Know Texas Tech’s Opponent: UTEP

Welcome to Week 2.

If you thought Lubbock's FCS opponent of Week 1 was a mismatch, I'd like to introduce you to UTEP, a program that won its first home game of the last 1,008 days just last weekend.

The Miners have won two games in the last three seasons. If you pay attention to betting lines, this is one of the largest Texas Tech lines in recent memory, with the Red Raiders favored by 34.5 points. Long story short, Texas Tech should win this one handily.

The good news for us is that the games aren't played on paper, and the Red Raiders and Miners will actually have to strap it up this Saturday and play an entire 60 minutes of football.

After week 1, we know a little bit more about the Matt Wells version of Texas Tech football. But what is Dana Dimel's version of UTEP?

Dimel spent nine seasons to start his career at Kansas State. He then traveled around to a few programs before another lengthy stint at Kansas State. Last year, he spread his wings and took his first head coaching job since 2002, taking on the monumental task of bringing UTEP back to life after a nosedive at the end of Sean Kugler's run.

In Matt Wells' weekly press conference, he talked about his familiarity with the UTEP staff. He also talked about the UTEP makeup and some of their key players. You can watch that below.

For a UTEP perspective, we talked to Steve Kaplowitz from ESPN 600 in El Paso.

He wasn't overly confident in the Miners, but he also conceded that there has been some improvement in the last two seasons. Does that improvement mean that Texas Tech is going to take an L on Saturday? No, but Kaplowitz says there's a scenario that UTEP can keep it uncomfortably close if the Red Raiders overlook them.

You can listen to the whole interview with Kaplowitz below.

Don Williams and Ryan Hyatt broke down the UTEP-Texas Tech matchup on Raiderland for the 7th time since 1964.

Texas Tech is 7-0 in those matchups, including two wins in the Kingsbury era, and two wins in the Leach era. Williams takes you through the depleted UTEP defense and how Alan Bowman might throw for 500 yards against this Miners defense. Check it out here:

Kickoff for Texas Tech's game against UTEP is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 7th. You can listen to Talk 1340's Countdown to Kickoff show from 4-6 p.m. to get the inside scoop on the Big 12 landscape and the Red Raiders.