UTEP +11.5 2.2% PLAY / UTEP +375 0.5% Play

Does Fresno want to be here?  They just missed out on their conference championship game, their HC Kalen Deboer left for Washington, their OC Ryan Grubb left and they will have a firs time play caller, and interim HC Lee Marks, who is not announcing who will start at QB.  I think it will be 5^th year Sr. Jake Haener, but it’s a bit alarming the fact that he’s not officially the starter.  Haener was going to enter the transfer portal and then pulled back later.  I’m not sure how that makes his teammates or coaches feel.  If it’s not Haener the drop off could be huge with a pair of freshman QB’s taking snaps in practice.

UTEP, on the other hand is in a bowl game for the first time since 2014, and haven’t won a bowl game since the 60’s.  This is 100% a big deal for them.  While UTEP really struggled down the stretch late, they were still +0.9 ypp differential on the season, while Fresno was +0.8.  Hard to see Fresno excited for this one to be honest, and we have seen these type of upsets in bowl games.  It’s also not as if UTEP is a push over.  They ranked 4^th in success rate defense, and are pretty good against the pass and run, while Fresno turned into a one dimensional offense finishing the season ranked 115^th in epa rushing offense.