Yet another freshman quarterback will get his first career start for Southern Miss this weekend. Jake Lange will lead a beaten-down Golden Eagle squad searching for their second win of the year in a homecoming date with the 4-1 UTEP Miners.
The bad breaks have been plenty for Will Hall early in his first year, but there’s no time to dwell on the negatives. In Dana Dimel’s fourth season in El Paso, the Miners appear to be moving in the right direction. They’re looking to move to 5-1 for the first time since 2010 and 2-0 in CUSA play for the first time since 2008. UTEP hasn’t won back-to-back conference games since 2014. But this year’s group is different. Be it a relatively light early-season schedule, UTEP has shown real improvement on both sides of the ball after opening conference play with a win against Old Dominion last weekend.
Fourth-year junior QB Gavin Hardison has found his stride as the leader of the offense. In a run-heavy offense, Hardison has opened the attack through the air. He’s currently one of only six quarterbacks in America with a double-digit average in yards per pass. Hardison has been highly accurate, playing off a quality run game that is led by senior running back Ronald Awatt.
The ground attack features two other contributors in Willie Ethridge and Deion Hankins. The three-back system has allowed Dana Dimel to execute a grinding game plan that has UTEP as the 15th best offense in the country in terms of time of possession. When the Miners do throw the ball, Hardison has come to rely heavily on two primary targets in Jacob Cowing (585 yards, 4 TD) and Justin Garrett (305 yards, 2 TD). Cowing doesn’t present a mismatch physically, standing 5’11” and 170 pounds. However, Garrett is the hard-nosed, big-bodied receiver that the Golden Eagle secondary has had trouble corralling. The Southern Miss defense has allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 75.68% of their passing attempts, which is second-worst nationally in the category – behind only Kansas who surrenders 76.24%. But the matchup seems to favor the Eagles here, as a run-heavy Miner offense meets a defense that remains in the top 20 in the country in defending the ground game.
While there is a matchup advantage for Austin Armstrong’s defense, Will Hall’s offense will yet again have its hands very, very full. On top of the limitations of playing another green QB, the UTEP defense presents a stiff test in its own right. Upperclassmen Dyvonne Inyang (strong safety) and defense end Praise Amaewhule spearhead a defense only allowing 4.4 yards per play – good for 17th best in the country. Unfortunatly for Southern Miss, the best attribute of this defense is in pass defense. Opposing quarterbacks have completed only 48.1% of their attempts against the Miners in 2021. That’s the third-best number in FBS football, by the way.
This could very well be a defensive struggle as both defenses appear to have an advantage. But if Jake Lange can manage the offense as efficiently as he did against Rice, Southern Miss will be in position to win this game. This is dependent, of course, on avoiding the turnovers that killed four drives last week and prevented any momentum from being gathered offensively. On paper, this is a relatively even matchup. UTEP opened as a 1-point favorite, then quickly moved to favor Southern Miss by 1 point, and back to favoring the Miners by 2 – where it currently stands. This is a fine picture of the inability to know what to expect on Saturday. But even with as many bad breaks as Southern Miss has caught to this point, there remains an opportunity to walk out of MM Roberts Stadium a winner on Saturday.
The bad breaks have been plenty for Will Hall early in his first year, but there’s no time to dwell on the negatives. In Dana Dimel’s fourth season in El Paso, the Miners appear to be moving in the right direction. They’re looking to move to 5-1 for the first time since 2010 and 2-0 in CUSA play for the first time since 2008. UTEP hasn’t won back-to-back conference games since 2014. But this year’s group is different. Be it a relatively light early-season schedule, UTEP has shown real improvement on both sides of the ball after opening conference play with a win against Old Dominion last weekend.
Fourth-year junior QB Gavin Hardison has found his stride as the leader of the offense. In a run-heavy offense, Hardison has opened the attack through the air. He’s currently one of only six quarterbacks in America with a double-digit average in yards per pass. Hardison has been highly accurate, playing off a quality run game that is led by senior running back Ronald Awatt.
The ground attack features two other contributors in Willie Ethridge and Deion Hankins. The three-back system has allowed Dana Dimel to execute a grinding game plan that has UTEP as the 15th best offense in the country in terms of time of possession. When the Miners do throw the ball, Hardison has come to rely heavily on two primary targets in Jacob Cowing (585 yards, 4 TD) and Justin Garrett (305 yards, 2 TD). Cowing doesn’t present a mismatch physically, standing 5’11” and 170 pounds. However, Garrett is the hard-nosed, big-bodied receiver that the Golden Eagle secondary has had trouble corralling. The Southern Miss defense has allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 75.68% of their passing attempts, which is second-worst nationally in the category – behind only Kansas who surrenders 76.24%. But the matchup seems to favor the Eagles here, as a run-heavy Miner offense meets a defense that remains in the top 20 in the country in defending the ground game.
While there is a matchup advantage for Austin Armstrong’s defense, Will Hall’s offense will yet again have its hands very, very full. On top of the limitations of playing another green QB, the UTEP defense presents a stiff test in its own right. Upperclassmen Dyvonne Inyang (strong safety) and defense end Praise Amaewhule spearhead a defense only allowing 4.4 yards per play – good for 17th best in the country. Unfortunatly for Southern Miss, the best attribute of this defense is in pass defense. Opposing quarterbacks have completed only 48.1% of their attempts against the Miners in 2021. That’s the third-best number in FBS football, by the way.
This could very well be a defensive struggle as both defenses appear to have an advantage. But if Jake Lange can manage the offense as efficiently as he did against Rice, Southern Miss will be in position to win this game. This is dependent, of course, on avoiding the turnovers that killed four drives last week and prevented any momentum from being gathered offensively. On paper, this is a relatively even matchup. UTEP opened as a 1-point favorite, then quickly moved to favor Southern Miss by 1 point, and back to favoring the Miners by 2 – where it currently stands. This is a fine picture of the inability to know what to expect on Saturday. But even with as many bad breaks as Southern Miss has caught to this point, there remains an opportunity to walk out of MM Roberts Stadium a winner on Saturday.
