BOISE, Idaho – Dan Mullen trusted his defense with a four-point game in the third quarter in October. UNLV punted on fourth-and-1 from its own 37, and Boise State scored on its next two possessions. Then Anthony Colandrea threw an interception that came back 60 yards for another touchdown.
Three touchdowns in 8:44 turned a four-point game into a rout. In Friday’s Mountain West championship rematch, Mullen’s fourth-down choices will depend on whether his defense can keep Boise State from scoring on consecutive drives again.
The Rebels are 10-2 and have won four straight. Boise State is 8-4, has the head-to-head right to host and has beaten UNLV in the previous two championship games. Kickoff is at 5 p.m. Pacific on Fox.
Boise State safety Ty Benefield stopped Jai’Den Thomas a yard short of the sticks on third down at UNLV’s 37. Mullen still had Anthony Colandrea and an offense that had stayed close. Going for the first down risked a short field; punting asked a defense that already had allowed 28 points to keep the game within reach.
Boise State had earned that fourth-down decision with a short-yardage tackle. Jai’Den Thomas gained seven on second down, then caught Colandrea‘s third-and-3 throw behind the line. Ty Benefield stopped him after two yards, leaving the Rebels a yard short. The safety’s work is easy to lose inside an argument about Mullen’s next call. The completed pass had given Thomas the ball; Benefield prevented it from becoming the first down that would have removed the decision altogether.
The decision deserves scrutiny. So does what happened after it. A personal foul improved Boise State's field position, and the Broncos needed only three plays to cover 68 yards. On their next possession, they went 88 yards in six plays. The punt did not require UNLV to surrender either touchdown.
The first response came through more than one receiver. Maddux Madsen found Chris Marshall for 45 yards, then Cameron Bates for three. Sire Gaines caught the next throw a yard behind the line and finished a 20-yard touchdown. Boise State had used a downfield completion and a short pass that continued after the catch within three snaps. UNLV has to defend both distances. Keeping Gaines in front at the moment of the throw would not have stopped the score.
Mullen has two preparations to make for Friday: decide how aggressively he will use the offense on fourth down, and get his defense ready for the possession that follows. The October evidence includes a successful short-yardage tackle by Boise State and two subsequent touchdown drives. Changing his answer on fourth-and-1 would leave those other snaps unresolved.
UNLV finished the first meeting with 476 yards and 22 first downs, one more than the Broncos. The Rebels still went scoreless in the third quarter and converted four of 13 third downs. Boise State gained 558 yards on 57 plays. UNLV needed far more snaps to produce fewer points.
The earlier turnovers show how much the Rebels left unused. Aamaris Brown broke up a third-down pass that Laterrance Welch intercepted near midfield. UNLV gained only two net yards on the following possession before a false start and punt. Nick Elksnis then recovered the muffed return at the Boise State 16, giving the offense another short field. Colandrea converted third-and-7 with a run, and Thomas finished from the 1. The defense’s first takeaway did not become points; the specialist’s recovery gave the offense another chance to finish.
Mullen separated this roster from UNLV’s frustration against Boise State. In Monday’s press conference, On SI reported, he noted that 70 players were in their first year here. His concern was the defeat they had experienced in October and the opportunity to avenge it, rather than asking newcomers to carry losses from before they arrived.
Dylan Riley created much of that gap. He rushed for 201 yards on 15 carries, including a 49-yard touchdown and a 65-yard gain that set up a touchdown pass. But treating Friday as a rematch between Riley and UNLV's linebackers would leave out too much of the offense.
Cameron Bates scored on a 35-yard run in October. Sire Gaines ran for one touchdown and caught another. Maddux Madsen threw four touchdown passes, including second-half scores to Gaines, Chris Marshall and Malik Sherrod. Taking away Riley's longest run would still leave UNLV with several other ways it was beaten.
Madsen is set to return after missing the final three regular-season games with a lower-leg injury. Coach Spencer Danielson said Monday that he was healthy and would start, according to the Idaho Statesman. Max Cutforth had kept the Broncos in the championship race, throwing for 341 yards in the 25-24 win at Utah State that helped create the four-team tie.
The Rebels have a better recent defensive record to take into that matchup. Colorado State, Hawai‘i and Reno each scored 17 points or fewer during UNLV's four-game winning streak. Boise State will test whether those results reflect work that holds up against an offense which already found so much open field.
Marsel McDuffie has emphasized communication across the front, linebackers and secondary. Mullen’s Monday press conference offered a problem behind that request: On SI reported his account of players lining up on the wrong side of the field before a couple of October explosives. He credited Boise State’s scheme and plays. The rematch requires correcting UNLV’s alignment without dismissing what the Broncos created.
Tunmise Adeleye leads UNLV with six sacks. The Rebels have allowed opponents to convert about 29% of third downs and have intercepted 13 passes. But a 49-yard run never gives a third-down defense a chance to work. Before Adeleye can chase Madsen in a long-yardage situation, the front has to force one.
The first second-half stop in October is a sequence UNLV can carry forward. Isaiah Patterson held Riley to no gain, Jalen Lee stopped Sherrod’s short catch for no gain and Madsen missed on third-and-10. Three different responsibilities had kept Boise State at its own 40. The next series became the fourth-and-1 argument, but the defensive stop itself was real. The Rebels need to repeat the assignment work that created it instead of treating the entire first meeting as evidence that the offense was unstoppable.
There is pressure on the offensive line as well. Colandrea, the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year, passed for 3,050 yards and rushed for 555 during the regular season. In October he threw for 215 and ran for 87 here. UNLV still needed more than a quarterback escaping pressure to survive the second half.
Jaylon Glover gained 112 rushing yards on six carries in the first meeting. Jai'Den Thomas had 38 on 11 attempts. The natural response is to demand more carries for Thomas, who enters the championship with 944 yards and 12 rushing touchdowns at an FBS-leading 7.43 yards per attempt.
Glover's night is a reason to resist making it that simple. UNLV did find rushing yards from another back. The failure was sustaining enough of its possessions to keep scoring after halftime. Mullen needs the line to produce room for both backs and give Colandrea time to throw when Boise State takes the run away.
Jaden Bradley leads the receiving group, but DeAngelo Irvin Jr. led UNLV with 90 receiving yards in October. Glover caught two passes in addition to his running work. A rematch built solely around the season leaders would miss where the Rebels actually found some of their first-game gains.
Irvin‘s largest play came when UNLV had barely a minute left before halftime. He caught a pass behind the line and took it 60 yards to the Boise State 7. The Rebels still had to recover from a run for a loss and a false start before Colandrea scored from eight yards. That made the halftime margin four. The catch gave UNLV a chance to finish the half on its terms; the quarterback had to recover the ground the next sequence gave away.
Boise State supplied damaging work from players outside the interception totals, too. Jaden Mickey and Benefield led its defense with seven tackles apiece in October, and Marco Notarainni finished with 1.5 tackles for loss. The third-quarter sack shared by Notarainni and David Latu turned second-and-10 at the Boise State 47 into third-and-19. Colandrea gained six with his legs, but UNLV punted. Another competent gain by the quarterback could not erase what the previous snap had cost.
Colandrea also must account for the defenders who can punish a forced throw. A'Marion McCoy and Jeremiah Earby have four interceptions apiece, and Boise State has returned three interceptions for touchdowns. McCoy's October return supplied seven points without asking Madsen or Riley to take the field.
Danielson also gave UNLV a reminder that the kicking unit can extend a possession. In the fourth quarter of the first meeting, Boise State faced fourth-and-7 at midfield after a false start. Punter Oscar Doyle completed an 11-yard pass to Matt Wagner. The Broncos eventually finished the drive with Sherrod’s touchdown catch. UNLV had stopped Riley short on third down and benefited from the penalty, yet still did not get the ball back. Preparing for a punt means handling the possible fake as well as the return. A third-down stop does not finish that assignment by itself.
Madsen’s running remains part of the earlier evidence, too. He gained 25 yards on a keeper during the 88-yard third-quarter touchdown drive, after Riley had gained only two on the opening snap. His return from the lower-leg injury does not establish what rushing work Danielson will call Friday. It does require UNLV to account for a quarterback who has already extended a possession with his legs against this defense. McDuffie‘s group cannot close entirely on Riley and assume the next runner will be a back. The secondary still has to carry Marshall while the front sorts through that possibility.
UNLV has made that defensive task harder with penalties. It entered championship week with a league-high 93 flags for 817 yards, and Mullen called the offside mistakes at Reno “embarrassing.” A defense that earns third-and-long cannot keep giving the offense five yards before the snap.
Eight of those offside flags came at Reno, when UNLV still won by 25. Boise State offers less margin: each pre-snap mistake can give Riley another carry or Madsen a more manageable down.
The Rebels have lost 10 straight to Boise State and are 0-8 in Boise. None of those results makes another loss inevitable. In October, Riley’s two longest runs gained 114 yards, Mullen punted on fourth-and-1 and McCoy returned Colandrea’s interception 60 yards for a touchdown. Those mistakes belong to this roster, and the next chance does too.
