Head Coach: Barry Odom is entering his second year with the program with a 9-5 record. It was a truly remarkable season as it resulted in the first bowl bid for the Rebels in a decade. This is Odom’s 2nd time being a head coach, he previously went 25-25 before being let go by Missouri.
Program Outlook: It’s been a long time since UNLV football had any reason for optimism. It’s been such a tough run for the program that a lot of last season fans wondered when it would all go wrong and collapse (usually prior to being bowl eligible.) It just kept going and now it has shifted, finally Vegas has a college football team to pay attention to and now the Rebels are firmly in Mountain West title contention.
How does the 2024 Roster look?: UNLV has a fair amount of returning starters and they are bolstered by one of the best recruiting classes in the conference. OC Brennan Marion’s ‘Go-Go’ offense really took the Mountain West by storm last year and it’s truly a miracle the Rebels kept him. Last year’s stating QB Jordan Maiava transferred out, but there’s a host of options to replace him led by Holy Cross transfer Matthew Sluka who could be a lot of fun to watch in this offense. A player you must watch this year is receiver Ricky White, he’s not just the best receiver in the Mountain West but he could be the best in all of college football. An underrated piece that will make this offense great is the offensive line with 4 starters back. The defense is normally Odom’s calling card but was a weakness for this team last year. There’s key players returning on each level of the defense and a lot of UNLV’s portal pickups were focused on improving or finding depth on each level of the defense to hopefully improve in this area, watch out if it works!
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: This is going to be a very fun UNLV team and it’s a lot of fun to see them challenge themselves with this slate. The Rebels face 2 Big 12 opponents on the road and have a rare home opportunity against Syracuse, a game UNLV managed to schedule without a return date. The Mountain West schedule is quite favorable, Boise State and Fresno State are both at home and UNLV doesn’t have to travel to any anticipated top contenders.
Vegas Projection: UNLV’s win total is set at 7.5 with the odds geared toward the under. It seems Vegas is worried the tougher schedule will lead to more losses for the Rebels. They are 3rd in MWC championship odds however.
2024 Best Case: UNLV’s offense takes another step forward and even better the defense begins to look like a Barry Odom defense. The Rebels ride this to a huge victory over Houston to start out the year but they really capture everyone’s attention by taking down Kansas 2 weeks later in a Guaranteed Rate Bowl rematch. UNLV shows they’re ready to take this to conference play by taking down Fresno State after the bye week and then beating Syracuse for another huge win. The Rebels survive the tough 3 game stretch that follows to make a statement that they are the top Mountain West contender to make the playoff. UNLV goes to the Mountain West championship undefeated and beats Boise State a second time once they get there. Thanks to Kansas winning the Big 12 UNLV gets the 4 seed in the playoff and catches Alabama in the the 2nd round. The Rebels battle hard but are defeated late by the Tide but it’s an amazing run nonetheless.
2024 Worst Case: This was a losing program for some time, things changed in a big way in year 1 for Odom but until there’s a few more good years it doesn’t take much for the stench of losing to return. UNLV battles hard but loses to Houston and then is beaten soundly by Kansas a couple weeks later. The 5 game stretch after the bye offers no opportunity for the Rebels to recover, they lose all 5 and are shockingly out of bowl contention. They finish the disappointing season 3-9 and lose the Fremont Cannon to Nevada who is surprisingly bowl eligible. Marion gets courted by another program and leaves immediately. Suddenly UNLV is back where they started.
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