State of the Program: UNLV Rebels

Head Coach: Dan Mullen is entering his first season as the head coach of the Rebels. He’s a huge name and has generally been successful as a head coach, most notably bringing Mississippi State some of their best seasons ever, highlighted by being the first ever #1 team in the College Football Playoff rankings. Mullen has been to multiple NY6 Bowls and after some time in the ESPN studios he’s back coaching again.

Program Outlook: UNLV is a program on the rise. This is a program that is based on a big market, but struggled immensely for a long time. Finally, Barry Odom unlocked the potential this program always had. The Rebels still share an NFL stadium but the facilities are solid. Their momentum came at the right time, all of a sudden UNLV was a wanted commodity by both the Pac-12 and Mountain West landing them a larger share of the pie by remaining in the Mountain West. This program is set up to be one of the top programs in the conference for years to come.

How does the 2025 Roster look?: UNLV ranks 122nd in the country returning 34.5% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. This was a result of a senior heavy group graduating and some players leaving in the portal with the coaching change. They brought in an astounding 42 players from the transfer portal and there’s some talent here. Key players starts with the QB, it will be a competition between Anthony Colandrea (Virginia) and Alex Orji (Michigan). Colandrea has the better arm, can run and could be really dynamic if he cleans up the negative plays. Orji is a great runner which fits the offense but his passing abilities are limited. RB Jai’Den Thomas quietly almost ran for 1,000 yards last year and is primed to be a star, there’s a couple transfers to help spell him too. WR Jaden Bradley has been involved as a big play threat but now he’s set to be one of the top targets along with transfers JoJo Earle (TCU) and Troy Omeire (Arizona State). The offensive line replaces every starter but depth is strong and the portal will help some. The defense will be led by LB Marsel McDuffie because he’s basically the only starter back, the rest of this defense is made through the portal. Former super recruit Justin Flowe (Arizona) is here, he may not prove to live up to that talent level but he’s at least a solid player. Edge rusher Elias Rudolph comes over from Miami FL, he’s a kid who’s been through a lot and he could be really great in the right situation. The defensive line has interesting players like Chief Borders (Pitt), Tunmise Adeleye who’s been several places and Jalen Lee on the inside from LSU. The secondary will be led by corner Denver Harris who was another former super recruit who has struggled to find a home, UNLV will be hoping this works out similar to how Tony Grimes did. Laterrance Welch (Arizona State) makes up the other side, plus safeties Jaheem Joseph (West Virginia) and Aamaris Brown (USF) could be a great duo.

Screenshot from FBSchedules.com

2025 Schedule Thoughts: UNLV has some challenges on this schedule, but it’s not bad overall. They host UCLA in their non-conference headliner but road games at Sam Houston and Miami could prove to be tricky. Thanks to the Idaho State game moving to week 0, the Rebels have byes sandwiching the Miami game. The Bengals of Idaho State are improved at the FCS level but UNLV should handle that one. UNLV’s Mountain West draw isn’t bad they avoid all of the California teams which is an odd quirk. The road trip to Boise State is tough, and there’s a couple other tricky road games but overall most of this schedule is winnable.

Final Thoughts: UNLV is going to be a fascinating team to watch this year, they had to make up for a lot of losses by building a portal heavy roster. There’s a lot of risk of regression with this team but ultimately I trust Dan Mullen to put have a team that’s at least a solid 8 or so win team at a minimum and if the parts come together they could do more.