UTEP Miners College Football Pregame Quote, 11/08/2021

On playing UTSA last week:

Last week I thought UTSA came out and did a really nice job. We tip our hats to them and what they did. They seemed to be hitting on all cylinders. I think a lot of it was stimulated by that 75-yard run on the second play of the game. It really got them going and the momentum going. It just seemed like all the little intricacies of each play, they were running normally all year, we’ve been able to stop those types of plays and after that it seemed like their execution was really good, and our defense was a little bit off. They got after us and did a great job and scored a lot of points on our defense. Our defense had been playing extremely well all year, but they got the better of us, and they’re a good football team. They’re a physical football team and they have a lot of good players.

Offensively, we obviously missed that field goal that would’ve got us within a touchdown. And then we had the drive to start the second half where we drove the ball down the field and didn’t execute well on the that two plays of that drive. That was unfortunate, because we had a guy wide open on the touchdown pass, but didn’t get the ball to him.

On playing at North Texas on Nov. 13:

We go back [to practice] and get ready for what becomes another big game for us. It’s an opportunity for our football team to get to seven wins; to get to a 7-3 record after 10 ball games. To me, that’s really something to strive for and have our best yet to ourselves to that point for our football team is ready to out and perform, and get things fixed that we didn’t do well last week, and continue to try and improve.

North Texas is on a two-game win streak now, so they got some momentum to what they’re doing. They’ve had two nice wins and they’re running the football well, so it’ll be a good test for our defense to stop their run game. They’re doing some good things with that and being physical and getting the ball to their tight ends. Defensively, I think Phil Bennett’s [UNT Def. Coordinator] coming into a really nice job with their defense, and they’re getting better. They’re a physical team up front, defensively, and it will be a good test for us. It’ll also be a good road test for us.