NCAA Football: UTEP Miners vs Boise State Broncos Prediction, Odds and Preview - 09/10/2021

Game Time:  9:30 pm ET, Friday, September 10, 2021

Venue:  Albertsons Stadium, Boise Idaho

Where to Watch:  FS1

DraftKings:  Spread:  Boise -27; Over/Under:  55.5 points

 

UTEP:  2-0 to start season.

Boise State: 0-1

 

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UTEP:  (2020)  3-5 overall, 0-4 in conference (C-USA West)

Boise State: (2020)  0-1 overall.  Cancelled season over Covid. (Mountain West)

 

The UTEP Miners most recently played the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats.  They won that game 38-28 at the Sun Bowl.  UTEP must have been stoked.  So I googled Bethune-Cookman to find out what they are up to?. The HBCU located in Daytona Beach Florida will play this year in the SWAC (Southwest Athletic Conference).  It was Bethune Cookman’s first game in 2 years since the shutdown from Covid-19, they didn’t try to squeeze any games in last year and good for them.  Not too good for UTEP that they got 28 points hanged on them from a small school working a program back into action after 18 months- 2 years off.

 

Utep is flying high behind QB G. Hardison.  They have landed in first place in conference USA because the other 1 win teams are yet to play a game 2.  They are a far cry from recent 2018 and 2019 squads that didn’t win this much and 1 game away from matching last year’s win total.  They won’t get that win against Boise. Hardison is throwing 11 for 20, 249 yards, 1 TD and 2 Interceptions.  They aren’t going to get much done through the air against Boise.

 

The Boise State Broncos are 5-0 all time against the UTEP Miners, but they haven’t faced each other since 2014.  Quarterback Hank Bachmeier completed passes to 9 different receivers in the Broncos’ season opening loss against the UCF Knights. They got a strong performance from Running Back Andrew Van Buren, seemed to be playing well. Then the third quarter hit and Boise State went dry… empty… stymied.  3 and out, 3 and out, 3 and out.  They won’t have that trouble with UTEP, but if they want a successful season they have to get it together.  An article in the local media (Boise local) implied Offensive Coordinator Tim Plough was over his skis and maybe doesn’t have the skills that match his position.  

 

The UTEP Miners defense gave up 28 points to Bethune Cookman.  That happened. They did hold New Mexico State to 3 points in the season opener, another team that didn’t play in 2020, the same New Mexico State Aggies that beat UTEP 44-35 on November 23rd 2019.  It’s inconsistency that marks this group the most.  Up and down performances against small schools that were scheduled for easy wins.

 

Boise State’s Tyric LeBeauf is the early season star.  He had two interceptions against UCF one of which he returned for a touchdown. A 100 yards end zone to end zone return to give Boise the first score of the day.  The rest of the defense seemed a bit brittle.  Giving up too much to UCF including the win.

 

Our Prediction for Friday, September 10th is Boise State 38- UTEP 10

 

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UTEP is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games.

The total has gone Over in 4 of UTEP’s last 5 games.

Boise is 2-4 ATS in their last six games.

Boise 4-1 ATS in their last 5 September games.

 

UTEP:  None reported.

Boise: None reported.

UTEP: RB  R. Awatt, UTEP will have to establish a running game if they want any chance.

Boise: Tyric Lebeauf, let’s see if he can do it again.

“Today, the only message was, ‘congratulations on the win, but lets move on,'...Nobody played near as well as they can so we have to clean that up, get guys playing at the level they can play at, eliminate mistakes and don’t give up big plays and don’t have all those penalties.” - UTEP coach Dana Dimel covering all the bases of coach speak.

 

“I do what the coaches are asking me to do and not trying to go out there and do anything I haven’t been doing in spring ball, fall camp and stuff like that. When the opportunity presents itself you gotta take advantage of it.” -Tyric LeBeauf, Broncos star.

 

UTEP:  QB G Hardison, RB R. Awatt, WR J. Cowing, WR J Garrett, 

Boise State: QB Hank Bachmeier, RB George Holani, WR Octavious Evans, WR Stefan Cobbs

 

Coaches:

UTEP:  Dana Dimel

Boise: Andy Avalos

Partly Cloudy, 89* for the day’s high. 10% chance of precipitation.