With yet another week off, Dimel’s Miners looking to get healthy as they prepare for Rice

EL PASO, Texas -- The UTEP Miners have yet another week off after their scheduled game against UAB (The University of Alabama at Birmingham) was cancelled.

UTEP currently sits with an overall record of 3-4 and is coming off a 52-21 loss on the road against UT-San Antonio (UTSA).

It was UTEP's 4th straight game on the road.

The Miners looked a little rusty in the game against UTSA after not playing a game in nearly 3 weeks, but UTEP head coach Dana Dimel says injuries are what concerns him the most.

"What took a toll on us more than anything is the fact that we just lost some players," Dimel said. "We were down quite a few players for the game and I thought we played really well in the first half, but in the second half we had to throw some guys in that had hardly been practicing and the other team found them and exposed them a little bit."

Dimel had hoped to get another game in to replace the UAB game, but that didn't come to fruition.

So with another week off, the Miners will use the week to get healthy and prepare for a visit to Rice on November 28.

It will be the team's 5th straight game on the road, but for the Miners, they're just glad to be playing a football game.

"We should start to get quite a few of our guys back that missed the game last week and obviously get some guys healed up that are beat up a little bit, so that's the advantage of not playing this weekend," Dimel said. "We've improved so much."