Liberty (2-0, 1-0 CUSA) will face UTEP (0-2, 0-0 CUSA) Saturday. Kickoff from Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN+.

Liberty is 1-0 all-time against the Miners, with the only prior meeting coming last year in the regular season finale. The Flames won that contest in El Paso, Texas, 42-28, as UTEP prepares for their first ever trip to Lynchburg and Williams Stadium. Liberty rushed for 441 yards in last year’s contest against the Miners to wrap up a 12-0 regular season.

For a third straight game to begin the season, Liberty will be facing a team with a first year head coach. Scotty Walden was hired at UTEP after a successful stint as Austin Peay’s head coach. He posted a 26-14 mark leading the Governors to the FCS Playoffs in 2023 and a final ranking in the top 10.

While UTEP hasn’t previously made the trek to Lynchburg, Walden has coached at Williams Stadium before. He coached Southern Miss in his final game as interim head coach, October 24, 2020, against Liberty. The Flames defeated Southern Miss, 56-35.

Now, Walden returns to his home state of Texas where he has the Miners at 0-2 to begin the season. UTEP lost at Nebraska, 40-7, in the season opener and then were upset by FCS Southern Utah, 27-24, in overtime after missing a 32-yard field goal in the overtime period that would have sent it to a second overtime.

“They play extremely hard, play with unbelievable effort. They don’t quit,” said Liberty head coach Jamey Chadwell of the Miners. “If you look at Nebraska game, they got beat by a decent amount, but they really played that game well. Then, they were leading this whole game, their previous game, and just like us had some penalties that went against them, and those penalties really hurt them in some key situations. Obviously, they’re going to get that cleaned up, hopefully, like we will. If they don’t have those things, they’re 1-1 and feeling confident.”

Walden has brought 11 transfers from Austin Peay with him to UTEP. That includes quarterback Skyler Locklear who was a backup quarterback for the Governors the last two seasons. Locklear has started the first two games for UTEP so far this year, completing 33 of 46 passes (71.7%) for 410 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception. He’s also second on the team in rushing with 19 carries for 62 yards and a score.

Jevon Jackson, another Austin Peay transfer, has been the workhorse at running back so far. He has 30 rushing attempts for 112 yards. No other player has more than four carries on the season. Jackson was an All-American at Austin Peay in 2023, rushing for 1,373 yards and 10 touchdowns in 12 games.

Kam Thomas, another Austin Peay transfer, leads the team in receiving with 12 catches for 170 yards and a touchdown. Kenny Odom (Austin Peay transfer) is second on the team with 97 receiving yards on five receptions. Jaden Smith (Eastern Kentucky transfer) has 8 receptions for 89 yards through the first two games.

“Coach Walden brings great energy,” said Chadwell. “He brought a lot of guys with him from his previous stop. It’s not like it’s a brand new team, and they’re trying to learn. He brought a lot of guys in that knows his system on both sides of the ball. To me, they’re a team that it looks like they’ve been together longer than actually what they have because of the way they can play. There’s a lot of continuity because of who he was able to bring in.”

Liberty led the nation in rushing yards per game last year. So far this season, the Flames are 21st nationally and lead CUSA with 248 rushing yards per game. The Miners currently rank 127th in the nation in rushing defense, allowing 245.5 rushing yards per game. That includes the 268 rushing yards allowed to Southern Utah last week.

The Miners have allowed right at 200 yards per game through the air. Teams have scored 33.5 points per game to begin the season against the UTEP defense.

Dorian Hopkins and Kory Chapman have been the top two tacklers on the team for the Miners so far this season. Hopkins is a graduate transfer from Tulsa. He has 25 tackles with two tackles for loss, one fumble recovery and one forced fumble. Chapman is an Austin Peay transfer who plays the Spur position. He has 23 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss.

“For our team, we know what we’re learning is we’re circled (on everyone’s schedule),” said Chadwell. “We’re circled. We have to circle those teams. Instead of let’s just see when we come out. We have to go after it. We have to learn how we have to go after people. We’re circling you. We know they’re coming and they’re going to play hard and excited about playing here.  They’re not going to be nervous about playing here. They played at Nebraska that seats 90 or 80 or whatever that was. They had maybe 40-something-thousand there (for their home opener). So, it’s not like they’re going to be intimidated coming in here. They’re going to come in here with confidence to play and confidence to win. We have to make sure that we’re the most energized and the team that’s most ready to play.”

PREDICTION

Liberty 31, UTEP 13

Line: Liberty -22.5

Picks results this year:
Straight-up: 2-0
ATS: 2-0