UNLV Preview, Best Players, Top Transfers, Season Prediction, Win Total 2024

UNLV Rebels Preview 2024

There’s absolutely no yucking this yum.

There’s no way to put it down, rip it up, or take any of the fun away from the accomplishment of a winning college football season at UNLV.

Did the Rebels lose their last three games? Yeah, but one of them was the Mountain West Championship and the other was a shootout of a bowl game against Kansas.

Did they beat a bunch of blah with seven of the nine wins coming against teams that finished with losing seasons? Yeah, and they also beat Wyoming and Air Force.

No, there’s no way to diminish what Barry Odom was able to do in his first year. It was the first winning season at UNLV since 2013, the first campaign with more than seven wins since 1984, and just the third with nine victories or more since the program came into the FBS in 1978.

Of course, the transfer portal vultures came in and raided the talent, but Odom is still around, the coaching staff was able to fill in plenty of the gaps, and now there are real, achievable expectations to keep it all going.

NOTE: The previews were published early this summer. We tried to catch the changes, but if we missed anything, please let us know at @ColFootballNews and we'll fix it right away.

UNLV Preview 2024: Offense

- The offense was supposed to take off under coordinator Bobby Petrino. He lasted about as long as $20 on a craps table, taking off for Arkansas when offered the OC gig. In came Brennan Marion, and … boom.

UNLV crushed the third down conversions, led the Mountain West in scoring, and the balanced attack had a way of always coming through, but …

- The Rebels have to replace rising star QB Jayden Maiava. He bolted for USC, and in comes Mathew Sluka from Holy Cross and Hajj-Malik-Williams from Campbell who both fit the style. They have receivers to work with.

Keeping star WR Ricky White around - 88 catches, 1,483 yards, eight touchdowns - is massive. He’s the star to work around, 60-catch No. 2 man Jacob De Jesus returns on the inside, and Kaleon Bullungay is a deep threat tight end who can stretch the field.

- It’s not crazy to ask for this to be among the best UNLV O line in a long, long time. There’s some moving around of the parts, but it’s possible that four of the five starters from last year - OT Tiger Shanks will likely be the best of the bunch - will be up front in some configuration.

Leading rusher Vincent Davis is gone, but Jai’Den Thomas and transfers Michael Allen (NC State) and Kylin James (Central Arkansas) will form a decent rotation.

UNLV Preview 2024: Defense

- Barry Odom is a defensive coach by trade, and he and coordinate Michael Scherer did what they could with last year’s talent. There wasn’t enough overall production, and the pass rush wasn’t great, but the D got off the field - it was great on third downs.

- Leading tackler Jackson Woodard is back for a good-looking linebacking corps that should crank up the stat sheet despite the loss of Zavier Carter to UCF. The transfer portal loaded up the positions with options, but the depth and rotation on the front four is almost all home grown from last year. The main exception is Antonio Doyle from Jackson State - it’ll be his job to give the pass rush a boost.

- The transfer portal should turn the secondary from okay to potentially terrific. Johnathan Baldwin is a top tackler, but the buzz is around new safety Jalen Catalon (Texas) and corner Tony Grimes (Texas A&M). There’s far more depth this season.

UNLV Key To The Season

Stop the midrange passes.
The defense won’t be Georgia, but it has enough overall experience and talent infusion from the portal to be better. The pass rush wasn’t good enough - the secondary doesn’t get all the blame - but when the opposing quarterbacks were on, UNLV lost.

The Rebels were 9-0 when keeping offenses from completing more than 65% of their passes, and 0-5 when letting teams hit 66% or better.

UNLV Key Player

PK Caden Chittenden
The Rebel kicker really will be the difference between a good year and a potentially great one.

It’s either the freshman, or someone else has to come to replace Jose Pizano, who hit 26-of-29 field goals including four in a three-point win over Vanderbilt. He also cranked out a 6-for-6 day to beat Colorado State 25-23.

UNLV Top Transfer, Biggest Transfer Loss

Top Transfer In: QB Matthew Sluka
The pressure is on. The Holy Cross transfer is a do-it-all playmaker throwing for close to 6,000 yards and 59 scores with close to 3,600 rushing yards and 38 scores in four years. Now he has to be the same sort of playmaker for an offense that will be all his because of the loss of …

Top Transfer Out: QB Jayden Maiava
It’s hard to argue with a quarterback choosing to go play under Lincoln Riley at USC. Maiava was one of the keys to last year’s success, and now the sky’s the limit for him with the Trojans.

UNLV Key Game

Fresno State, Sept. 28
Again, UNLV has to keep beating the teams it’s supposed to, and it needs to come up with a few wins it probably shouldn’t. Fresno State qualifies as the latter, losing last year 31-24. This year it’s the Mountain West opener at home. It can do big things if it beats the Bulldogs for the first time since 2017.

UNLV 10 Best Players

1. Ricky White, WR Sr.
2. Jackson Woodard, LB Sr.
3. Marsel McDuffie, LB Jr.
4. Matthew Sluka, QB Sr.
5. Tony Grimes, CB Sr.
6. Jalen Catalon, S Sr.
7. Marshall Nichols, P Jr.
8. Tiger Shanks, OT Sr.
9. Jalen Dixon, DE Sr.
10. Jai'Den Thomas, RB Soph.

UNLV 2023 Fun Stats

- 3rd Down Conversions: UNLV 101-of-206 (49%), Opponents 69-of-188 (36.7%)

- Punt Return Average: UNLV 16.89 yards, Opponents 11 yards

- Takeaways: UNLV 27 Opponents 19

UNLV 2024 Season Prediction, Win Total, What Will Happen

It could be a big, big whiff to underestimate what Barry Odom and UNLV might do for an encore, but for anyone who followed and dealt with this program over the years, there are burn marks after assuming that a tad bit of success will be the start of something big.

The schedule is dangerous. Last year, six of the first eight games were against teams that finished with a losing record, and there was a win over Vanderbilt. This year there are three games against Power Four teams - road dates at Houston, Kansas and Syracuse will be a problem, and that doesn’t even include a trip to Oregon State.

Throw in a road games at Utah State, Hawaii, and San Jose State, and home dates against Fresno State and Boise State, and uh oh.

So even with all of the excitement and momentum, it should still be a tad bit of a fight to get to six wins even though the talent level and depth are better overall.

Set The UNLV Win Total At … 6

Likely Wins: Nevada, Utah Tech

50/50 Games: Boise State, at Hawaii, Fresno State, at Oregon State, San Diego State, at San Jose State, at Utah State

Likely Losses: at Houston, at Kansas, Syracuse

2024 UNLV Football Schedule

Aug 31 at Houston
Sept 7 Utah Tech
Sept 14 at Kansas
Sept 21 OPEN DATE
Sept 28 Fresno State
Oct 5 Syracuse
Oct 12 at Utah State
Oct 19 at Oregon State
Oct 26 Boise State
Nov 2 OPEN DATE
Nov 9 at Hawaii
Nov 16 San Diego State
Nov 23 at San Jose State
Nov 30 Nevada

Missing: Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, Wyoming, (Washington State)