To say that the season for Utah State hasn’t been what they expected would be the understatement of the year. They started out the season with Senior Chuckie Keeton starting at quarterback after missing the second half of the 2013 season with a knee injury. The quarterback looked primed and ready to lead Utah State to another big season like in his sophomore year.
Unfortunately, Keeton’s season was cut short after he suffered another major knee injury during the third game of the season against Wake Forest. Keeton was finally starting to look comfortable throwing after completing just 31-of-65 passes in the first two games of the year. Keeton had completed 74.1% of his passes against the Demon Deacons before his injury.
The next man up was Sophomore Darell Garretson who saw significant playing time as a true freshman last season. He led the team to a 6-1 record as a starter. Garretson continued his great play in 2014 leading the team to big wins over BYU and Air Force before he suffered a season-ending injury against Colorado State.
All in all, Utah State has played a total of five different quarterbacks this season. The fact that they are in a bowl game with nine wins on the year is pretty remarkable.
The biggest key for Utah State will be to get their offense going early and often, especially their running game. In their nine wins this season, the offense averaged 419.0 total yards with nearly 200 of that on the ground. In their four losses, they averaged only 296.3 total yards with 113.5 of those on the ground.
On defense, it will be up to the front seven to continue their stellar play. Opponents only gained 3.3 yards per carry on the ground against Utah State in 2014 despite carrying the ball an average of 39.5 times per game. Their mark of 129.2 rushing yards per game allowed ranks them 26th in the nation right in between Mississippi State and Southern Cal.
If there is one player that UTEP will need to be aware of it is junior wide receiver Hunter Sharp. Despite all of the different players at quarterback, he still is having a very good season with 63 catches for 918 yards and seven touchdowns. Sharp has four catches of 70+ yards in 2014.
There is plenty to celebrate in El Paso these days. For the first time since 2005, the UTEP Miners will finish the season above the .500 mark. They did make a bowl game in 2010 at 6-6 but lost to BYU 52-24 after Skyline High product Jake Heaps threw for 264 yards and four touchdowns to drop the Miners to 6-7.
This season has been the Aaron Jones show, the sophomore from El Paso, Texas led the team with 1,233 yards rushing on 217 carries with 11 touchdowns. That mark is good for 31st in the nation, it is the most rushing yards gained by a UTEP running back since Donald Buckram gained 1,594 yards in 2009.
The running attack really is what drives the UTEP offense, it shows in their play-calling as 66.7% of their plays were runs during the year. Getting the running attack going will be crucial as UTEP averaged 265.0 rushing yards per game in their seven wins, four of those games were 300+ yards. Conversely, in their five losses they gained an average of 141.2 yards on the ground.
The matchup between the UTEP running attack and Utah State run defense will be the focal point of this game. If UTEP cannot get the run game going, then this could turn into a rout real fast.
Prediction: Utah State 31, UTEP 13