UNLV could face tired San Jose State defense

No defense has been on the football field for more plays than San Jose State’s.

And it’s not close.

That gives UNLV, which possesses one of the Mountain West’s best offensive lines and its best running game, an opportunity.

“I do hope so,” UNLV coach Tony Sanchez said. “I believe they’re averaging 88 snaps a game. If you think about it, we’re going into Week 4 and they’re going into Week 6. That’s a lot of football that they’ve played. It’s a new staff. Coach (Brent) Brennan’s a great guy — I’ve known him for many years — and he’ll get that program rolling, but they’ve had a heck of a schedule.”

Sanchez said he thinks the fact the Spartans have beaten UNLV each of the past four seasons — and seven overall going back to the 1990s when the schools were in the Western Athletic Conference — will give San Jose State a fresh mindset this week. The teams meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium.

ESPNU will televise the game, and UNLV is a 14-point favorite.

The Rebels (1-2, 0-0 Mountain West) also will have a fresh outlook with this game serving as their conference opener. Given UNLV plays No. 19 San Diego State and at Air Force the following two weeks and mostly likely will be the underdog in each game, that makes beating San Jose State (1-4, 0-1) even more important.

UNLV will face a defense that has played 441 snaps, the nation’s highest total. The next closest is Massachusetts at 359.

The Rebels’ running game averages a league-best 292.3 yards, the kind of number Air Force typically puts up. The Falcons, in fact, are second best at 287.0.

Rebels running back Lexington Thomas’ 141. 7 yards rushing per game is second to San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny’s 179 Penny is a Heisman Trophy candidate.

San Jose State’s defense is last in the conference in rush defense (279-yard average) and scoring defense (45.2 points per game). The Spartans have allowed more than 50 points in each of the past three games, giving up 56 to Texas and 54 to Utah before last Saturday’s startling 61-10 home loss to Utah State.

“We are coming off a really ugly, hard loss against Utah State,” Brennan said. “In trying to find some good stuff from that game, there wasn’t a lot. We went through it with our team. There’s a lot of stuff we can fix, we think.

“We are going to get our team ready to go.”

Should the Rebels run successfully, that should open up their passing game under redshirt freshman quarterback Armani Rogers. He has completed 59.3 percent for 501 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions.

Rogers will be under pressure, much like he was in last Saturday’s 54-21 loss at Ohio State. He was sacked four times against perhaps the nation’s best defensive line.

San Jose State is similarly aggressive and will send blitzes throughout the game. The Spartans have recorded eight sacks, but going against the Buckeyes should help Rogers and his offensive line Saturday.

“The competition that we played against, the speed, the size of people and now going into conference, there will be a slight change of athleticism that we’re going to see,” Rogers said. “But (Ohio State) prepared us a lot for that.”

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Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.