San José State Spartans at UTEP Miners

San José State and UTEP both bottomed out in 2025, and now they're starting over together in the same conference for the first time.

Bush’s Picks

SJSUUTEP

SJSUUTEP

OverUnder

Best BetSan José State

San José State enters with more coaching continuity than UTEP, whose entire offensive staff and starting unit are brand new. Niumatalolo is in year three and Filimoeatu finally gets a full offseason to install his defense, while the Miners are trying to find answers with zero returning starters on one side of the ball. That gap in stability tips the moneyline lean toward the Spartans.

San José State

• +Niumatalolo enters year three with staff continuity
• +Filimoeatu gets first full season running defense
• +Portal adds Buxton, Dukes, Muhuka bolster defense
• −Finished 3-9 in 2025, lost key contributors
• −Quarterback competition still unresolved entering fall
• −Portal haul described as light this cycle

UTEP

• +Returning defensive starters give Beyer's unit a head start
• +First Mountain West home date, new-conference energy
• +Colson has real starting experience from Incarnate Word
• −Replacing all 11 offensive starters with zero continuity
• −Brand-new coordinators building offense from scratch
• −Brutal early slate vs Oklahoma, Michigan, Oregon State first

Both sidelines are answering the same question this fall: who plays quarterback? Ken Niumatalolo's Spartans have a three-way scrap between mid-year addition Daniel Rolovich, Hawaii transfer Luke Weaver and Robbie McDaniel, and Niumatalolo has called the race close heading into camp. UTEP's answer is a bit more settled on paper — Incarnate Word transfer EJ Colson, a former UCF signee who took over the Cardinals' offense after Week 1 last season, is positioned to be the guy in El Paso — but he's inheriting an offense that lost every single meaningful piece around him.

That's the bigger story for the Miners: all 11 offensive starters are gone, including the top two receivers, the leading rusher and both quarterbacks from a year ago. New co-offensive coordinators Lanear Sampson and Joe Pappalardo are essentially building from scratch. San José State isn't in much better shape roster-wise after a 3-9 season, but at least Niumatalolo's staff has some continuity — Bojay Filimoeatu gets his first full season running the defense after taking over midway through last year, and the portal brought in pieces like corner Isaiah Buxton and safety Brian Dukes to stabilize the back end.

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SJSU San José State

UTEP UTEP

By the time these two meet, UTEP will have already been through the wringer. The Miners open at Oklahoma, then host Texas Southern, travel to Michigan, host Oregon State and open Mountain West play at longtime rival New Mexico — all before this one. That's a brutal on-ramp for a program replacing its entire offense, and it'll say a lot about where this team actually stands heading into its conference home debut.

San José State Spartans

Oct 9?vs Wyoming—

Oct 3?@ Hawai'i—

Sep 19?vs Fresno State—

Sep 11?vs Cal Poly—

Sep 4?@ Eastern Michigan—

Aug 29?@ USC—

UTEP Miners

Oct 9?vs Nevada—

Oct 2?@ New Mexico—

Sep 26?vs Oregon State—

Sep 19?@ Michigan—

Sep 12?vs Texas Southern—

Sep 4?@ Oklahoma—

San José State, meanwhile, opens on the road against USC in Week 0, which means the Spartans will also have plenty of tape on themselves by mid-October — for better or worse. Neither program is walking in with much margin for error, and neither is walking in with a settled identity. That's what tends to happen when a team turns over this much of its two-deep in one offseason.

This is a first-ever Mountain West meeting between two programs trying to prove last season was the floor, not the standard. Whichever staff has actually found consistency by mid-October — at quarterback, up front, wherever — is probably walking away with it.

San José State Spartans

(0)

Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report

UTEP Miners

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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report