Throughout this brutal and strange opening stretch of schedule where all three UTEP football games were supposed to be (and were) routs, the standard line was that playing ranked teams at Oklahoma and Michigan would get UTEP ready for the Mountain West games that matter.
The Mountain West schedule doesn’t arrive for another week and a half, but a homecoming test against a surprisingly good Oregon State team that likely aligns with the top of the MWC seems to apply here. Coming off the 52-17 loss at No. 19 Michigan, where UTEP was leading with 1:35 left in the first half, what has UTEP learned that it can use against the Beavers?
UTEP thinks tough schedule has it ready for Oregon State
”This is such a great schedule to prepare us
for Mountain West play,” coach Scotty Walden said at his news conference to kick off Oregon State and homecoming week. “We are going to be battle tested. The two top 25 teams we played have been physical and we’ve been fortunate to come out pretty healthy.
”If we play like we played that first half against Michigan, we’re going to be a hard team to beat. I was proud of our kids, they didn’t back down from a challenge. They ran to the fight, they kept believing, they played for each other.”
As for specific areas Walden saw against Michigan that his team can carry forward against Oregon State, he said his team is starting to get an identity on both sides of the ball.
”The run game on offense,” Walden said. ”We’re playing with an edge and a physicality that’s going to give us a chance. I like the way we’re running the ball right now compared to year’s past. That’s something we can continue to build on.
”I love the physicality we play with on defense and the take backs. We have three force fumbles in three games. There’s no moral victories, but we won the turnover margin against Michigan, that’s a positive.
”Those are things I take away and say, if we can apply that we’re going to have success.”
Oregon State starts with the pass
Something more specific that will be tough to apply is how UTEP defends Oregon State. After lining up against a Michigan team that starts with running the ball, the challenge completely reverses. The Beavers are the nation’s No. 1 team in passing offense at 386.3 yards per game and 136th out of 138 teams in rushing.
Their star receiver, true freshman Jesse Legree, a three-star recruit out of high school in New York, leads the nation by more than 10 yards with 386.3 receiving yards per game, and two of those three games were against ranked teams. Quarterback Braden Atkinson is the nation’s leading passer at 374 yards per game.
“It’s a different mindset than it was against Michigan, where it was run-first,” Walden said. ”Those guys are going to throw to set up the run.”
That means UTEP’s biggest task is going to try to do what no one else has in Oregon State’s 1-2 start (it had close, competitive losses to ranked Houston and Texas Tech) and that is get a handle on Legree.
”We have to find out where he is because they are going to move him all around,” Walden said. “They do a fantastic job of formationing him and game planning to get him open. It’s down-the-field-shot USA. They are going to squeeze, cluster, motion, all about creating for him free releases.
Walden also stressed that Oregon State is not just going to fling deep balls all night.
”It’s not just taking shots,” Walden said. “They do a great job of taking what you give them. It’s not all guns-a-blazing. They can get methodical, dink and dunk, then all the sudden they shoot you over the top. This is a really good football team. It’s not the Oregon State of last year.”
UTEP’s focus: Better third quarter, better punting
The two glaring problems for UTEP against Michigan, which were also the glaring problems against Oklahoma in the opener, were punting and a miserable start to the third quarter. Those have to improve against Oregon State.
On both fronts, Walden said there isn’t some magic wand that can fix everything and it will just come down to doing what they do better.
”Give Michigan credit, they came out (the second half) ready to play,” Walden said. “We had a couple of critical MAs (missed assignments). We have to come out, be locked in and ready to go.
”We have to eliminate our mistakes. Coming off the field, I thought, ‘Did they switch up their front, did they switch off how they played us?’ They really didn’t. You could tell, somebody probably got into them at halftime. They played hard as all get-out coming out.
”Then they got the momentum and we didn’t answer the bell. Those guys wear on you. We weren’t good in the third quarter against a $40 million roster. We were good in our second game (against Texas Southern), I’d like to think we’re going to keep getting better as we play competition that’s in our conference.”
As for the punting, UTEP now ranks 136th in net punting at 28.5 yards per attempt. Brady Braun’s average of 37.4 yards per punt ranks next-to-last nationally among 65 qualified punters (at least 11 punts).
“It’s getting a ton of reps, getting heat on that shield,” Walden said. “We have to settle down there. We’ve got to settle in and when we get heat and pressure, trust our protection, strain hard to keep guys off Brady. Brady is a heck of a punter, I’ve got full confidence in him. He’s an ultimate competitor, I’m 100% sure he’ll get better as the season goes.”
He gets his first shot at that Saturday against Oregon State in the Sun Bowl.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Has UTEP football learned enough? Oregon State will reveal answer
