UNLV's warts show in loss to Wyoming

LAS VEGAS — Well, at least there’s still the potential of going to a bowl game.

Any notion UNLV was going back to the Mountain West championship football game pretty much died on the artificial turf of Allegiant Stadium late Saturday night. The defense was a no-show and Wyoming quarterback Tyler Hughes said “Thank you very much” as he passed for 107 yards, ran for 71 more before injuring his right arm and the Cowboys left Las Vegas 41-35 winners in front of an announced crowd of 25,277.

UNLV was down 41-21 when Dan Mullen decided to change quarterbacks. Exit Jackson Arnold. Enter Alex Orji. And the Michigan transfer nearly rallied the Rebels all the way back. But a costly interception in the end zone with 1:55 remaining ended the comeback.

“Obviously, disappointed in our performance, especially in the first half,” Mullen said. “We have a lot of issues we have to fix.”

At 5-4, the Rebels are still a win away from bowl eligibility. They’re on the road next Saturday in Albuquerque against first-place New Mexico which will likely leave them still on the outside looking in.

So it’ll be either win at San Jose State on Nov. 21 or at home against Nevada on the 28th to ensure they’re playing football in December.

Normally, this would be cause for excitement in these parts. But Rebel fans have been spoiled of late with Barry Odom going bowling in each of his two years when he lifted the program out of the bowels of ineptitude and Mullen following suit with a bowl appearance last year.

It has been an unprecedented run for football here. Three straight bowl appearances and the odds of a fourth looking pretty good. Of course, the Rebels are 1-2 in those three bowl games. And they’ve come up short in each of the three Mountain West title games they’ve appeared in.

And while it wouldn’t be right to make light of those accomplishments — what, you want Marcus Arroyo back? — for UNLV to be sitting at 5-4 overall and 3-2 in a conference that no longer has Boise State, San Diego State and Fresno State in it may feel like a step backward for some.

Of course, every week Mullen extols the virtues of how tough the current Mountain West is these days. New Mexico is certainly very good as Jason Eck has done a hell of a job getting the Lobos competitive. Air Force is 7-2. North Dakota State has proved it can step up in class and the Wyoming team that came to Vegas Saturday looked like a program that the fans up in Laramie can perhaps rally around as Jay Sawvel has the Pokes bowl eligible for the first time since 2023 at 6-3 and in position to play New Mexico for first place in two weeks. They’ll take a four-game winning streak into El Paso next weekend against struggling UTEP, so there’s momentum on Wyoming’s side.

Such is not the case for the Rebels. They’ve dropped two of their last three and Saturday was a struggle everywhere. Defensively, UNLV couldn’t stop anything as Wyoming had chunk plays all night long, finishing with 483 total yards, 306 in the first half alone. Samuel Harris rushed for 128 yards and a pair of TDs. You’re not going to win football games giving up that much real estate.    

Offensively, the Rebels couldn’t protect their quarterback as Arnold was sacked four times and was unable to get things going. When he did get time, Arnold managed to make a play, as was the case with just under two minutes left in the second quarter when he connected with Taeshaun Lyons for a touchdown that got UNLV back in the game briefly at 24-21.

Orji did give UNLV a spark and that’s what Mullen was looking for.

“We were lethargic,” Mullen said. I was looking for something to pick up the energy and Alex did that.”

And even the special teams gave the Cowboys good starting field position when the opportunities presented itself. Add it up and it was a dismal performance despite the late comeback.

Mullen accepted responsibility for his team’s slow start Saturday.

“We didn’t play hard in the first half and that’s on me,” he said.

He also knows it’s up to him to get things back on track.

“We’ve got to look at everything,” he said. “It’s my job to fix it.”