The Miners of Texas-El Paso will roll into Joan C. Edwards Stadium a single victory away from bowl eligibility, playing a Marshall team it whipped 52-21 last November.
Until their second game, when they got waylaid by Houston 54-24. Buckram, who buried the then-No. 12 Cougars with 262 yards and four touchdowns in '09, was out with a knee injury.
Buckram has played four games, gaining 225 yards on the ground. His backup, Joe Banyard, has 395 with five touchdowns. Those two, alternate quarterback James Thomas II and others, combined to run for 184 yards against Tulane on just 31 attempts.
"I was pleased with the running game," coach Mike Price said at his press conference in El Paso. "If we had the ball more in the fourth quarter we would have run it more. . . . Buckram is back to where he was at one point, and Banyard has been tremendous all year. We can still use the running offense the rest of the year."
Vittatoe has thrown all but 10 of the Miners' 277 passes, completing 54.7 percent for 1,848 yards and 15 touchdowns, with seven interceptions. He now has 11,531 yards for his career, passing Cincinnati's Gino Guidugli for fourth place on the C-USA list.
But he is having his own injury problems, which may help explain his 102-yard performance against Tulane. That is no small issue this week.
"He has to practice more than he did last week. I'm not going to hold him back," Price said. "He suffered another ankle sprain . . . and we're going to get that X-rayed today. If practice is closed this week, you'll probably know his ankle isn't too good."
As prolific as Vittatoe has been, he has yet to experience a break-even season. But that's not all his fault - it's tough to keep up with a porous defense.
The Miners haven't held opponents below 30 points a game since 2005. They have held four teams under 300 total yards this season - but as illustrated, those teams weren't very good. Against UAB and Tulane, the Miners have yielded 515 rushing yards, 961 total.
A few key plays held the Miners back against Tulane, including a penalty that negated a Marlon McClure punt return, Vittatoe's third-quarter fumble and an interception in the fourth quarter.
Yes, the Miners are frustrated, but Price thinks they can channel that into a winning effort against Marshall. With that probably comes their first bowl appearance since 2005.
"We're 5-3, and our players don't have to be reminded that six comes after five," Price said. "There's nobody that thinks we don't have a chance to beat [Marshall]."
Reach Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.
The Miners of Texas-El Paso will roll into Joan C. Edwards Stadium a single victory away from bowl eligibility, playing a Marshall team it whipped 52-21 last November.
The Thundering Herd sits at 1-6 and could be the first Conference USA team to clinch a losing season.
So who is the favorite for the 3 p.m. game Saturday? The Herd, of course.
And here's the weird thing: It makes sense to some on the western end of the far-flung C-USA.
The Miners (5-3, 2-3) started out 5-1, but the victories haven't been overwhelming: Arkansas-Pine Bluff, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Memphis and Rice. UAPB plays in the Championship Subdivision; the other four teams are a combined 4-25.
Marshall's lone victim, Ohio, has as many wins over major-college foes, four.
UTEP's fast start is a distant memory after its last two games, losses to Alabama-Birmingham on the road (21-6) and to Tulane at home (34-24). And after the trip to Huntington, the Miners face Southern Methodist in their home finale, then travel to Arkansas and Tulsa - a seriously backloaded schedule.
Mix in these anti-Miner trends: They are 7-18 in the last weekend of October and November since joining C-USA in 2005. In those long, long trips to East Division foes, they are 2-6 all-time.
This is all adding to up a bit of fatalism in El Paso.
"UTEP showed signs [of the past] that it won't win another football game this season," said longtime El Paso Times writer Joe Muench. "The team has trouble beating anybody east of here, especially the likes of Southern Miss and East Carolina. The Miners just don't play block-and-tackle football."
The Miners and the Thundering Herd (1-6, 0-3) meet for the fourth time, with the road team winning big the previous three. Marshall lashed UTEP 49-21 in Huntington, but has absorbed 31-3 and 52-21 whippings in El Paso, in 2005 and 2009.
Trevor Vittatoe threw for a school-record 517 yards and five touchdowns against the Thundering Herd in the '09 season finale, the last game of the Mark Snyder era at Marshall. To compound the Herd's ignominy, it was the first time since 1986 the Miners won a season finale.
Vittatoe finished with 3,308 yards passing and Donald Buckram ran for 1,594 yards. With those weapons back, the Miners seemed a decent darkhorse pick in the West Division.
Until their second game, when they got waylaid by Houston 54-24. Buckram, who buried the then-No. 12 Cougars with 262 yards and four touchdowns in '09, was out with a knee injury.
Buckram has played four games, gaining 225 yards on the ground. His backup, Joe Banyard, has 395 with five touchdowns. Those two, alternate quarterback James Thomas II and others, combined to run for 184 yards against Tulane on just 31 attempts.
"I was pleased with the running game," coach Mike Price said at his press conference in El Paso. "If we had the ball more in the fourth quarter we would have run it more. . . . Buckram is back to where he was at one point, and Banyard has been tremendous all year. We can still use the running offense the rest of the year."
Vittatoe has thrown all but 10 of the Miners' 277 passes, completing 54.7 percent for 1,848 yards and 15 touchdowns, with seven interceptions. He now has 11,531 yards for his career, passing Cincinnati's Gino Guidugli for fourth place on the C-USA list.
But he is having his own injury problems, which may help explain his 102-yard performance against Tulane. That is no small issue this week.
"He has to practice more than he did last week. I'm not going to hold him back," Price said. "He suffered another ankle sprain . . . and we're going to get that X-rayed today. If practice is closed this week, you'll probably know his ankle isn't too good."
As prolific as Vittatoe has been, he has yet to experience a break-even season. But that's not all his fault - it's tough to keep up with a porous defense.
The Miners haven't held opponents below 30 points a game since 2005. They have held four teams under 300 total yards this season - but as illustrated, those teams weren't very good. Against UAB and Tulane, the Miners have yielded 515 rushing yards, 961 total.
A few key plays held the Miners back against Tulane, including a penalty that negated a Marlon McClure punt return, Vittatoe's third-quarter fumble and an interception in the fourth quarter.
Yes, the Miners are frustrated, but Price thinks they can channel that into a winning effort against Marshall. With that probably comes their first bowl appearance since 2005.
"We're 5-3, and our players don't have to be reminded that six comes after five," Price said. "There's nobody that thinks we don't have a chance to beat [Marshall]."
Reach Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.
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