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Winners of five straight, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane will be trying to avoid a letdown when they host the struggling University of Texas-El Paso Miners on Thursday night.
After dropping their season-opener to Iowa State, Tulsa (5-1, 3-0 in Conference USA) has reeled off wins over Tulane, Nicholls State, Fresno State, UAB and Marshall, and currently sits atop the West division in Conference USA.
UTEP (1-5, 0-2 in Conference USA), on the other hand, notched their lone victory of the season so far against New Mexico State, 41-28, on Sept. 15., and is only ahead of Rice in C-USA's West division. Some of the Miners' losses have come against programs in power conferences, including the Oklahoma Sooners, Mississippi Rebels and Wisconsin Badgers.
According to OddsShark, the Golden Hurricane opened this week as 13-point favorites. Last season, Tulsa crushed the Miners in late November, 57-28.
Game time is set for 7 p.m. CT at Chapman Stadium, and the game can be seen on Fox Sports Network.