OU vs. UTEP football: Five things to know about the Sooners' Week 1 opponent

OU kicks off its football season against UTEP at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Norman.

A lot has changed for both programs since they last played each other in 2017, when OU notched a 56-7 win. The Sooners have since hired a new head coach in Brent Venables and retooled their roster, while the Miners snapped a streak of seven straight losing seasons last year with a 7-6 record.

To learn more about OU's Week 1 opponent, we spoke with Bret Bloomquist. He's the UTEP football beat writer for the El Paso Times, and this is what he had to say about the Miners.

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1. What are some takeaways, good or bad, from UTEP's 31-13 loss to North Texas in Week 0?

Bloomquist: Actually, it's funny because this is the third straight year UTEP has played its second game against another team that's opening. They didn't look good against North Texas. They came out and should have been up 17-0. That's legit. They were only up 7-0 instead. But that sort of hides the fact that for the last three quarters they got pretty decisively outplayed. That was disappointing. They've got higher expectations this year. They pretty much looked like a team that wasn't quite ready for those expectations, and they also had a sellout crowd. Anyways, it was a lot of hype, and they didn't play particularly well. I think they're hoping they can play a little bit better this week. Certainly, they're going to have to. But yeah, they didn't play well.

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2. Which player is the biggest offensive weapon for UTEP?

Bloomquist: They've got a good quarterback, Gavin Hardison. He's a junior college transfer, but he's only a redshirt junior and is now in his fourth season at UTEP. It's sort of one of those interesting COVID things. But anyways, he's a veteran guy. His arm talent, just on arm, he's got an NFL arm. He can throw it, and they're going to take shots. They're not a really high-percentage passing team, but they're going to let Hardison go out and fling it. They did not run the ball well at all in the opener against North Texas, and that may be an ongoing problem this year. We'll see. They've got a couple of good running backs (Deion Hankins and Ronald Awatt), but they just struggled to block the run. But yeah, Gavin Hardison is the one to watch. He's got two receivers in Tyrin Smith and a local kid, Rey Flores, who is from Ysleta High School. It's not a place that produces many Division I athletes, but he's a former walk-on. Those are the two receivers. But Gavin Hardison, he's going to have to lead the team. They'll be as good as he is this year.

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3. Which player is the biggest disrupter on defense for UTEP?

Bloomquist: Their defensive end, Praise Amaewhule, was All-Conference USA (first team) last year. He's a good pass rusher. In fact, they go 10 deep on the defensive line. That's a strength all the way across the board. They've got a couple of tackles from Keenan Stewart and their other defensive end, Jadrian Taylor. That's supposed to be the strongpoint of their team, and North Texas must've believed that because everything they did was a quick three-step drop and a quick release. They just didn't give UTEP a chance to rush the passer. OU probably won't be as worried about that, but I'd imagine most people that UTEP faces will do things to try to neutralize their defensive line, which is where they're led. They also have a really good linebacker in Tyrice Knight. Their problem is that their other linebacker who was All-Conference USA (second team) last year, Breon Hayward, has yet to play. They were calling him a senior last year and appealed to get him an extra year of eligibility, but they still haven't heard from the NCAA. I'm assuming they won't have him, which is a big loss. But yeah, Tyrice Knight at linebacker and then their defense line led by Praise Amaewhule are their best players.

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4. If the defensive line is UTEP's biggest strength, what is its biggest weakness?

Bloomquist: Weaknesses, they sure couldn't run the ball in the opener. That was a killer. That's part of the reason it wasn't 17-0 when it probably should've been early on. That's something they've really got to fix. Given they have two good running backs, you'd think they'd be able to. Defensively, they were just terrible on third down against North Texas, which was really the difference in the game when North Texas had the ball. Part of the reason was UTEP didn't defend the pass very well. They got two brand new cornerbacks (Kobe Hylton and Josiah Allen) who were both in junior college last year, so they're first-year starters. They're going to have to do some improving. I think they feel they've got talent and did some good things in the opener. But that would be their biggest weakness, defending the pass.

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5. OU is an overwhelming favorite to win on Saturday, but what would you consider to be a successful outing for UTEP?

Bloomquist: I think just generally playing better. I think they'd like to be competitive for as long as they can be competitive. I think they just want to play well. I think they want to put a couple of touchdowns on the board and they want their defense to get a few stops. If it ends up being something like 42-14, they'd probably be happier with it than 42-12 because they'd score two touchdowns. I think something along those lines so they can take some encouragement out of it. And the schedule gets a lot more manageable. Well, it couldn't get any less manageable, I suppose. But it gets a lot better after OU.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football: Five things to know about Sooners' Week 1 foe, UTEP