You never need it until you need it.
That’s what UNLV football coach Dan Mullen says.
That’s why the Rebels were intent on practicing situational football this weekend, be it on special teams or two-minute drills or other critical points of any game.
“In every possible scenario, you get yourself ready to go play in a game,” Mullen said Sunday, two days after the Rebels held a full training camp scrimmage. “I just want to make sure our guys are ready for whatever happens. Everything that can occur in a game, I want to make sure we’re prepared for.”
A season-opener against Memphis on Aug. 29 at Allegiant Stadium creeps closer and closer, meaning the Rebels soon will become more and more in tune with what they might witness from the Tigers.
Memphis is led by a new coach in Charles Huff — who previously ran the programs at Marshall and Southern Mississippi — and who will have a host of new players in which to compete.
As with UNLV, Huff’s team has had a quarterback competition throughout training camp, but the coach said this week he won’t name a starter between West Florida transfer Marcus Stokes and South Carolina transfer Air Noland until game time.
“We’ll see,” Mullen said. “I wouldn’t. I mean, if they don’t have to, why would you?”
Mullen said UNLV has already broken down film of the Memphis and its quarterbacks, that such study dates to the spring.
UNLV has its own competition at the position between Auburn transfer Jackson Arnold and returner Alex Orji, but you should expect both to play against Memphis.
Mullen, a self-proclaimed coaching perfectionist and known for developing some of the finest quarterbacks in college history, wouldn’t exactly say how well the two did during the scrimmage.
“If you want compliments on quarterbacks, I’m the wrong guy to come to on that one, you know what I mean?” Mullen said. “But I think they’re getting there and getting more and more comfortable.
“We have to get them ready. It’s a big transition from ‘Hey, we’re running our stuff and installations and running our base stuff against our defense,’ to ‘Let’s implement it into a specific gameplan with specific checks against what we expect Memphis to do.’ That’s a big difference in quarterback play. We’ll start making that transition this week.”
Scrimmage rewind
Mullen said the key now is finding guys who are ready to make plays during prime time and when the bright lights of a season come on.
That he doesn’t need to see someone like star back Jai’Den “Jet” Thomas run the ball, but that there are several players still proving themselves through practice reps.
He didn’t mention anyone specifically who might have stood out in the scrimmage, preferring to take a broader look at what lies ahead.
“I’m looking at it as a whole as to what our depth chart might look like,” Mullen said. “How many linebackers are ready to go into a game? How many safeties do we have? What is our cornerback rotation?
“That type of deal means much more to me than anybody who jumps out. Jet played like one or two plays. So you get the other guys an opportunity to go make plays and see what they can do.”
Wideout update
Wide receiver is the one of the positions where UNLV lost the most production from last season, leaving the Rebels this year with a group of talented but unproven players. Solid but still a mystery until those lights go on.
“They’re doing well,” Mullen said. “We’ll probably play a lot of receivers in the first game. I would expect us to do that. A lot of these guys haven’t played much, so you might look one way in practice and another in a game. We have to have another guy ready to get in there and raise up or or go down. We’ll see on game day.”
Contact Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
