Miners turn attention to injury-laden ECU

After falling to Rice for the fifth time in their last six tries, the Miners will turn their attention to a team they have yet to beat, the East Carolina Pirates, Nov. 12 at the Sun Bowl.

East Carolina and UTEP have met only twice. In their last meeting in 2008, the Pirates jumped to a 24-0 lead en route to a 53-21 victory. The last time both teams faced each other in the Sun Bowl, East Carolina came back to defeat the Miners in a 45-42 overtime loss during the 2007 season.

The Pirates are led by senior quarterback Dominique Davis, who currently ranks 10th in the nation in passing offense, averaging just over 312 yards per game.

Before arriving at East Carolina, Davis began his collegiate career at Boston College, but transferred to Fort Scott Junior College following his redshirt freshman season in 2008. At Fort Scott, Davis led the Greyhounds to an 11-1 record and a No. 2 national ranking in the final NJCAA/JCFootball.com poll.

Davis was able to establish himself as a threat in his first season with the Pirates in 2010, setting single-season records in virtually every passing category. Pirates' head coach Ruffin McNeil, who was an assistant at Texas Tech prior to East Carolina, has implemented the spread offense that is a trademark of former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach.

"The offense that they run is Mike Leach's offense with Ruffin McNeil's offense. Because Leach isn't coaching right now, we'll call it Ruffin McNeil's offense," head coach Mike Price said. "It's an offense without a tight end. There's going to be four wide outs in the game all the time with one running back and the quarterback a lot of the time in the shotgun."

Price is familiar with that offense, having faced Texas Tech twice while Leach was at the helm. Price is also aware of the added dimension an athletic quarterback like Davis can bring to the spread offense.

"They try and throw the ball to open areas and not necessarily are those areas deep down the field and (Davis) can run too when you rush him," Price said. "They have their leading running backs out and their leading receivers out, hopefully, for this game, but they still have good guys."

Those players, junior running back Reggie Bullock and senior wide receiver Lance Lewis, are expected to miss the game against UTEP, according to McNeill's comments Nov. 7 in the Wiston-Salem Journal.

The Miners will try to exploit the Pirates' turnover woes when they face off. East Carolina is minus 12 in turnover margin with 27 turnovers and rank last in the conference in that category.

"The game plan for them is pretty much executing and don't turn the ball over. They're last in the conference in turnovers and we're next to last," senior wide receiver Donovan Kemp said. "We feel that if we don't turn the ball over, it will give us a better chance to win the game."

Senior safety Travaun Nixon, who has missed four games this season, has a chance to add to his team-high three interceptions against the Pirates.

"Hopefully I get a turnover. I'm not going to try and force anything. The last game (against Rice Nov. 5), I felt like I tried forcing things and ended up hurting the team," Nixon said. "This week, I'm just trying to do my job...I feel a lot better; I'm almost at 100 percent."

The infamous November struggles continue to haunt UTEP starting this month at 0-1 after the Rice loss. But at 4-5, they still find themselves only two wins away from bowl eligibility with three games remaining.

East Carolina is in the same predicament as the Miners at 4-5 and only two wins from bowl eligibility. However, unlike UTEP, the Pirates are just one game back of the East Division lead in C-USA after falling to the top team, Southern Miss, Nov. 5 at home.

Price's message to his players remains the same and the goal is to finish the season on a winning note.

"They have exactly the same goals and aspirations as we do. I listened to the quotes of their players after the game (against Southern Miss) and it was just like listening to a recording of what we talked about (Nov. 6)," Price said. "They know they have three games left to make their season a success and so do we. Whoever wins the game will make the least mistakes and will be the team that probably wants it the most."

William Vega may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.