UTEP beats Army, and more preseason hubbub

The Miners trump the Cadets, at least in the eyes of ESPN.com writer Mark Schlabach. 

Schlabach, along with Turn Up the Orange's most-hated bowl prognosticator Bruce Feldman, make up the Web site's weekly college football bowl projections. And Schlabach's preseason look-ahead has UTEP taking Army's spot in the EagleBank Bowl to face Miami. See the game pits the Atlantic Coast Conference's ninth-best team against Navy and Army in alternating years. Last year, the inaugural year for the bowl, saw Navy face Wake Forest. This year, the game would take Army if it was bowl eligible. But the Cadets don't return much from a team that went 3-9 last season. So it's safe to count them out, at least for now. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mark.

Feldman, on the other hand, was bashed on this blog throughout the 2008 season for his strange love of Tulane and disdain for the Miners. UTEP didn't make a bowl, but for a while there, the Miners were in the thick of the race. Certainly more in the hunt than Tulane. At one point, the Green Wave was 2-5 and needed to win four of its last five games, two of which were against LSU and Tulsa, to become bowl eligible. But Feldman kept Tulane on his list. So how does old Bruce feel about the Miners' chances this season? No bowl in his preseason forecast.

...

Looks like we'll have at it again. 

Incidentally, neither projection has a Conference USA team crashing the BCS party. In the Liberty Bowl, which is the destination for the Conference USA champion, Schlabach has East Carolina, Feldman has Houston. 

Herbie likes Southern Miss

Speaking of the Conference USA champion, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit shows a little love to the Golden Eagles in his annual Herbie Awards. 

The former Ohio State quarterback picks Southern Miss to top Houston for the conference title. He also lists Eagle senior running back Damion Fletcher as one in a group ready to take it to the next level.

Comments

[Orangefever]

Kirk picked UMIami to have a great season last year. Look how that turned out! Go Miners ! Yes We Can !

[javi]

I have Utep vs Auburn in the Liberty Bowl but dont take my word for it im just beliver.