LAS VEGAS – Marsel McDuffie has gone from a 2-10 season to three straight Mountain West championship games at UNLV. In four tries, he has never beaten Boise State.
“I've been here for 2-10, I've been here for back-to-back 10-win seasons, third straight championship game, and I have yet to beat these guys,” McDuffie said. “For me, this one's number one.”
Friday at Albertsons Stadium gives McDuffie a fifth chance. UNLV has won four straight to reach 10-2 in Dan Mullen’s first season.
“The main thing is just us communicating,” McDuffie said. “D-line, linebackers, and secondary. Pre-snap, post-snap, during the play.”
McDuffie has spent the month since that defeat emphasizing communication across the front, linebackers and secondary. The call has to reach every level when an offense shifts.
Dylan Riley carried 15 times for 201 yards in October. Two runs covered 114 of them: a 65-yarder that set up Maddux Madsen's touchdown pass to Latrell Caples and a 49-yard touchdown. UNLV still trailed only 28-24 at halftime. McDuffie's defense had been hurt badly, but the offense had kept the Rebels close.
Riley did not need 30 carries. Boise State gained 558 yards on 57 plays. Kage Casey and the Broncos' offensive line stand between UNLV and another breakout before the running back reaches McDuffie. The linebacker cannot make up for a block lost ahead of him by wanting the game more.
Riley is not the only back McDuffie has to find. Sire Gaines enters with 731 rushing yards, giving Boise State two backs above 700. Each has at least seven rushing touchdowns and 10 receptions, according to the Broncos’ championship notes. Gaines already ran for a touchdown and caught another against UNLV in October. Substituting for Riley therefore does not remove either the handoff or the receiving threat. McDuffie’s communication has to follow the new back into the game and account for him when he leaves the backfield, rather than treating a change of runner as a chance to relax.
Madsen also threw four touchdown passes. Boise State scored four unanswered touchdowns after halftime, including A'Marion McCoy's 60-yard interception return. McDuffie watched a four-point game become another defeat before UNLV could answer.
Mullen supplied a specific reason for that emphasis in his Monday press conference. On SI’s published account records him saying UNLV had players on the wrong side of the field on a couple of October explosives. He also credited Boise State’s scheme and execution, warning against treating every score as a UNLV mistake. McDuffie’s call has to reach teammates who still must line up and carry out their responsibilities.
The Rebels have reasons to believe their defense is better now. UNLV has won four straight since losing to Boise State and New Mexico, holding each of its past two opponents under 20 points. McDuffie has grown more comfortable with Paul Guenther's calls, and the defense has 28 sacks and 13 interceptions heading into the championship game. The third-down unit has allowed opponents to convert just 29.3%, best in the league.
UNLV's third-down success depends in part on the snaps before it. If Casey's line keeps producing short second downs, Tunmise Adeleye will get fewer chances to rush Madsen in an obvious passing situation. The less celebrated work inside has to make the pass rush possible.
Spencer Danielson has watched the change. The Boise State coach praised the UNLV pressure packages and singled out McDuffie and Adeleye as threats. He also knows that his running game can limit how often those players get the obvious passing down they want. The Broncos have an accomplished line led by Kage Casey and a back coming off a 1,016-yard regular season.
There is another complication. Madsen is expected back after an injury kept him out of Boise State's last three regular-season games. Max Cutforth won the Mountain West's offensive player of the week award after passing for 341 yards and two scores in a 25-24 comeback at Utah State. Danielson told reporters Monday that Madsen had practiced, was healthy and would start against UNLV. The Broncos do not enter Friday without a quarterback plan.
Mullen compared the possibility of Madsen reappearing to a Willis Reed moment, a starter returning with enough emotional weight to lift a team before he takes his first snap. It is not a guarantee of a great game. The October film is enough reason to take the starter seriously even if he has missed weeks of action.
“It's gonna be a heavyweight fight,” McDuffie said. “They're not gonna lay down and make it easy for us. We just gotta stay even, can't get too high or too low.”
Anthony Colandrea's intercepted pass gave Boise State seven points without making McDuffie's defense take another snap. The offense has a responsibility to the linebacker, too: protect the ball and turn the possessions his unit produces into points.
The offense now has to do more than trade touchdowns until the other team makes a mistake. Colandrea leads the Mountain West with 300.4 yards of total offense per game, and the Rebels convert 47.9% of their third downs. They have accumulated 285 first downs, enough to sustain possessions if their own negative plays do not force them into desperation throws.
Colandrea's legs can rescue a possession, but the offense needs more than repeated escapes. Danielson has warned that Boise State must account for his designed runs as well as his scrambles. UNLV has to give him time to make a passing decision without letting the rush decide it for him.
Jai'Den Thomas enters with 944 rushing yards on 127 carries, averaging 7.4, and 12 touchdowns. He has added 35 catches for 211 yards. In October, he received 11 handoffs. More of his work between the tackles could keep Boise's linebackers from treating every passing snap as an invitation to rush Colandrea.
Thomas isn't the only runner capable of gaining ground; Jaylon Glover had 112 rushing yards in the first Boise game. But UNLV cannot settle for one long gain and then spend the next three snaps fighting out of a hole. The offensive line must give Colandrea clean calls and running backs a crease before the defender is already in the backfield.
Center Reid Williams brought a long starting record to that new group. At Chattanooga, he started 25 consecutive games across his final two seasons and won the 2024 FCS Rimington Award as the subdivision’s top center. That background gives Colandrea an experienced player in the middle of the line, alongside tackle Austin Boyd on the right. Their work is relevant because a quarterback and two productive backs still need five blockers handling the same call when Boise State changes the rush.
There are receivers capable of winning their matchups if Colandrea has time. Jaden Bradley, Troy Omeire, DaeDae Reynolds and Taeshaun Lyons have all contributed during the regular season. Bradley enters with 834 receiving yards and four scores. Colandrea has to locate the right matchup while avoiding the rushed throw against a secondary that already turned one pass into a touchdown in October.
Boise State has accomplished defenders beyond its interception leaders. Safety Ty Benefield entered championship week with 92 tackles and 7.5 for loss. McCoy and Jeremiah Earby have four interceptions apiece, and the Broncos allow 167.1 passing yards a game. A run stopped by Benefield can leave Colandrea needing to throw toward the same corners who are waiting for another mistake.
The rush has contributors beyond the secondary’s interception totals. Braxton Fely leads Boise State with 5.5 sacks, and the Broncos had nine tackles for loss in their regular-season finale at Utah State. Roman Cawood and Max Stege each supplied two. Those losses are the outcome UNLV’s line must prevent before Colandrea is left choosing a difficult throw. Protecting him involves the players inside as well as the tackles, with Fely giving the Broncos an established source of pressure in that front.
Penalty discipline is the other issue the Rebels cannot ignore. They have been flagged 93 times for 817 yards, more than any other Mountain West team. Mullen called the offsides mistakes against Reno “embarrassing” after UNLV repeatedly gave away the advantage before the snap. A defense capable of stopping a third-and-6 cannot help itself if a flag turns it into first down.
UNLV committed eight offsides penalties against Reno, even while winning 42-17. Against Boise State, that would be a gift on a down McDuffie’s group has otherwise defended. The linebacker cannot call everyone into position and then have a teammate cross early. Discipline needs to hold from the huddle to the snap, not just during the play.
Special teams can also change the possessions McDuffie is asked to defend. Ramon Villela finished the regular season 14-for-18 on field goals and perfect on 54 extra points. His 23-yard kick with 15 seconds left won at Miami, and he has made a 50-yarder against UCLA. That gives Mullen a kicker with experience finishing a close game, provided the offense gets him into range.
Bradley’s blocked punt and return of another block for a touchdown at Wyoming give Boise State two special-teams plays to prepare for beyond the kicking statistics. Those points came from attacking a punt, an opportunity that does not depend on UNLV moving the ball the length of the field. Bradley therefore brings a scoring threat to a unit separate from the receiving group.
Freshman punter Cam Brown has averaged 43.9 yards, including a 71-yarder at Wyoming. The coverage unit shares responsibility for the resulting field position: a long kick creates room for a return, and the tacklers still have to end it. Brown‘s distance is a useful starting point, with Boise State’s next starting spot determined after the coverage arrives.
This championship matchup has followed two disappointments. UNLV hosted the 2023 game and lost 44-20. In Boise the next year, the Rebels scored just seven points in a 21-7 loss. McDuffie has seen one team fail to stop the Broncos and another struggle to score against them. Mullen’s new group has to be better in both directions. That does not require repeating a play call, only avoiding the turnovers, unchecked runs and early-down penalties that made those two defeats feel familiar.
Colandrea called Friday the biggest game of his career. It will be his first championship game at any level, while McDuffie has been through the previous title losses. That difference gives Mullen a quarterback approaching an unfamiliar occasion alongside a linebacker who knows how quickly this particular opponent can undo a competitive first half.
