UTEP coach Scotty Walden called the Miners' 42-35 victory over New Mexico State a program defining victory, and to narrow matters down even more, there may be a point in the future where they look back on a program defining halftime.
Something changed in the locker room when UTEP was down 24-14, something that turned a dismal first half into a statement-making third quarter where UTEP did all the things it mostly failed to do in the first 11 and a half games.
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The question now is if the Miners can turn this into momentum for next year. So many times when a team has a turnaround season it cites a win in the season-ender from the year before and now UTEP can try to make that true for itself.
What does this Battle of I-10 win mean?
There reasons to read more into this than a seven-point victory against an Aggie program that often manages to top UTEP in its ability to make life harder than it should be.
The Miners won this because they showed a sense of the moment, an ability create breaks and make plays. They were outgained 543 yards to 298, NMSU possessed the ball for 39:32 and UTEP had 87 penalty yards, including three penalties that extended drives after a third- or fourth-down stop.
But when a team gets three touchdowns from defense and special teams, it almost always wins and so it was for a UTEP team that had eight sacks, two fumble return touchdowns and a punt return touchdown.
UTEP found a way to reverse momentum
For the most part throughout this season, the Miners have not shown an ability to stop a snowball from rolling down a hill. One bad thing has usually leads to 10 more and they scratch their heads on how it all got away.
This time it's the Aggies doing that.
One sequence in the first half, that preceded that momentous halftime, may be where all that began. A UTEP defense that had given up four straight scores finally got a three-and-out, but gave it away with a penalty on the punt.
The Miner defense had to go back out again in what amounted to a turnover, then got another three and out. After the stop that created fourth-and-20, with the punt teams taking the field, UTEP committed a personal foul that gave NMSU another first down.
UTEP then got a third three and out, and for the next two quarters, the Miner defense ran rampant.
The Miners showed a resilience that they haven't shown much this season, and it all seemed to emerge out of a halftime where the Miners decided to change their fate.
"Coming out of halftime, we had a real sit-down talk and evaluated," said defensive end Bryton Thompson, who in the final game of his career became the first Miner in modern history to score two defensive touchdowns in a game. "I felt like we weren't playing our hardest the first quarter. The second half we came out playing the kind of defense we expect."
Kam Thomas, in his first game back after missing a month to an undisclosed injury, played a huge role with a 69-yard reception to set up a touchdown, then the school-record 93-yard punt return. He was missed the previous three games.
UTEP 'stayed the course'
"Our halftime speech, we knew we weren't executing," Thomas said. "Shout out to Trey Goodman, his halftime speech was, 'We have the game right here, close your fist and take on to it.' Our team honed in on the details and executed after that.
"We stayed the course. One of our mottoes is, 'Steady the boat,' and we did that. We were a team prepared to win. We went through boot camp, we went through summer workouts, and today, the Miners are going to fight. We are not going to give up."
This team hasn't given up, but it didn't always respond like that and there's something UTEP can move forward with.
"We've been through a lot of adversity this year and we wanted this one really badly," Walden said. "It hasn't been the results and season we wanted, but they never gave up on us.
"We're building something of substance and that takes time. But in this moment, this is a program defining victory. On our shop, in our culture, we want to make winning the battle of I-10 extremely important in our program. It's not something we take lightly."
The come-from-behind win Saturday in Las Cruces felt like a big brick in the building.