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.
Expecting to win
I was skeptical of the decision to fire previous head coach Marcus Arroyo after the school was 1 game shy of bowl eligibility. The team had improved its record and quality of play in 3 consecutive years under Arroyo. At the time, the decision seemed impulsive and short-sighted, and possibly political and ego-driven. Heck, I was even on the fence regarding the firing of Tony Sanchez back in 2019. Sanchez had brought in a lot of money to build a high-end practice facility on campus, and had also been an ardent advocate for building a new stadium. Yet Sanchez was fired before his team had a full season in that new practice facility and before the opening of Allegiant Stadium. He never got to coach the team with the benefit of the facilities that he had worked hard to bring to UNLV.
In hindsight, of course, I am happy with the results. Barry Odom and his staff seem to be lightyears ahead of Arroyo and Sanchez. Of course, Odom has the benefit of the fancy new training facility, and being able to play in Allegiant Stadium, and he also brought a number of high-caliber transfers with him from Arkansas. Nevertheless, the culture of this team has definitely shifted, and the team, and its fans, now expect to win. And win is exactly what they've been doing, including a nail-biter comeback revenge win against the Big-XII Kansas team that had beat up UNLV in last year's Guaranteed Rate Bowl. That win on Friday night was hard-fought, and the team showed remarkable grit. UNLV has now beaten 2 Big-XII teams, in Kansas and Houston.
UNLV moved into the rankings after their upset victory over Kansas.
The reward was UNLV's first ever appearance in the college football Top-25 rankings. UNLV does have a bye this week, so it's possible that they might fall out of that 25th spot before their next game (against Fresno State). I hope that's not the case. I would love to hear UNLV introduced as "25th-ranked UNLV" in the pre-game. So I'll be rooting for the teams just above and just below UNLV in the rankings to loose their games so that UNLV holds onto their 25th spot.
If UNLV keeps up this success and wins the Mountain West Conference Championship this year, there's also the potential that they could squeak into the final Group of Five automatic bid into the new College Football Playoff. And once their in, anything can happen. UNLV sure as hell picked the right time to finally git gud!
The old Rebel fan in me
Perhaps this is the pessimistic "old Rebel fan" in me, but I do still suspect that UNLV might be a bit overrated. Neither Houston nor Kansas played their best games, and Kansas definitely does not seem to be as good as they were last year (having already fallen out of the Top-25 rankings before the game against UNLV). More specifically, UNLV is struggling in the passing game. One could argue that Matt Sluka single-handedly won the game for UNLV on Friday, but one could also argue that Sluka was a big part of the reason that UNLV went down on the scoreboard to begin with.
So far, Sluka has been phenomenal with his legs, but has been uneven throwing the ball. His receivers dropped a few passes on Friday night, which didn't help, but Sluka also had trouble finding open receivers and getting the ball to them. He had a few missed throws to open receivers that could have been big plays. Really, I credit the defense for the win. Their multiple turnovers held Kansas to only 3 points in the second half, and gave the offense short fields to score points, including a last-second TD just before halftime that really shifted the momentum of the entire game.
Photo credit: Val Montanez, The Kansan.
Matt Sluka did not throw the ball well, and Kansas completely shut Ricky White down.
UNLV also avoided their own turnovers, specifically when they recovered their own fumble. I'm so used to the lucky bounces never going UNLV's way. But when the team is well-coached, disciplined, and playing hard, those lucky bounces have a habit of bouncing your way.
I really hope that Odom can clean up the team's passing game, and get Sluka more comfortable in the passing game. I really want to see Ricky White get more passes and scores. UNLV needs to find more ways to get him the ball, even if they have trouble throwing it to him down field. He turned down an opportunity to transfer after last year's breakout star QB Jaiden Maiava transferred to USC. I really want that decision to stay at UNLV to pay off for Ricky, and for him to become a prime NFL draft prospect.
UNLV "snubbed" in PAC-12 expansion?
The other big news in college football this weekend, that directly relates to UNLV, is the announcement that 4 teams from the Mountain West will be moving to the PAC in 2026. Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Colorado State will all be PAC-12 teams starting in 2026. There are also rumors that Stanford and Cal may return to the PAC due to frustrations and disappointment with the ACC.
UNLV was not invited to the PAC, which has many new UNLV fans feeling snubbed on social media. This attitude kind of frustrates me. Yes, Las Vegas is a large market with a fancy high-end NFL stadium, and that alone should be enough for UNLV to warrant consideration. But UNLV doesn't have the history of winning that most of the other schools have. Boise has been the perennial powerhouse in the Mountain West (at least since TCU, BYU, and Utah departed the conference). San Diego State and Fresno have also been consistently good teams over the past decade. Colorado State is more iffy, but their share of the Denver market is probably what makes them appealing to the PAC.
It seems like UNLV's recent success may have gone to some fans' heads, who appear to have forgotten this team's pathetic history of 2 and 4-win seasons. I definitely feel like UNLV has finally turned the corner (for realsies this time!) (so long as they can hold onto Odom as the head coach and Brennan Marion as offensive coordinator), but I understand the PAC's skepticism and reluctance to hop on the UNLV bandwagon right away.
Besides, the PAC expansion doesn't happen until 2026 anyway. So there's still a whole year for the PAC to potentially invite UNLV. In the meantime, if UNLV wants that invite, the best thing they can do is keep winning.