There was a lot of drama for the UNLV Rebels football team last week. After a surprising and gutsy upset win over Kansas a couple weeks ago, in which transfer QB Matt Sluka accounted for almost all of the team's production on the game-winning drive, UNLV found itself in the Top-25 coaches' poll for the first time in team history. After decades of 2 or 4-win seasons, it seemed like the sky was finally the limit for the lowly UNLV Rebels. But then, after a bye week before going into conference play, that same QB, Matt Sluka, suddenly announced that he would be redshirting the rest of the season, with the intent of transferring in the offseason. The next day, reports surfaced that transfer running back Michael Allen was also redshirting with the intent to transfer. With just a few days before opening conference play against a fellow championship contender Fresno State, it suddenly looked like UNLV might be imploding.

It's still not entirely clear what happened between Matt Sluka and UNLV. There's a lot of "he said" / "they said", and neither party seems to have anything in writing that proves or corroborates their account of the situation. As best as I can tell from the myriad official statements, articles, and social media posts that I've read, it seems that the best explanation for what happened is that Matt Sluka (and his family and agent) got the impression from primary recruiter (and offensive coordinator) Brennan Marion that UNLV (or its boosters) would be paying Sluka over $100,000 in NIL ("Name, Image, and Likeness") payments. Whether Marion actuall promised that is not publicly known, and only the parties involved actually know what was said.

Matt Sluka is sitting out the rest of the season,
and transferring out of UNLV.

In any case, after a few weeks of winning games, Sluka apparently went to head coach Barry Odom to ask when that money would be paid. Odom apparently said that there would be no money, and Sluka said he wanted off the team.

UNLV and coach Odom insist that Sluka's demands violate the NCAA's rules regarding NIL payments (and state law), and that if Marion had made such a promise, then he did not have the authority to make such a promise.

As for Michael Allen, he insists that his transfer request has nothing to do with money, and that he simply isn't satisfied with his role on the team. Presumably, he expected to be the starting, workhorse running back, and is not happy in his role as a rotational back behind Jai'Den Thomas.

I was very nervous going into that Fresno State game. But at the same time, I was paradoxically relieved and excited. I hadn't been loving Matt Sluka's play, and I felt like UNLV's offense might be better off with a quarterback who can actually complete a pass downfield, which Sluka had struggled to do. Honestly, I was more concerned about Michael Allen leaving, because UNLV's Go-Go offense is contingent on having a deep bench of rotational running backs, and losing a productive running back seems like a more devastating loss than losing a mediocre running quarterback.

But I still couldn't help but wonder: had UNLV's coaches lied to Sluka and Allen in order to get them to transfer? Had they lied to or mislead other players and recruits? Was the entire team on the verge of mutiny? Would any future recruits be willing to sign with UNLV knowing that Odom and his staff might not be entirely honest when recruiting? Was UNLV's turn-around to success over before it had really begun?

Apparently not.

The latest college football rankings were released on Sunday, following week 3 of the regular season. For the first time in school history, UNLV's football team was ranked in the Top 15 of the coaches' poll. This is something that I never thought would actually happen -- let alone that I would see it. My idea of a dream UNLV football season would be something along the lines of a 7 or 8-win season, bowl-eligibility, and maybe qualifying for the Mountain West Conference Championship game.

Even in my wildest dream, I didn't think I would ever see the team be Top-25 ranked.

For my entire life, this team has been a basement-dweller. 2 or 4-win seasons were the norm, and the occasional 5-win season would create false hope that maybe the team was on the verge of turning things around. The 2 bowl games that I had seen prior to the 2023 season represented what I thought would be the absolute height of what this team could possibly accomplish.

UNLV is ranked 25th in the nation after week 3.

Well, I don't know how the Bears are going to play during the regular season, or if they'll make the playoffs, but it kinda felt like they won the 2024 preseason. The Bears went 4-0 in the preseason, and absolutely dominated all 4 teams they played, including both the Buffalo Bills and the defending NFL champion Chiefs.

The defense was particularly stifling. Watching these preseason games almost looked like watching the '85 Bears' playoff run. Opposing teams simply could not move the ball, and the Bears dominated field position and time of possession.

Unfortunately, going undefeated in the preseason has been a bit of an albatross for NFL teams throughout history. The 2008 Lions and 2017 Browns both went winless in the regular season after having won all 4 of their preseason games. More generally, since 2010, teams that won all their preseason games would not do well in the regular season. Most would have losing records when all was said and done.

On the flipside, no team in this century has won the SuperBowl after failing to win a single preseason game. This does not bode well for the defending champion Chiefs, who lost all their preseason games, including the one against the Bears.

Something that doesn't help the analysis of the Bears' perfect preseason is the fact that the performance of the starters was lukewarm at best. It was really the backups who lit things up. It's hard to judge the Bears' top 2 draft picks because they didn't see a ton of action. Caleb Williams had a few good plays and showed a lot of the improvisational excitement that he was known for at USC. But all those theatrics did not result in many points, as the Bears' starting unit was mostly stagnating in the red zone and kicking field goals.

Rome Odunze almost had a touchdown against the Bengals, if only he'd stayed in-bounds.

There could have been a highlight touchdown between these 2, if Odunze had kept his feet in-bounds for a catch at the back of the endzone after a Caleb William's scramble. In Rome's defense, the sidelines and back lines were not fully painted. Usually, the lines around the perimeter of a football field are thick, solid white lines that are several yards wide. But in the preseason, these lines were hollow, so Rome may have thought he was inside the endzone because he was looking at the exterior line, instead of the interior line. In the regular season, he will hopefully be more aware of where he is on the field.

I've been anxiously awaiting the start of UNLV's 2024 football season. Last year's unprecedented success caught me off-guard, and I was afraid that it would be a fluke Cinderella story that would not repeat. Especially after standout QB Jaydan Maiava transferred to USC, I was afraid that UNLV would not be able to replicate last year's success.

Well, they certainly got 2024 off to a good start with a blow-out (almost shut-out) victory over Big 12 Houston Cougars. UNLV appeared dominant in all phases of the game. In fact, they were actually more dominant than the final score makes it appear, since they had multiple score-less trips the redzone after failing to convert a fourth down and having a field goal blocked. This could easily have been a 37-0 shut-out.

But at the same time, I'm not sure if the victory was as much a dominating performance by UNLV, or just an abysmal performance by Houston. Watching the game on Saturday afternoon, it looked to me like Houston's offense (and starting quarterback Donovan Smith, in particular) were just not prepared to play football Saturday night. Donovan Smith was off-target, took sacks, made a lot of bad decisions, and just generally looked like a deer caught in headlights. When backup QB Ui Ale came in late in the 4th quarter, he and Houston's offense carved through UNLV's defense like butter and scored a seemingly effortless touchdown. Maybe UNLV had all its backups in on defense at that point. It's hard to tell on broadcast cameras.

I really do not think that UNLV's defense is quite as good as it looked against Houston. I think it was mostly just a bad game by Houston's offense, and by Donovan Smith especially. If that backup QB had been playing earlier in the game, Houston surely would have scored more than 7 points. If he had started the game, who knows? Maybe Houston would have won.

That being said, the defense does look a lot better than it has been in the past. Defense has always been an Achilles' heel for UNLV's football team. They have a long-standing history of letting opposing offenses get away with mistakes, and of giving up big plays down the field in critical situations. Last year, the defense played better than usual, helping to take UNLV to the Mountain West Championship game and a bowl. In this case, however, Houston played poorly and made a lot of mistakes, and UNLV's defense punished Houston for almost every mistake they made. This defense did not let Houston get away bad play. That is an improvement, and it is worth celebrating!

Photo credit: UNLV Athletics.

UNLV's defense punished Houston's offense for every mistake it made, including this pick-6 on a screen pass.

The Chicago Bears did exactly what everyone expected them to do in the 2024 NFL Draft. They traded Justin Fields to the Steelers prior to the draft, and then used their first overall pick to select quarterback Caleb Williams from USC. They had 2 top-10 picks, and went on to also select receiver Rome Odunze (from Washington) with the 9th overall pick. With their remaining 2 picks in the 3rd and 4th rounds, they selected offensive lineman Kiran Amegadjie from Yale and punter Tory Taylor from Iowa. Lastly, they traded back into the 5th round (by giving away next year's 4th round pick) in order to select edge rusher Austin Booker from Kansas.

Aside from selecting a punter in the 4th round (which may have been a bit of a reach), I don't think anybody was surprised by any of these selections. I also don't think anybody can be disappointed by these selections. Williams and Odunze were exactly who I expected and hoped the Bears to take (I was more excited about Odunze than about Williams).

Photo credit: Associated Press, Nam Y. Huh.

The Bears drafted exactly who I expected them to draft with their 2 top-10 picks.

Even the punter is a hard pick to be disappointed with, since he's one of the most elite punter prospects to come out of the draft in a long time, and has the potential to be an All-Pro or Hall of Fame directional kicker. We could argue about whether the Bears reached for this pick. Perhaps they could have traded back, picked Taylor in the 5th round or so, and then also gotten an additional 6th or 7th round pick that could have been used to select a defensive back. I doubt that there were too many teams chomping at the bit to pick a punter in the 4th round. Usually kickers don't start getting drafted until the 6th round.

It is, however, humorously ironic that the Bears invested so heavily in offense (in both free agency and the draft), only to use a 4th round draft pick to select an elite punter.