go well for UTEP in 2012. The Miners play a much more difficult schedule than last season, and I don\u2019t think the team is better. The defense still has tons of holes, and the offense is relying on too many unknowns right now. Mike Price may well be on the way out of El Paso at the end of this season. Look for a very disappointing season for UTEP.<\/p>\n
2012 UTEP Schedule<\/h3>\n
9\/1\/12 10:30 PM ET OKLA
\n9\/8\/12 7:00 PM ET @MISS
\n9\/15\/12 8:00 PM ET NMXST
\n9\/22\/12 TBD @WISC
\n9\/29\/12 TBD @ECAR
\n10\/6\/12 TBD SMU
\n10\/13\/12 TBD @TULSA
\n10\/20\/12 TBD TULNE
\n10\/27\/12 TBD @HOU
\n11\/10\/12 TBD CENFL
\n11\/17\/12 TBD @SOMIS
\n11\/24\/12 TBD RICE<\/p>\nGRAB OUR BEST Expert CFB Picks for 2012 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2012-13 Football Previews \u2013 (C-USA) \u2013 UTEP Mike Price has led the UTEP Miners to six straight losing seasons, and yet he still has a job. He is in the final year of his contract though, so unless this team has a better season this might be his last year in El Paso. UTEP has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":24809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[44530,3007,16468,14800,50363,50361,3627,32310,56099,50362],"class_list":["post-53992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2012-bcs-lines","tag-college-football-previews","tag-conference-usa-odds","tag-conference-usa-picks","tag-miners-bcs-futures","tag-utep-gambling-odds","tag-utep-miners","tag-utep-miners-odds","tag-utep-miners-predictions","tag-utep-schedule"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53992"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54031,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53992\/revisions\/54031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}