![\"UTEP](\"https:\/\/platform.underdogdynasty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/172\/2025\/10\/gettyimages-2169961384.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0.075000000000003,0,99.85,100\")
<\/a><\/p>\nUTEP QB Skyler Locklear accounted for four total touchdowns in the Miners\u2019 35-17 road win over Sam Houston. Getty Images<\/p>\n
One discrepancy between the CUSA rivals guiding UTEP to victory was fourth down execution. Sam Houston finished 0-of-4 on fourth downs \u2014 three 4th and 2s and one last-ditch 4th and 10. Meanwhile, the Miners converted 2-of-3 tries as Locklear fooled the entire Sam Houston defense on a 4th and goal naked bootleg in the second quarter \u2014 establishing a 14-7 lead that would never be matched or relinquished.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week we gave up four out of five against Liberty on fourth down,\u201d Walden said. \u201cWe really talked about it, because we have a really good third down defense. Coming into the game we were top-5 in America in third down defense. Teams are not just gonna drop back and pass against us. They\u2019re gonna run, try to throw in the quick game, try to get in a fourth and manageable. And our defense did a fantastic job of bowing up on fourth down and getting off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adversity struck for Sam Houston in the second quarter as it lost starting quarterback Hunter Watson due to injury in the late second quarter. Watson, who has dealt with a share of injuries in his two seasons with the Bearkats, went to the locker room for examination and did not return until the middle of the third quarter \u2014 donning sunglasses and street clothes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know they did not clear him to play in the second half,\u201d Sam Houston head coach Phil Longo said. \u201cI am not exactly sure what the final diagnosis was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watson was replaced by Mabrey Mettauer, who attempted to lead the Sam Houston rally. Mettauer\u2019s screen to Lonnie Adkism in the late third quarter touchdown sliced the deficit to 21-17, but without their starting quarterback, the Bearkats only collected 14 combined yards in the three drives that followed. Landyn Locke entered for the final drive as Longo utilized three quarterbacks in the team\u2019s seventh-straight defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week we did a good job offensively and defensively of marrying \u2014 playing what everybody calls complementary football. That was why we were in a position to win the game last week,\u201d Longo said. \u201cThat\u2019s what you need. You need the sides feeding off each other. We stalled out a little bit when Hunter did not come back out. We had two three-and-outs or three three-and-outs, and that hurt us a little bit. We were playing good complementary football when we were controlling the football and controlling the line of scrimmage. That changed a little bit when we last our starter. That wasn\u2019t necessarily Mabrey\u2019s fault, but the rhythm just wasn\u2019t the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wednesday night affair was no stranger to bizarre moments. The aforementioned fourth quarter flurry of special teams fiascos was one. In the first half, an absurd stretch involved three possession changes in three plays \u2014 although no points were produced from the chaos. Sam Houston stuffed UTEP on a Shay Smith 4th and 1 QB sneak at the Miners\u2019 31-yard line. The following play, UTEP nickel Kode Lowe jarred the ball out of Landan Brown\u2019s hands, and the pigskin flew into the hands of Ekow Taylor who raced down to the Sam Houston 7-yard line. The Bearkats snatched the ball right back as Locklear threw across his body to Sam Houston cornerback Emon Allen right before the goal line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a playmaker and I have confidence in that, but I also have to know when our defense gets a big turnover like that, we need to capitalize on that,\u201d Locklear said. \u201cIt\u2019s in my hands to protect the ball and lead the team to points.\u201d<\/p>\n
But through all the craziness, UTEP (2-5, 1-2 CUSA) found a way to collect its first road win of 2025 while winless Sam Houston (0-7, 0-4 CUSA) was eliminated from bowl contention. The Miners cited the offense and defense coming together as a team as the impetus for their Wednesday night success in downtown Houston, and they\u2019ll look to build on the most dominant FBS win of the Walden era as final stretch of the regular season approaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a 1-5 team in America that\u2019s practicing the way we\u2019re practicing,\u201d Walden said. \u201cGuys are bringing it every day striving to get better, and if we keep our practices intense, competitive, and detail, and we hold the standard in everything we do, then we can continue to grow off this. Right now our bye week\u2019s coming at a perfect time to get healthy, and we\u2019re gonna ride this wave of momentum the last few games of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One thing was guaranteed Wednesday night. One of the two Texas-based Conference USA programs would feel a sense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6604,56,58,57,5071,4533],"class_list":["post-6560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-conference-usa","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-sam-houston","tag-utep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}