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The Rice Owls and the UTEP Miners are even-steven against one another since November of 2015 (3-3), but not for long. Rice and the Miners will face off in a Conference USA battle at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday at Rice Stadium. Both teams took a loss in their last game, so they'll have plenty of motivation to get the 'W.'
Rice entered their game against the Charlotte 49ers on Saturday without any home losses -- but there's a first time for everything. Rice ended up on the wrong side of a painful 56-23 walloping at Charlotte's hands. Rice was probably expecting an easy victory given their 15.5-point advantage in the point spread, but the 49ers gave them no such satisfaction. Despite the loss, the Owls had strong showings from QB TJ McMahon, who passed for three TDs and 218 yards on 33 attempts in addition to picking up 45 yards on the ground, and WR Bradley Rozner, who caught five passes for two TDs and 105 yards.
Meanwhile, it was all tied up 10-10 at halftime, but the Miners were not quite the Middle Tenn. Blue Raiders' equal in the second half when they met on Saturday. UTEP fell to the Blue Raiders 24-13. QB Gavin Hardison had a memorable game, but not in the way you want to be remembered: despite one touchdown, he threw one interception with only 177 yards passing.
The losses put Rice at 4-4 and UTEP at 4-5. A pair of defensive stats to keep an eye on: Rice comes into the matchup boasting the 38th fewest passing yards allowed per game in the nation at 206.5. But UTEP is even better: they rank 34th in the nation when it comes to passing yards allowed per game, with only 202.9 on average. We'll see if that edge gives UTEP a route to victory.
