He said it’s time to look at everything — schematically, personnel wise, who’s on the field and how they’re coaching things.
“It’s my job to fix it,” UNLV football coach Dan Mullen said, “because it’s not very good.”
The Rebels weren’t very good for large parts of Saturday’s game against Wyoming, one UNLV would drop 41-35 at Allegiant Stadium.
The Rebels nearly overcame a 20-point deficit in the second half but couldn’t close the deal.
It means UNLV no longer controls its destiny when it comes to playing for a Mountain West championship.
The Rebels dropped to 5-4 overall and 3-2 in league with the loss.
“Obviously extremely disappointing with our performance,” Mullen said. “Give Wyoming credit. They had a great plan against us on both sides of the ball. But really disappointed, especially in the first half. We have a lot of things that need fixing.
“The second half wasn’t one of them. I thought we competed. I challenged them at halftime to compete. I don’t think we even competed in the first half. That’s on me, and that’s very disappointing.”
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Evaluate everything
Mullen was asked afterward, given how the past three games have played out (losses to Air Force and Wyoming and a close victory against winless Northern Illinois) if he would, among other things, begin to evaluate both his coordinators.
“I look at everything within the program,” Mullen said. “I look at whether it’s our routine and what we did preparing and the mistakes we made. I evaluate everything, from play calls to execution to whether we have mistakes from position coaches to coordinators.
“Is it the players? Are guys making mistakes because they’re not focusing or are we asking them to do something they can’t do? Are we not teaching it appropriately? Are we not working hard enough to get the job done? We evaluate all of these things.”
2. Defensive issues (again)
Wyoming rolled up 483 yards, including 351 on the ground. And that was with starting quarterback Tyler Hughes out for the second half with an injured arm.
But it didn’t stop the Cowboys, the most recent team to expose UNLV for the poor tackling team it is. One of the biggest issues plaguing the Rebels is an inability to get opponents to the ground before they rip off one big play after another.
“We have a lot of guys banged up, so it’s hard to do certain things in practice,” Mullen said. “We’re down a ton of starters on defense, guys we were expecting to play. Guys keep going down. I can have us tackle every day in practice, and we’ll have nobody show up on Saturday.
“We work it every day — fundamentals and technique. We have to finish. We have to get more than one hat on the ball. Guys have opportunities to make plays. But if he can’t make it, we need to see what else we can do. That’s the point we’re at with our depth.”
3. Orji’s evening
For the first time since transferring to UNLV from Michigan prior to last season, quarterback Alex Orji saw extensive time.
He replaced starter Jackson Arnold on the fourth possession of the third quarter.
Orji would lead UNLV on consecutive scoring drives to pull the Rebels within six points, but was intercepted in the end zone with 1:51 remaining in the game, ending what would have been a classic comeback for the Rebels.
It wasn’t meant to be.
Orji finished 2 of 5 passing for 58 yards with the interception while also rushing eight times for 25 yards and a score.
Mullen said the switch at quarterbacks was, more than anything, a chance to give UNLV the spark it had been lacking.
This, a team that trailed 34-21 at halftime, when it appeared Wyoming might just blow UNLV out.
“The biggest thing was what adjustments needed to be made to get us going,” Mullen said. “What were we doing (early on)? How were they stopping us? How do we fix things?
“It was more than throwing caution to the wind. We have to coach and adjust and make sure our guys are performing. That’s how you fix it. We’re going to coach them up.”
UNLV next travels to first-place New Mexico on Nov. 14.
Contact Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
