UTEP aims to get to .500 against smart, disciplined Rice

UTEP has a football game to prepare for this weekend, which is becoming news in this strange 2020 season.

The Miners are set to play Rice, a team that hasn't had any COVID issues of its own after a delayed Oct. 24 start and seems committed to honoring its schedule.

Getting to .500

This will be UTEP's sixth consecutive road game, with three unplanned byes breaking it up, and the Miners will have a chance to accomplish something that isn't quite that rare but still unusual in El Paso: They can get to 4-4 in November for the first time in six years.

"That gets our momentum back to where it needs to be, it puts us at .500 in November just as recruiting season starts amping up," coach Dana Dimel said at his weekly press conference. "To get back to a .500 record in November is really, really important."

Second half issues

To get there, UTEP is going to have to play better in the second half, which is a recurring issue in its three-game losing streak. Dimel admitted UTEP's lack of game action could be a factor in the fades. The Miners haven't scored a third-quarter touchdown in their last three games.

"We sure haven't played well enough in the second half in our three conference games," Dimel said. "We had chances to pull away and get victories (against Louisiana Tech and Charlotte) but we didn't play well enough in the second half to get it done.

"Obviously that was our worst half of football all year was the UTSA second half. It's been well noted that we need to start faster in the third quarter, statistically. Maybe it is subject to not playing enough games and not getting the conditioning you only get by playing the game of football.

"With that being said that's a reality we have to deal with. To circumvent that we need to play more guys and we feel like if the week goes well and we don't lose any more guys we're going to be a lot healthier and have a lot more depth this week than we did in the previous ball game."

Specifically, Dimel said UTEP will have three more defensive linemen and two more cornerbacks than they had against UTSA.

Smart Rice

That will be important as Rice presents some unique challenges.

The Owls are in the second year under coach Mike Bloomgren, who is building a model program. Rice leads the nation in committing the fewest penalties, playing to their stereotype as a smart, disciplined football team.

The Owls are also fourth nationally in time of possession.

"They play physical football," Dimel said. "To be consistent in our conference you have to play physical football. They play hard, they play smart, they do things the way you are supposed to do them. They are definitely a team we admire."

Dimel said eating into Rice's possession time will be a key.

"I thought North Texas (which beat Rice 27-17 last week) did a good job of controlling the football and they still lost time of possession," Dimel said. "Rice has a way of maximizing the clock. When we perform the way we want to perform, we're not bad at it either.

"That will be a big tale, who can keep the other team's offense off the field, keep moving the chains and getting first downs."

Third down key

That plays into what Dimel said the key to the game will be: third down. UTEP was 3-of-10 on that down against UTSA while the Roadrunners were 10-of-13.

"We have to be good on third down," Dimel said. "That will be gigantic for us, to be good on third down. We didn't do a good job at all on third down on both sides of the football against UTSA.

"Whoever is best on third down is going to have the advantage."

The good news for UTEP is it looks like they will get a chance to work on that in a game, as a Rice team that has shown a commitment to playing football awaits.

Bret Bloomquist can be reached at 915-546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.