When UTEP traveled across the entire state of Texas for a Wednesday night showdown against Sam Houston, the Miners traveled with a heavier load than usual.
UTEP logged a pickaxe and rocks along with it to Shell Energy Stadium in downtown Houston, in order to debut a new tradition of smashing rocks after touchdowns and other notable plays. This marked the first time the Miners ever utilized the props for a sideline celebration.
“That was the first time we did that,” quarterback Skyler Locklear said. “That was pretty awesome. We just found out we were gonna do that last night. That wasn’t a planned thing. Maybe the coaches have been planning it, but we just found about it last night. I think it brought a spark, and it’s a good little celebration tradition to have.”
Celebrations were frequent as UTEP produced 35 points, marking its highest-scoring performance against an FBS team in 2025. The Miners notched five touchdowns, when prior to Wednesday night, they only had eight combined in five previous games against FBS opponents.
“It was huge,” inside linebacker Micah Davey. “It was a great celebration we fed off on the sidelines, and the energy is just contagious. It really is contagious. That energy and those small things feed off the entire team.”
So how many rocks did UTEP bring to Houston as props for celebration? During the fourth quarter, a UTEP staffer directed me to a yellow trash can on the sideline which was approximately a third of the way full of gold-painted rocks — some whole and some already smashed to smithereens.
One reason UTEP concocted the celebration idea was to promote team chemistry between the offense and defense. The units operated in sync as well as they have all year as the Miners produced a 35-17 victory at Sam Houston — the program’s largest margin of victory over an FBS opponent since 2022.
“One thing we knew we had to do was we needed to unite better,” Davey said. “It’s a team sport. At times you hit rough patches, and I wouldn’t say we were divided but kind of sectioned off a bit. We wanted to be a team today. We wanted to have more unity. We wanted to have more shared joy on the sidelines and bring our own energy.”
