UTEP Miners Pound NM State Aggies 30-3 Behind Jacob Cowing's Career Day

Jacob Cowing had 158 yards on just five catches (31.6 yards per catch!) to lead the UTEP Miners over the NM State Aggies 30-3 in their rivalry game Saturday night. The win broke the Miners’ three game losing streak against the Aggies and gave them their second straight 1-0 start to the season.

The Aggies’ first home game in almost two years was set to be a great atmosphere for a football game, with more people in attendance than for the Hawaii-UCLA game, unfortunately poor play from the Aggies on both sides of the ball ended the game in a hurry.

The Miners jumped all over the Aggies from the beginning of the game, only allowing one first down on a four play opening drive. The Miners then used a 72 yard bomb to the aforementioned Cowing to set up a Deion Hankins TD run, to effectively seal the game four minutes into the first quarter.

The Aggies never could really get anything going with Jonah Johnson running the offense, finishing the game 8/24 for only 82 yards. Some of that was due to dropped passes but it is still a disappointing performance. Weston Eget played the 4th quarter, going 1 of 9 for seven yards.

In total the Aggies only gained 190 yards of offense compared to the 452 yards the Miners racked up.

But again, this really was the Miners’ coming out party. They should be a sneaky good team in the C-USA this year with Gavin Hardison (11/16 for 249), the three headed monster of RBs Awatt (11 carries, 74 yards), Wadley (six carries, 51 yards) and Hankins (11 carries for 50 yards), and Jacob Cowing (5-158 and a TD).

I’ll have more to say about this game in the next few days but for now it is just another frustrating loss.