The dream of crashing the inaugural College Football Playoff is over for UNLV. They lost the Mountain West Championship to Boise State for the second year in a row. Boise will be the automatic Group of 5 representative in the playoff. What's more, 3rd-ranked (in the CFP rankings) SMU lost its championship game to Clemson, which demoted them to the "at large" 11th seed, and leapfrogged Boise State to the 3rd seed in the playoffs. Boise will have a first-round bye in the playoff, and will host the winner of Penn State and SMU.
The loss pushed UNLV back to #24 in the playoff rankings, and they are expected to be invited to the L.A. Bowl.
Boise State beat UNLV in the Mountain West Championship and will be the 3rd seed in the inaugural playoff.
This loss was rough. I really thought that UNLV had a good chance to beat Boise State. UNLV lost by only 5 points when they first played in Vegas in the middle of the season. UNLV was one of the few teams to actually make Heisman candidate Ashton Jeanty look almost pedestrian -- though he still ran for well over a hundred yards and multiple TDs.
My dad and I drove out to Boise to watch the game on the blue turf, only to see UNLV play, by far, its worst game of the season. I'm not sure if it was the cold (the temperature was 27 degrees at kickoff), or if they finally succumbed to the pressure, or maybe there were other distractions (which I'll talk about later). UNLV's offense looked inept, and the defense failed to make any big plays to swing momentum.
Missed opportunities
Usually-reliable kicker Caden Chittenden missed a field goal in the first half that doinked off the crossbar. UNLV failed to convert a 1st and goal at the 5 yard line into points following a 90-yard run by Kylin James. A penalty backed them up, and they failed to convert the ensuing 4th down. The back-breaker, however, was the defense blowing gap containment and letting Ashton Jeanty run for an 80-yard touchdown just before halftime.
Those 3 mistakes accounted for a swing of 17 points, in a game that ended up being decided by 14. And those weren't the extent of UNLV's opportunities to swing the game. Defenders dropped at least 2 opportunities for easy interceptions, and quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams missed several receivers downfield.
My dad and I drove out to Boise's blue turf to watch the championship game.
Largely though, Boise's coaches did a great job in gameplanning. They seemed absolutely committed to preventing Hajj-Malik from running the ball with the option. They played edge containment and kept spies on both Hajj-Malik and any potential pitch backs, completely killing UNLV's option running game and forcing UNLV to have to call traditional handoffs and pocket passes. UNLV is certainly built to run the ball, but the offensive line looked lethargic and just couldn't open up holes for any of the running backs, with only a few exceptions. Greg Burrell scored the team's only touchdown in the second half.
As expected, Barry Odom appears to be abandoning UNLV
UNLV will still be playing in the post season, as they will likely be invited to the L.A. Bowl. But they will probably be playing without their head coach, Barry Odom. As all of us UNLV fans have feared for 2 years, Odom is reportedly being poached by another school, and is expected to abandon UNLV in order to take Purdue's open coaching job. Rumors that Odom was in talks with Purdue go back to before the championship game, and it's possible that it played a part in the team's lack of energy in the game.
Coach Odom has been the best thing to happen to UNLV football since joining Division I, and it's absolutely heartbreaking and infuriating to see him leaving. This is especially true considering that the Purdue job doesn't seem worth it. This doesn't even seem like a lateral move; it seems like a demotion. Odom is going from a team that was 14 points away from a playoff berth, to a team that just barely finished .500 and had no chance to make the playoffs. My best guess is that Odom's primary motivation for this move is the chaos in the PAC-12 and Mountain West conferences. The Big 10 is certainly a more prestigious and stable conference. Or maybe he just likes rebuilding shitty schools, and feels his job with UNLV is done?
Photo credit: Steve Conner, AP.
Barry Odom is reportedly leaving UNLV to take Purdue's vacant head coaching job.
Turning Purdue around may be even less of an uphill battle than turning around UNLV was. I have every confidence that Odom will be successful there. But this hurts. It hurts a lot. It's hard not to feel betrayed.
In the meantime, UNLV will likely promote offensive coordinator Brennan Marion to head coach. His "Go-Go" offense has been a big part of the team's success these past 2 years. I don't know if defensive coordinator Michael Scherer will stay on. I also don't know if any players will transfer to follow coach Odom to Purdue. We're already losing a lot of talent to graduation. receivers Ricky White and Jacob De Jesus, linebacker Jackson Woodard, defensive backs Jalen Catalon, Tony Grims, and Cameron Oliver, offensive lineman Tiger Shanks and John St. John, and quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams are all graduating seniors. Assuming they don't transfer, running backs Jaiden Thomas and Greg Burrell will be returning. But this team will be absolutely gutted by the loss of Odom and all these players, and will be dependent on filling some holes in the transfer portal.
It's absolutely ridiculous to me that the NCAA allows coaches and players to transfer or sign with other teams prior to the conclusion of the current season. This is something that absolutely needs to change! Did talks with Purdue interfere with Odom's coaching during the week leading up to the championship? Did knowing that Odom was leaving affect the players' morale and spirits? The NCAA's lack of oversight may have just cost UNLV a chance at a championship and playoff appearance.