40 Acres Sports

One more game to tune up for the Longhorns before Big 12 play gets fully underway. The Longhorns are big favorites, but how to the editors of 40 Acres Sports see the game going?

Brian - Is this the coming out party? In the last non-conference game for the Horns I expect the Texas coaches to try to feature Newton and jumpstart the running game for the rest of the season. will start slow again but this time Greg Davis will go to hurry up in first quarter so he’ll play three good quarters of football instead of two. Defense comes up big against a UTEP offense that has been struggling against even average early season opponents. Texas 60, UTEP 14

Michael - The 2009 Longhorns have yet to live up to preseason expectations, and there’s little chance of that changing this afternoon against an uncommonly weak UTEP team. However, the offense has a golden opportunity to show that they really are the dominant, well-oiled machine that Texas fans expected them to be. Look for a healthier Colt McCoy to establish his passing dominance, hopefully with more deep shots to Malcolm Williams to take some pressure off of . With Tre Newton as the starting back, I’d like to see more running plays inside the box as well to get our offensive line some practice in being aggressive. Defensively, there’s still room for improvement. Look for to make his return at some point this afternoon, and Muschamp will most likely be working to tighten down the zone defense to eliminate some of the bend in the “bend and not break” scheme. Texas 52, UTEP 10

Ross - This game against UTEP needs to be the breather that all Texas fans have been hoping for. Colt McCoy had 4 TD passes last year against the Miners and we should expect the same this year. The emergence of Tre Newton as the starting running back should open up the middle of the field where opponents/linebackers have not respected the running game. This will be the momentum game that will help the UT players feel good going into the bye week. Texas 45 – UTEP 17

Predictions from Twitterverse

• kslonghorn 55-14 Texas – great showing by Chiles today
• paulwalker 49-14…
• dagr81210 Colt gets it going and for 4 quarters and Texas wins big Utep 7 TEXAS 46! Hook’em Horns!
• willifordj UT 48 UTEP 17. Tre Newton with 148 yds rushing and 2 TDs. Earl Thomas with 1 pick. Okafor with 1.5 sacks.
• Bill_Morrison 48-10 #UT; McCoy to throw for 3 TD’s, run for 1; SergioK w/ 2 sacks;
• marshallboone Texas 55 UTEP 13