Southern Miss (6-5, 5-3 C-USA) clinched a bowl berth for the fourth straight season after stomping the Miners (1-11, 1-7 C-USA) 39-7 on “senior day” at the Sun Bowl on Saturday afternoon. 

UTEP turned the ball over four times, including three interceptions and a fumble. The Golden Eagles scored on each of the Miners’ turnovers. The Miners have not won a home game in two seasons, with their last win at the Sun Bowl dating back to Nov. 26, 2016, against North Texas. 

Here are three plays that helped the Golden Eagles get a dominant win over the Miners:

First pass, same result for UTEP

For the third week in a row, UTEP turned the ball over on its first passing play after Brandon Jones threw an interception to Southern Miss defensive back Rachaun Mitchell. Mitchell returned the pick for a 41-yard touchdown. 

Two weeks ago, Kai Locksley’s first pass was fumbled by Keynan Foster, which led to a quick Middle Tennessee touchdown. Last week, Locksley’s first and second passes of the game were intercepted, which led to scores for Western Kentucky. The interception for a touchdown gave the Golden Eagles a 9-0 lead in the first six minutes of the game. 

Back-to-back missed field goals cripple Miners

After trailing 9-0, the Miners put up a respectable drive that resulted in a 53-yard missed field goal by Jason Filley. Two drives later, which included another rushing touchdown by Southern Miss and the second interception thrown by Jones, the Miners marched into Southern Miss territory, where Filley missed his second field goal attempt of the day. 

Southern Miss finished the first half with a 19-0 lead and held the UTEP offense to just 77 total yards, including only 12 passing yards. 

Jones throws his third interception in triple coverage

Early in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of reach, Jones threw his third interception of the day to Ky’el Hemby, who stole his second interception of the day. On the very next play, Southern Miss backup quarterback Tate Whatley scored on a 16-yard rushing touchdown to make it 33-0. 

“You can’t overcome that,” Dimel said regarding the three interceptions. “Wasn’t happy with Brandon’s play.”

The Golden Eagles would then shut out the Miners defensively until the last few seconds of the fourth quarter, where Jones connected with senior Erik Brown for a 41-yard touchdown pass. Southern Miss out-gained UTEP 378-187 in total offense. 

Southern Miss quarterback Jack Abraham finished the day completing 14-of-20 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown. Their two-headed monster at tailback killed the Miners, as Trivenskey Mosley (107) and Steven Anderson (92) finished with 199 of Southern Miss’ 252 rushing yards on the day. 

Jones finished the day completing 11-for-23 passes for 114 yards, a touchdown, five sacks and three interceptions. Locksley did not play today due to his ongoing ankle injury, per Dimel. 

“Going into this season feeling confident and we learned how to compete,” Dimel said. “Showed stretches of playing good football. With 28 injuries, it was an unfavorable year.”

The program has 11 scholarships to give, three of which have been taken by commits, per Dimel. The coaching staff will now resume their recruiting efforts and look toward the JUCO and graduate transfer ranks, according to Dimel.