PHOTO CREDIT: BRIE BUCKFELDER – KSU SENTINEL
The Owls will travel to Texas at El-Paso for the first time in program history for a battle of one-win teams on Saturday.
KSU came back down to earth last week, falling 31-14 to Conference USA front-runner Western Kentucky.
“We weren’t able to emotionally regroup and go back and match some of the intensity and focus we had the week before,” Owls coach Brian Bohannon said. “I don’t think we played exceptionally well, I think we played a really good football team.”
The Owls’ running game continued to emerge as the offense’s fallback. Michael Benefield led the way with 98 yards and a touchdown, while the unit averaged 4.3 yards per carry.
“We’re just starting to put together things from a transition from one offense to another,” Bohannon said. “It takes a little time to get to a place where we can go execute things and they look like what they’re supposed to. I think in the running game, the offensive line has gotten better every week. I think our back are getting better at pressing the line of scrimmage.”
This week, the Owls face another team near the bottom of the C-USA standings in UTEP. The Miners sit at 1-8, with their only win coming against Florida International on Oct. 16.
“UTEP, they got some good skill folks,” Bohannon said. “They’re like us in some ways. You see some stuff and you’re like holy cow. Their last three games have all been close games – at the end of the day we got to be ready to go play our best game.”
The Miners are coached by familiar foe Scotty Walden, who served as the head coach at Austin Peay from 2020-23. As the Governors head coach, Walden faced KSU once in 2022, defeating the Owls 31-14.
UTEP has started three different quarterbacks this season due to injuries. Most recently, freshman JP Pickles has had his name called. In his first career start, Pickles finished 18-of-33 passing for 145 yards and one interception in the Miners’ 20-13 loss to Middle Tennessee State.
Like the Owls, offense as a whole has been a challenge for UTEP throughout the season. The unit averages just 16.6 points per game, good for 129th in the Football Bowl Subdivision, while KSU is just below in 132nd.
The Miner’s defense has been marginally better, allowing 29 points per game, placing them near the middle of the pack amongst Group of Five schools.
Jevon Jackson is expected to be the Miners’ top rusher Saturday, as he has been all season. Nine games in, Jackson currently has 582 yards to his name and three total touchdowns.
“We got to regroup, we got to get ready,” Bohannon said. “These last four games we got to get ready to play and I think it’s the same thing, we got to go continue to work on being the best we can be at what we do.”
