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Show time he carries the ball. Charlie Smith and Steve Molnar will back the Ute passing with a strong ground game. Don't count the Utes out of this one. They're due for an upset after suffering four straight losses. However, How-ever, Texas-El Paso looks too strong. Mexico, 42-28, which lost to UTEP 75-12. Utah lost handily to BYU, who lost handily to UTEP, indicating UTEP should waltz in Saturday's game. However, Utah beat Arizona in Tucson, while the Miners could only tie the Wildcats. However, Utah has won only three in nine games. UTEP almost al-most beat Wyoming, which has lost none in ten games. UTEP may have the psychological psychologi-cal edge, too. Two years ago, Stevens Ste-vens hit Wallace with a spectacular 90-yard pass in the last eight sec onds to give the Miners the game, 20-19. It was so unbelievable Ute Coach Ray Nagel decided he had had enough and accepted the Iowa job. You think downtown has been rough on Coach Giddings . . . Both teams have potent offenses, though Utah's has been known to fizzle. Neither team will w i n Spalding Golden Glove awards for defensive play, but UTEP is so explosive it can bury defensive mistakes in an avalanche of points. The Miners, believe it or not, have a running game too. Back Andrew Johnson averages five yards every By MAC BACKMAN !s The "aerial" circus is coming to Ute Stadium, Saturday afternoon n,, at 1:30 p.m. And there will be no $ clowns at this one. Ringmaster will be Coach Bobby & Dobbs and not P. T. Barnum. On center stage will be quarterbacks Billy Stevens and Brooks Dawson and not Tom Thumb or the Sword tv. Swallower. t) The company will be the Uni-E?l Uni-E?l versity of Texas at El Paso foot-ball foot-ball team, for most of the '67 sea-& sea-& son the most powerful offensive team in the nation. University of Texas at where?? ! I Never heard of 'em? The school I formerly was known as Texas West- em and it won the 1966 NCAA basketball championship with a J1 well-coached team, which wouldn't 'J have won the El Paso YMCA It; league on talent alone. So to es-5p es-5p cape the anonymity of a name like Texas Western the school changed its name to UTEP or Texas Min-j Min-j ers, as they prefer to call themselves. them-selves. UTEP was good enough to play Wyoming to a standstill last Saturday Sat-urday until Jerry DePoyster kicked his weekly game-winning field goal. The Pokes won 21-19 in El Paso. Utah almost upset Utah State Saturday when Jack Gehrke came off the bench to lead the Utes to , the go-ahead touchdown. All indi- cations are that the Utes won't come as close this Saturday. The Miners are two touchdown favorites. favor-ites. With Miner starting quarterback Brooks Dawson, throwing to pass catchers Bobby Wallace and Volley Vol-ley Murphy and with Utah's pass defense as bad as it is, UTEP will saturate the air with footballs. Miner Min-er passing has been so successful they stand 5-2-1, mainly on passing. Up to the Wyoming game Stevens Stev-ens had passed for 1116 yards while Dawson had connected for 1092 in seven games. Through nine games Utah's Gehrke and T i m Collins have aired 756 and 7 5 0 yards apiece. Don't cringe, but UTEP amassed 75 points against hapless New Mexico earlier in the season. Stevens Ste-vens connected for six touchdown passes in that one. The next week. El Paso beat BYU 47-17 while Dawson Daw-son threw for six himself. Texas-El Paso has scored 30 points or more in five of its eight games. Utah has scored 30 or more in three New Mexico, Arizona and Arizona State. Against common opponents, Utah lost to Arizona State 32-49, which beat UTEP 33-32; Utah beat Arizona, Ari-zona, 33-29, which tied UTEP, 9-9; Utah lost to BYU 17-13, which lost to UTEP, 47-17; Utah beat New Z':$) l-J-vf J'skV Craig Smith, who has done an excellent job punting for the Utes all season, was named defensive back of the game for his fine performance perform-ance in the Redskin secondary against USU. |