It was another rough season for the UTEP football team (1-11, 1-7 C-USA), who finished their 2018 campaign last Saturday with an abysmal 39-7 loss to Southern Miss.
What started off as optimism and excitement to begin the season turned into frustration and worries after early losses to Northern Arizona and NMSU.
Then there started to be a sense of determination by the team once conference play hit. The Miners nearly won their first three conference games, falling by nine points or fewer in those games to UTSA (30-21), UNT (27-24) and Lousiana Tech (31-24).
It all built up to a road game against Rice, which looked to be the most winnable game of the year.