Texas-El Paso vs Jacksonville State Preview: Can Gamecocks Compete in C-USA?
Jacksonville State's Atlantic Sun Success Means Nothing Anymore
The UTEP Miners will head to Burgess-Snow Field to take on the Jacksonville State Gamecocks in the year’s second regular season football game.
The UTEP Miners finished 5-7 overall and 3-5 in the Conference USA last year. Head Coach Dana Dimel is just 17-40 as head coach of the Miners. But UTEP is starting to build something. He’s had a couple of more successful seasons over the last two years.
UTEP will want to build on those seasons and earn a bowl game this year.
Meanwhile, Jacksonville State finished 9-2 and won the Atlantic Sun Conference with Rich Rodriguez as head coach. Rodriguez has coached for over 25 years in college football, formally known for his time with Michigan. Either way, the Gamecocks have won seven Atlantic Sun championships since 2014. But now they’re competing at the FBS level.
Jacksonville State made the move from the Atlantic Sun to the Conference USA. The competition will be a bit tougher moving forward. Will the Gamecocks be prepared?
Let’s take a look at the Texas-El Paso vs Jacksonville State preview for the Conference-USA showdown in Week 0.
UTEP vs Jacksonville State
Day/Time:
Location: Burgess-Snow Field
Streaming: CBSSN
Jacksonville State’s Transition
The Gamecocks dominated in the Atlantic Sun year after year. But now they’ve made the jump from FCS to FBS.
I’d be worried if the Gamecocks weren’t good at the FCS level. But I think they’ll be fine in Conference USA, especially since the Gamecocks won seven of the last ten Atlantic Sun Championships.
The offense ranked fifth offensively at the FCS level with 424 yards per game. The Gamecocks added 5.6 yards per carry on the ground and earned nearly 3,000 yards alone.
It starts with Anwar Lewis, who earned nearly seven yards per carry. He added 818 yards on the season last year. He’ll earn reps with Malik Jackson, who came over from Louisiana-Monroe. Jackson rushed for over 950 yards and added nine touchdowns in two seasons at the FBS level earlier in his career.
Meanwhile, Zion Webb will return as quarterback. He’s a fantastic runner and should be taken seriously as a dual-threat thrower. He ran for 647 yards and 13 touchdowns and also threw for ten touchdowns. He’ll be playing in his seventh season and earned eligibility to play this year.
While Jacksonville State will likely run more than pass, the two receivers that can breakout include Sterling Galban and Jamarye Joiner. Joiner is a former Pac-12 prospect from Arizona.
On the other hand, the defense should be aggressive because they’ll be trying to get after the quarterback. The coverage was always terrific at the FCS level, and the pass rush was the reason for it.
They’ll have a lot of veterans defensively but not many players who have consistently played at the FBS level. Again, I don’t think that’s a significant negative for the program. They’re well-coached by one of the more successful FBS coaches in America.
Is Gavin Hardison the Answer?
The UTEP Miners will ride with Gavin Hardison at quarterback. He’s got experience, but he threw for just 2,044 yards in 10 games. That’s just over 200 yards per game in the air.
Hardison also added eight interceptions and had two games where he had three. He’s been highly inconsistent with UTEP.
To make matters worse, he’s lost WR Tyrin Smith to Texas A&M and won’t have Ronald Awatt at running back. Other guys will need to step up, including Dre Suggs and many JUCO guys that transferred in.
On the other hand, the Miners were not good defensively. The coverage was terrible, and they missed countless tackles.
Yes, the Miners led the Conference USA in yards allowed. But they also only added five interceptions throughout the entire season. UTEP also lost a bunch of linebackers and will hope that other JUCO athletes can do their thing this season.
Finally, the pass rush should be the best portion of the defense. It certainly was last year. Praise Amaewhule, Brynton Thomas, and Keen Stewart are all back from last year’s defensive line.
Below, you can read about our Texas-El Paso vs Jacksonville State preview with trends included.
Jacksonville State’s Got Nothing to Worry About
The Jacksonville State Gamecocks don’t have any FBS stats to go over. This will be their first game at the FBS level. It’s a new era for the Gamecocks.
Meanwhile, UTEP has been an FBS program with some stats from previous seasons. They’ll be slight favorites in this game.
The Under is 4-0 in UTEP’s last four games as a favorite of .5-3.0. The Miners are currently a 1-point favorite against Jacksonville State.
While Jacksonville State has many players that haven’t played at the FBS level in their careers, UTEP added a bunch of JUCO players that haven’t played at the FBS level.
The biggest weakness for UTEP is in coverage. The Miners won’t force many turnovers, especially in the secondary. But the Gamecocks are going to look to run the ball more often than not.
Last season, UTEP didn’t tackle very well, either. They’ve got some big hitters, but sometimes they miss that hit stick.
The Gamecocks have a seven-year veteran at quarterback, and while he’s made some poor decisions throwing the football, UTEP isn’t a significant threat to earn interceptions.
Jacksonville State will want to control the clock, rush the football, and keep the defense fresh. The Gamecocks should be more prepared and have the fundamentals down heading into Week 0 of the football season.
I’ll be interested to see where Jacksonville State stands in the NCAAF rankings after Week 0.
The Under is Appealing
It’s a known fact that Jacksonville State wants to run the football. With more runs comes more clock movement. The Gamecocks dominated offensively back at the FCS level. They added 35 points regularly. But I don’t think that’ll be the case this season.
After reading the Texas-El Paso vs Jacksonville State preview, UTEP certainly lost a lot of reliable talent on the offensive end.
The NCAAF odds for the total are at 52.5. There won’t be many NCAAF scores in Week 0, but this score will be low.
For NCAAF betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.
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