Well, it was good while it lasted, I guess.
Dan Mullen is not a replacement for Barry Odom. Honestly, I didn't expect that anybody would be. Odom seemed like a hard-ass coach who pushed his players to get the most out of them. With the sole exception of that second Championship loss to Boise State before he departed for Purdue, Odom's teams always looked ready to play. They played fast, intense, smart, and disciplined.
Dan Mullen's premiere UNLV team was none of those things. They walked onto the home turf as 30-point favorites against an FCS team that was below average, even for an FCS team. And yet, for the first half (or so) of that game, you might have thought that UNLV was the FCS team.
The defense, in particular, looked woefully un-prepared to play in the first quarter or 2. They were slow, out-of-position, and consistently missed tackles. Nobody seemed to play with any gap discipline or containment. Idaho State's offensive line was able to wash the entire defense down and create cutback lanes large enough to cruise a battleship through. And blown coverages in the secondary lead to a couple more go-ahead scores for Idaho State.
The offense wasn't much better though. The offensive scheme was pedestrian, as it lacked Brennan Marrion's novel "Go-Go" spark. The offensive line couldn't hold blocks, and both QBs were forced into frequent panic situations in which they had to scramble for their lives.
PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Marcus, Las Vegas Sun.
UNLV showed poor gap discipline and containment, opening huge holes for Idaho State.
Both sides of the ball were also plagued with penalties. Over 90 yards of penalties, I think. Worse yet, 2 missed [relatively easy] field goals showed that special teams also lacks discipline and focus.
It was bad!
Fittingly, the 2 brightest spots on the team were Jai'den Thomas, and Jaden Bradley, both of whom are hold-overs from last year's team, led by Odom.
Midway through the first quarter, my partner and I both logged into our mobile betting apps and put money on the Idaho State moneyline. We also hedged with the spread, since Idaho +26 1/2 looked like a sure-fire lock at that point. I also took the opportunity to put money no the UNDER 8 1/2 for UNLV's season win total this year. While I don't think this team will be a 2-win or 4-win squad, as it has been in the past, I doubt that it will be competing for a spot in the Mountain West Conference Championship, even against a relatively weak field of Mountain West teams. Instead, my expectations are now that we'll be playing our last 1 or 2 games of the season for Bowl eligibility, firmly in 4th or 5th place in the conference.
UNLV looked like it had turned the corner with Barry Odom the past 2 years. But Mullen looks to have whipped a quick U-turn and drove back around that corner into middle-of-the-pack mediocrity. Is that an over-reaction? Maybe. And maybe I'll be eating these words in 2 or 3 months. But this sort of stuff is exactly why Mullen was fired from Florida years ago. His defenses were bad at Florida, his teams lacked discipline, and he never seemed able (or willing) to fix those problems. That does not imbue me with any confidence in him or his coaching staff going forward.
Hey, UNLV athletic director, when you inevitably fire Mullen for poor performance, I'm still available.
I've long advocated for UNLV to hire defensive-minded head coaches. That was part of why I was so happy with Odom's hiring, and with his performance as the coach -- and it was also why I was so heartbroken by Odom's firing. Defense has always been the Achilles heel of UNLV football. We've had offenses who could regularly score 30 or 40 points, but it never mattered, because we would give up 50 points. The Mountain West Conference is not full of elite football teams or talent. They are used to playing against weak, un-disciplined defenses, and so the offenses aren't generally good enough to overcome good, disciplined defenses. If you can slow those offenses down, you can beat those teams.
PHOTO CREDIT: L.E. Baskow, Las Vegas Review Journal.
Dan Mullen should already be on the hot seat after barely beating an FCS team.
But if UNLV could barely slow down a simple FCS team like Idaho State (who kept running the same 4 or 5 plays over and over again), then how can they expect to be competitive against the likes of Boise State, Colorado State, or San Jose State? They won't. And UNLV's offense doesn't look like it's going to be good enough on its own right to simply out-score those other teams.
In retrospect, Odom may have been both the best and worst thing to happen to UNLV football. He set an expectation for winning that this team has not had in my lifetime, which has created a justified hope going into a new season. But he also, unfortunately, set an expectation for winning, an expectation that is no longer met by barely edging out an FCS opponent. In any case, it looks like Odom (and his coaching staff) really was the reason for UNLV's success the past couple years. If Dan Mullen showed me anything this Saturday, it's that I should put a lot of money on Purdue this season. And maybe I'll put some money on Sacramento State as well...