UNLV hosts Colorado State with chance to make program history

Saturday could be one of the biggest nights for the UNLV football program in a decade.

The Rebels are one win away from becoming bowl eligible, sitting at 5-1 for the first time since 1984 when Randall Cunningham was their quarterback.

UNLV (5-1, 2-0 Mountain West) hosts Colorado State (3-3, 1-1) at 4 p.m. Saturday at Allegiant Stadium and can become bowl eligible for the first time since 2013.

In his first season as the Rebels’ coach, Barry Odom’s message has been consistent during what has been one of the program’s best starts.

“The national respect factor — we’ve earned what we have up to this point,” Odom said. “I said that to our team, this is nowhere close to the top of the mountain. This is the climb and we’re not anywhere close to where we want to be.”

But Odom wasn’t ignorant of the stakes in Saturday’s game as the Rebels look to qualify for their fifth bowl game in their 46th season as a Division I program.

“The chase is to get to 6-1. Our kids understand that,” Odom said. “They’re starting to see some product of the work they put in.”

Redshirt freshman quarterback Jayden Maiava has cemented himself as the starter. The team is on a four-game winning streak with him under center, helped by potent rushing offense.

The Rebels enter Friday with the ninth-most productive rushing offense in the country, averaging 221.5 yards per game. They are second nationally with 21 rushing touchdowns coming from eight players.

“We’ve got to be able to run the ball,” Odom said. “We’ve got to be able to get it out of the quarterback’s hands and make plays. The running game has helped in that way, but also a lot of those runs he’s got to make a decision. Am I handing it off or am I keeping it? They’ve got to be right.”

Odom admitted there was a second-half letdown in the Rebels’ 45-27 win over a winless UNR team that scored its most points of the season while averaging seven yards per play on 474 yards of total offense.

UNLV faces a Colorado State team that rallied from a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Boise State 31-30 last week while racking up 359 passing yards. Colorado State redshirt freshman quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi is No. 4 nationally, averaging 323.7 passing yards per game.

The Rebels are still without senior defensive back Jerrae Williams, who will miss his third straight game after recovering from foot surgery. They’ve relied on coming up with big plays — tied for seventh in the nation with 14 forced turnovers — and an all-hands-on-deck approach to fill Williams’ void.

“Everyone’s kind of taken a collective approach to step in, be more vocal and hold each other accountable on all levels,” sophomore linebacker Marsel McDuffie said. “We’re doing it as a group. Jerrae (Williams) gets it started, he has a lot of energy every time we see him, and we definitely do miss that, but that’s just another time for guys to step up.”

Not only is UNLV in a spot to become bowl-eligible with more than a month left in the regular season, but the program is beginning to garner national attention. UNLV received votes in a national poll, picking up four votes in the USA Today Coach’s Top 25 poll on Sunday.

Odom wasn’t shy in saying that being nationally ranked and getting to bowl games should be expected at UNLV. He said getting a win Saturday would be “great for the team, university and fan base,” but said that being bowl-eligible is “not the end goal.”

“UNLV football should be ranked, should be in bowl season and competing for championships,” Odom said. “The opportunity to get that first check mark will continue to transform our program in the right direction. It would be great to get that seven games in. But big picture, looking at where this program needs to be and where we’re going, that’s one small step.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.