Let's talk about UNLV's football team set to make history on Saturday, December 2, when the Rebels play in their very first Mountain West Championship game.
This milestone, part of an historic season that Mike Grimala, Sports Reporter from the Las Vegas Sun, has followed since its start.
Mike, welcome to Nevada Week.
(Mike Grimala) Thanks.
-Back when I covered sports at Channel 3, you and I witnessed several very tough seasons for the Rebels, saw a few coaches come and go.
What has been the difference this season?
-You're way too kind to call them tough seasons.
It was just decades of the worst football you could probably imagine at the college level.
The difference this year is the program has been over the past few years really investing in the football team.
The university has been spending money, they paid a coach finally, and the coaching staff has just turned it around.
It only took one season.
But, yeah, big difference this year, in the way.
You remember the final season, you covered UNLV football.
And the way it's run now, it's completely different.
-When you say they finally paid a coach, what do you mean by that?
-Barry Odom is in his first year at UNLV.
He's the highest paid coach in the Mountain West.
And for the entire existence of the program, basically, UNLV has always been towards the bottom of the Mountain West, you know.
Tony Sanchez, coaches that came before him, very low paid.
Not a lot of money for assistant coaches, which is a big deal in college football because those are the guys who are doing a lot of your recruiting.
Those are the guys who are doing your hands-on coaching during practice.
And there's a lot of assistance.
It's a big pool.
You need a lot of money to pay guys.
UNLV has never really put up what it takes to fill a really good coaching staff until now.
And they've got maybe the best staff in the conference, and you're seeing the results on the field.
-So not just the head coach, but the assistant coaching staff as well.
And Head Coach Barry Odom named Mountain West Coach of the Year recently.
And as you wrote, "a likely candidate for National Coach of the Year."
What makes him so special?
-I think he had a plan, and he really hasn't had to deviate from it much.
But he's shored up some areas that have really hurt UNLV in the past.
They've got more depth than they've had in recent years.
He brought in some immediate impact players from the transfer portal.
Special teams is good, which, you know, it's something that's been overlooked at UNLV forever.
It's sort of a running joke among people who cover the team.
Their special teams are just comically bad.
Except this year, now they're the best.
They've got the best kicker in the country.
They've got one of the best kick returners.
They're really good at that now.
That's something that's completely unique to Barry Odom and his staff, that they've been able to transform it in one season.
But it's just that reliability.
The players really play hard for him and practice hard for him.
If you see a UNLV practice, they're going full speed a lot.
The players really take it seriously.
The intensity is always high in practice.
So I think that's been one of the biggest differences he's been able to make.
-It's wild he's been able to do it in just one season, because typically it will take a college coach a couple seasons to recruit a roster that they like.
Of the standouts on this team, how many is he responsible for recruiting?
-You know, it's a good split.
Marcus Arroyo was the previous coach.
He was here for three years.
He did leave behind some good players.
Their starting quarterback now is Jayden Maiava.
He's a freshman, local kid.
He played at Liberty.
He was a recruit under Marcus Arroyo.
He stepped in early this year, and he's been really good at quarterback.
Their top receiver, Ricky White, he could be an All-American.
He's about to set the team record for receiving in a season.
He's a guy that transferred in under Marcus Arroyo.
Barry Odom has also put his stamp on the program.
He went into the transfer portal.
He brought Jackson Woodard who's a linebacker.
He played under Barry Odom at his previous school.
He came via the portal, and now he's the best linebacker in the Mountain West.
And he's really been the leader on defense.
That kicker was brought in by Barry Odom.
A lot of their first team, all Mountain West players, were brought in by Barry Odom.
So there's a split there.
-You brought up that receiving record that may be broken.
Will you tell our viewers about the rushing attack, though, and the record that the Rebels currently hold right now?
-Yeah.
When I'm talking about the assistant coaches that they've put together and the staff, you know the top name there is Brennan Marion, who's their offensive coordinator.
He's a young up-and-coming guy.
And he runs an offense that's unique to him.
No other school in the country runs this offense.
It's two or three running backs at a time, crazy formations in the backfield.
They're running the ball in a lot of different ways.
And they've got a stable of four or five running backs that they use every game, and they just grind the opposing teams down.
They lead the country in rushing touchdowns.
The country, not the Mountain West.
-The country?
-The entire country.
More than Alabama, more than Georgia, any other team thrown out there.
They got, I think, 36 rushing touchdowns, number one in the country.
They are top 25 in rushing yards, rushing yards per attempt.
It's just a really dynamic running game.
And it's weird because you can't really point to one player that's doing it.
There's not one star running back or one great player.
It's really the offensive line and then the stable of backs where they all get carries, they all get touches, and they're all like very, very productive.
And that's Brennan Marion who's running that whole show on offense.
-Wow!
As for the Mountain West Conference Championship game itself, the Rebels face Boise State.
At last check, because we're taping this on Thursday morning, the Rebels are two-point underdogs against the Broncos.
As you've written, these teams couldn't be more different than each other from a historical perspective.
How so?
-Boise State is royalty in the Mountain West.
They're in the championship game every year.
They're in the top 25 just about every year.
They're always in a good Bowl game playing against a marquee opponent.
They get all the best recruits, spend a lot of money on their football team, and that's just the polar opposite of what UNLV has been for decades.
And now in one season, all of a sudden UNLV is playing in the Mountain West Championship game, hosting the Championship game because they were the No.
1 seed.
And now they're hosting Boise State.
And it's, you know, I try not to get caught up in the storylines and the narratives, but you've got a real chance for like a David/Goliath and also like a passing of the torch maybe.
Because if UNLV is really serious about football and Barry Odom sticks around for a little bit, UNLV-- this might not be a one-year wonder for UNLV.
They could maybe find themselves in that Boise State role of there at the top of the Conference and the team recruits want to play for.
So I know Barry Odom talked about it in his press conference this week.
He doesn't want this to be a one season, sort of a fluke.
He wants to be back there every year.
So I think Boise State is kind of the perfect opponent to add that sizzle to the Championship game from that perspective.
-How cool is it that they get to actually host this game at Allegiant Stadium?
So home-field advantage for the Rebels.
Allegiant Stadium was touted as a potential game changer in recruiting for the Rebels.
Has it been that?
-You know, I don't think that-- Allegiant Stadium, it's a great venue.
I'm sure the team loves playing there.
For recruiting, I don't think that the stadium matters so much as they built this Fertitta Football Complex on campus.
It's right next to their-- right next to their practice fields.
It's three stories.
It's huge.
It's got their own workout room.
And so when we talk about UNLV of the past, this is a football team where you've got 100 players, 50-something coaches and admins.
They didn't have their own building on campus.
They're sharing, you know, office space with all these other teams and these other classrooms.
And so getting that facility built in the past, I think it was five years ago the building's been up and running.
I think that's probably more important than the stadium from a recruiting standpoint, because when you're a football player at the Division 1 level, you don't live in your dorm or in your apartment.
You live at the football facility.
You live in that building.
That's where you're spending your time, where you're eating your meals, where you're watching your film.
That's where you're just hanging out with your friends.
So building that facility on campus right there I think was probably more impactful than the stadium.
The stadium does help.
But when you bring recruits on campus now, it's like, Look at this facility!
Here's your weight room.
Here's this.
Here's that.
Here's your video game consul.
Here's everything.
And it's really top of the line when you compare it to other Mountain West schools.
-And Tony Sanchez should get credit for helping get the funding for that facility.
-He should.
Tony Sanchez built that building, and he gets, I would say, all the credit for it.
-Saturday is the Conference Championship.
Sunday, December 3, is when we learn what Bowl game the Rebels might go to.
Any ideas of who they may face?
-If they win, they go to the LA Bowl--that's locked in--where they would play a Pac-12 opponent.
It's the final year of the Pac-12 as we know it, but most of the teams projected to-- most of the projections would have them playing UCLA or USC in that game, which would be a great outcome for UNLV because that's an area you want to recruit.
You want eyes on you in Southern California.
And those are two high-profile programs.
A lot of people will watch.
That would be a great outcome.
If they lose, there's three or four different places they could end up.
They could end up in the New Mexico Bowl.
They could end up in the Hawaii Bowl.
They could end up in Idaho.
So it's not really locked in.
If they win, they know.
If they lose, they'll wait until Sunday.
-Okay.
A lot of options there.
Thank you, Mike Grimala, for joining us on Nevada Week.
The Las Vegas Sun.
-Thanks.
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