FACTS & STATS: Site: Robertson Stadium (32,000) -- Houston, Texas. Television: None. Home Record: UTEP 3-3, Houston 4-0. Away Record: UTEP 2-2, Houston 2-3. Neutral Record: UTEP 0-0, Houston 0-1. Conference Record: UTEP 4-2, Houston 5-1. Series Record: Texas-El Paso leads, 3-2.

GAME NOTES: Now tied with both Rice and Tulsa for the top spot in the West Division of Conference USA, the Houston Cougars host the Miners of Texas-El Paso in league action this Saturday at Robertson Stadium. Houston seized an opportunity last weekend to put Tulsa in its place and did so with a resounding 70-30 victory at home. The win was the second in a row and the fifth in the last six games for the Cougars who have this game and a date against Rice still remaining on the regular-season schedule. As for the Miners, they too tried to keep pace with the rest of the elite teams in the division by topping a woeful SMU program last Saturday, 36-10. For UTEP, it was the second consecutive win and the fifth in seven tries after opening the 2008 campaign with three straight setbacks. As far as the all-time series is concerned between these two schools, the Miners maintain a slim 3-2 edge. However, UTEP has dropped two straight versus the Cougars, including a 34-31 decision last season at home.

Trevor Vittatoe threw for 410 yards and three touchdowns as he led the Miners to the easy victory against SMU on Saturday night. Vittatoe converted 21-of-31 passes, with five of those balls going to Kris Adams for 145 yards and all three touchdowns. Also playing a big part in the victory for the Miners was kicker Jose Martinez who booted five field goals. UTEP's offense is one that starts strong and then begins to slow down as games wear on, going from 102 points scored in the first quarter to a mere 58 points in the fourth. But don't blame that on Vittatoe because he's been outstanding this season with his 59 percent completions for just under 2,600 yards and 27 touchdowns, against just six interceptions on 332 attempts. Second on the unit with 35 catches over 10 games, Adams now leads the group with his 731 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Against a lackluster SMU offense, the Miners limited the visitors to just 201 yards of total offense, including a mere 64 yards rushing on 20 attempts. Although quarterback Logan Turner managed to notch a TD pas against UTEP, the pass defense came up huge for the Miners with four interceptions. Adam Vincent finished the night with a team-best 10 tackles, twice as many as his closest teammate, although nine were considered assists. Vincent is averaging just over nine tackles per game for the Miners in 2008, yet has just 35 solo stops to his credit. Even though the pass defense showed up on Saturday versus SMU, that part of the unit has been lacking for the most part this season, ranked eighth in the conference and 103rd in the nation with 251.9 ypg allowed. Then again, the run defense isn't much better for the Miners because that shows opponents being allowed 194.3 ypg and that's 10th in the conference and 102nd in the country entering this week.

After generating close to 700 yards of total offense versus Tulane in the last outing, the Cougars dialed up the pressure once again on Saturday with an amazing 641 yards versus nationally-ranked Tulsa. Case Keenum completed 24- of-34 passes for 402 yards and a career-best six touchdowns in the romp. Having a career game for the Cougars was Tyron Carrier who collected six catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns and also returned a kickoff 93 yards for a score as well. Keenum is now first in the conference and second in the entire nation in total offense with his 400.5 ypg and has completed better than two-thirds of all his pass attempts. The signal-caller has tossed an amazing 35 touchdowns over 10 games and has had just nine passes picked off in 451 attempts. But before opponents get too fixated on Keenum, they have to remember that Bryce Beall is also coming out of the backfield and he's accounted for 857 yards and 10 touchdowns this year as well. Receiver Mark Hafner is among the nation's best with his 73 catches for 11 touchdowns.

Considering how potent the Tulsa offense has been this season, to limit the Golden Hurricane to only 30 points is quite an accomplishment for the Cougars. The Hurricane still managed to come up with 501 yards of offense, averaging better than six yards per play, but it did not change the outcome. Four players recorded double-digit tackles for Houston, beginning with C.J. Cayness with his game-high 16 stops. Marcus McGraw added 12 tackles and a forced fumble, followed by Brandon Brinkley and Cody Lubojasky with 11 and 10 tackles, respectively. Getting his name in early for defensive player of the week honors was Loyce Means who recorded three interceptions, one of which he returned 69 yards for a score. Means is now tied with Brinkley for the team lead with four interceptions this season, the team coming up with a total of 13 picks overall. Except for holding Tulane to just 14 points and Southern to a field goal in the opener, defense has not been all that great for the Cougars this season as the group is giving up close to 400 ypg, resulting in 28.1 ppg.

Unless someone like Means has a repeat performance, this could become one of those wild, offensive-driven games that could seemingly run on forever. If that's the case, expect Keenum and Houston to have the upper hand since they showed they could survive in such an atmosphere versus Tulsa.