UTEP vs. Arizona Prediction, Odds, Trends and Key Players for College Football Week 3

Last week, turnovers plagued the Arizona Wildcats and their quarterback Jayden de Laura in a 31-24 overtime loss to Mississippi State.

Now, they’re 1-1 as they welcome the UTEP Miners into town for Week 3. UTEP suffered an even worse loss, 38-7 to Northwestern last week and now, they’re big road underdogs. 

Before we get into the odds for this matchup you should check out this great promo from the FanDuel Sportsbook.

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Now, here are the odds for UTEP and Arizona in Week 3. 

UTEP vs. Arizona Odds, Spread and Total

Arizona vs. UTEP Betting Trends

• Arizona is 2-0 ATS
• The UNDER is 2-0 in Arizona games
• UTEP is 1-2 ATS
• The UNDER is 2-1 in UTEP games

UTEP vs. Arizona How to Watch

• Date: Saturday, September 16
• Time: 11:00 PM EST
• Venue: Arizona Stadium
• How to Watch (TV): BTN
• UTEP Record: 1-2
• Arizona Record: 1-1

UTEP vs. Arizona Key Players

UTEP

Deion Hankins, RB: The Miners are a run-first team, even though they have been trailing for most of the season. They have a two-headed monster in the backfield with Torrance Burgess Jr. and Deion Hankis. Burgess led the team in rushing last week, but Hankins leads for the season with 46 carries for 255 yards and a touchdown. He is ripping off 5.5 yards per carry. 

Arizona

Tetairoa McMillan, WR: McMillan is the deep threat for Arizona and QB Jayden de Laura. He is leading the team in receiving yards with 226 on only 11 catches. That’s 20.5 yards every time he catches the ball. He’s basically an immediate explosive play which is good for a high variance quarterback like de Laura who can make the big play or the big mistake at any moment. Last week, he went for 161 yards and a touchdown on eight receptions. 

UTEP vs. Arizona Prediction and Pick

As a quarterback Jayden de Laura is pretty much chaos personified. That’s not always a bad thing because he can hit big plays with his arm or his legs, but last week, we saw the flipside of that coin. Arizona outgained Mississippi State 431-307, but lost in overtime because of four interceptions from de Laura. The Wildcats also lost a fumble, so they lost the turnover battle 5-1.

The fact that Arizona was even in the game with that many turnovers was a credit to de Laura who threw for 342 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 44 yards and another score. Arizona is actually gaining 7.3 yards per play this year which ranks 16th, and it is very efficient when it runs the ball, ranking 27th in yards per rush. If I could trust de Laura to protect the ball I would love this offense. 

A season ago, de Laura threw 13 interceptions, but they often came in bunches like last week and rarely against inferior opponents. UTEP is definitely an inferior opponent and through three games it has only forced one turnover. That is great news for Arizona and I expect its offense to be pretty impressive in Week 3. 

Arizona is 6-4 against the spread in its last 10 games. The Wildcats have only been favored three times since the start of 2022, but they are 2-1 in those games. The trends aren’t overwhelming, but Arizona’s offense can be overwhelming, if it protect the ball. Considering UTEP allowed 38 points to Northwestern last week I like the Wildcats to cover. 

Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change