Marquez Bimage was expected to be a decent contributor at DE. He's opted out of the season. Troy Omiere was showing good things at the Z receiver position, and will likely be out for the year with an injury. Isaiah Hookfin is a bit dinged up for the opener. There's not really too many other injuries or opt-outs that affect the 2-deep roster to any degree.
UTEP is likely one of the worst teams in D-1 football. We're not going to learn a whole lot from this game. I'd imagine we'll flash a couple of neat things from the offense just to let the other DCs waste time on them in practice. On defense, I'd like to see renewed fundamentals at the DL (new commitment to the 4 man front) lead to early stops - followed by very vanilla but competent secondary play. I'm hoping the game is out of hand by the middle of the 2nd quarter to the point that basic defensive calls carry the day.
I'm excited that the left side of our OL could be an Alabama style "just run here" level of talent. Again, this likely won't be confirmed during this game.
