Trevor Vittatoe News

Long before the UTEP football season started, safety Da'Mon Cromartie-Smith and offensive tackle Mike Aguayo were projected to be two of the best players in Conference USA.

Joseph Anderson caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Arvell Nelson with 39 seconds left Saturday to give Texas Southern a 30-25 victory over Southern University.

Where was that all year? In the last game of the season -- a week when the UTEP football team historically almost never wins -- without a healthy Donald Buckram, the Miners bombed a good Marshall squad straight into the Sun Bowl turf, 52-21. The temptation would be to say Trevor Vittatoe recovered his 2008 form, but this was more like Colt McCoy ...

Playing its best game since the Houston upset, UTEP defeated Marshall 52-21 in the Miners' season finale Saturday at the Sun Bowl.

Police say a mob in Guatemala burned to death two men and a woman suspected of killing a local bus driver.

How do you wrap your arms around joy and frustration -- all at the same time? UTEP finished a football season Saturday afternoon.

The Thundering Herd went to El Paso, hoping to end the regular season on a good note.

Trevor Vittatoe passed for 517 yards and five touchdowns as UTEP routed Marshall 52-21 on Saturday.

Marshall at Texas-El Paso 3 p.m. EST, Sun Bowl Stadium , El Paso, Texas TV: WSAZ, Channel 3 in Charleston-Huntington Crew: Keith Morehouse play-by-play, Doug Chapman analyst Line: UTEP by 1 Series: Tied 1-1 Last game: Marshall 49, UTEP 21, Nov.

On the surface, it looks rather odd - 6-5 Marshall is a one-point underdog against 3-8 Texas-El Paso.

If there's one certainty in this era of UTEP's football, it's that there are always new ways for the Miners to lose.

UTEP came out flying against Rice Saturday, bolting to a 13-0 lead. Donald Buckram had two touchdowns, 68 rushing yards and 30 receiving yards.

Charles Ross rushed for three touchdowns, including two in the fourth quarter, and Rice took advantage of six turnovers in a 30-29 come-from-behind victory over Texas-El Paso on Saturday.

It's official. The SMU football team is bowl eligible for the fifth time since their last bowl appearance in 1984.

Though UTEP doesn't have a bowl to play for, players and coach Mike Price said there is plenty of motivation for Saturday's game against Rice.

Mike Price discussed the final threeoffensive plays against SMU, after UTEP reached a second-and-6 from the Mustang 14-yard line.

Big news from the Hilltop! SMU is all alone in first place in the Conference-USA West division standings and bowl-eligible for the first time in three years, thanks to Saturday's 35-31 victory over UTEP.

Kyle Padron completed 17 of 24 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns and added a pair of TD runs to lead SMU to a 35-31 win over UTEP on Saturday.

SMU twice has come oh-so-close to breaking through to a bowl game since returning in 1989 from the NCAA's death penalty.

The situation actually was a bit too unlikely to be considered truly grim. The UTEP football team was in a shootout tie with Tulane midway through the fourth quarter Saturday, but an obviously key drive was mired at third-and-26 and the punt team and defense were getting ready.