LAS VEGAS — Austin Boyd is expected to move to center as UNLV replaces Reid Williams. That gives new line coach Louie Addazio an experienced player for the snapping and communication work, while leaving him to settle the guards and tackles around Boyd.
Phil Steele named Boyd a preseason first-team All-Mountain West center after a 2025 season in which he started 13 games. Moving him inside gives UNLV experience at the position Williams leaves behind, but creates another job to fill at tackle. Addazio must settle both the new center’s work with the guards and the protection outside them.
The last game of 2025 supplied a painful example of how much one line mistake can cost. Anthony Colandrea completed a 42-yard touchdown pass to Koy Moore against Ohio, but an ineligible-man-downfield penalty against Will Thomas erased it. UNLV lost 17-10.
The line helped produce a productive offense last season. UNLV averaged 5.5 yards per carry and scored 33 rushing touchdowns. Running back Jai’Den Thomas surpassed 1,000 rushing yards and quarterback Anthony Colandrea scored 10 times on the ground. The passing game added 3,512 yards and 24 touchdowns.
That production came with costly losses on individual plays. Opponents recorded 79 tackles for loss and 25 sacks, including Miami (OH)’s 10 tackles for loss and four sacks. Boise State and Ohio also repeatedly forced UNLV into longer yardage. Reducing those losses would give the new quarterback and receivers fewer drives to rescue after a play behind the line.
Williams leaves a demanding comparison at center. UNLV’s official all-conference announcement in December credited him with allowing only one sack and drawing no penalty through the regular season. The transfer had arrived after winning the FCS Rimington Award. Boyd is replacing more than the person who delivered the snap; he is taking on a position that supplied considerable dependability while much of the offense was new.
Boyd brings a different progression. He played all 14 games in each of his first three seasons, with three starts as a freshman, a right-guard start in 2024 and 13 starts last year. UNLV’s contemporary 2025 all-conference announcement identified him as the right tackle. He has prepared for different assignments before, but center adds the exchange and places his communication between both guards.
Addazio spent two years in defensive quality control with Kansas City, working with Steve Spagnuolo. His offensive-line teaching experience came earlier at Texas A&M and Colorado State.
At Texas A&M, Addazio assisted with the running-game plan and worked with young linemen including Chase Bisontis and Trey Zuhn, who received freshman All-America recognition. At Colorado State, his linemen earned All-Mountain West honors. He has experience developing college blockers; the current task is fitting returning Rebels and transfers into a combination this quarterback and these backs can trust.
The Miami game also showed how a productive possession could survive a loss behind the line. With UNLV trailing 38-31 in the fourth quarter, Thomas ran for 33 yards to begin a drive at the Rebel 49. A sack later left third-and-11 at Miami’s 19. Keyvone Lee answered with an 18-yard run, and he ran for a touchdown from the one. The backs and quarterback had help enough to finish the drive, but the sack had forced an unusually long third-down conversion first.
UNLV’s winning possession began at its own 17 with 2:32 remaining and traveled 78 yards in nine plays before Villela’s field goal. Those late drives showed what the offense could sustain despite the losses behind the line.
Williams is not the only departure. Alani Makihele, Malik McGowan, James Faminu, Donavan Manson and Dyllan Drummond are absent from the 2026 roster. Boyd and Will Thomas return after playing all 14 games.
Experience at tackle, choices inside
Jackson Brown, a Pitt transfer who began at Cal, joins Thomas in the tackle competition. Steele gave Brown second-team preseason recognition. Brown played 19 games at Pitt across three seasons: three in 2023, six in 2024 and 10 in 2025. His only start there came at right tackle against Clemson in 2024, a smaller starting workload than Boyd’s 13 last season. Boyd’s move creates an opening that fits Brown’s experience. It does not make the remaining tackle work settled.
Brown’s earlier work also includes guard. Before going to Pitt, he appeared against USC and Oregon as a reserve guard at Cal in 2022. His Pitt opportunities then came at tackle. That background gives Addazio more than one previous assignment to examine, while Brown’s only Pitt start remains a much smaller starting sample than Boyd’s full 2025 season.
Thomas played five games the previous season before appearing in all 14 in 2025. That returning familiarity earns attention in a competition full of players learning a new offense. With Boyd moving inside, Thomas is one of the few candidates who can carry UNLV experience into the tackle discussion without a projection from another school.
Colton Thomasson began at Texas A&M before appearing in 24 games across two seasons at Baylor. Those appearances came largely on special teams: Baylor lists his 2025 work on the field-goal unit and his 2024 work on that unit and as a reserve tackle. At a listed 6-foot-8 and 320 pounds, he adds size to the competition, with an offensive role still to earn.
Before Baylor, Thomasson made two appearances while redshirting at Texas A&M. His Baylor work included 11 games on the field-goal unit in 2025 and 13 in 2024, when he also served as a reserve tackle.
He arrived in college after playing for Larry Hill at Smithson Valley in Texas, where he was a district offensive-line MVP and an All-American Bowl selection. UNLV is evaluating a player whose physical promise drew national attention before college and whose next step is earning more sustained offensive work.
Inside, Griffin Scroggs arrives after Georgia and Appalachian State, where he made five starts at left guard in 2024. BJ Tolo brings a more sustained recent starting record from New Mexico State: all 12 games in 2025 and eight in 2024. He has played both guard spots and center, giving Addazio experience beside Boyd and at Boyd’s new position. Among the incoming linemen, that is the strongest workload argument for early trust.
Scroggs’ five App State starts in 2024 came in two stretches. He started the first three games at left guard, then returned to start consecutive games against Louisiana and Georgia State. The previous season, he appeared in every game, with offensive snaps in five while also contributing on special teams. His move from participation into starting work provides another useful comparison inside this competition.
He also has some earlier center preparation. App State’s biography says he played center in Georgia’s 2023 spring game after redshirting with the Bulldogs in 2022. That is evidence of an assignment he has practiced, not a reason to equate it with Boyd’s new job or Tolo’s game experience. Addazio has candidates who have handled different parts of the interior, and he must establish which combinations can handle UNLV’s calls together.
Tolo’s 20 starts over the last two seasons give the interior competition its strongest recent volume. He had not appeared in a game during his first New Mexico State season in 2023, so the current experience developed after an initial year without playing. His 2025 preseason recognition from Athlon and Phil Steele preceded another full year of starting work. UNLV is adding a lineman whose responsibility grew substantially at his previous school.
Amare Taase appeared in four games last season. He and returning lineman Chrysanthos Fetokakis are competing for more work, with Tolo’s recent starts setting a demanding comparison inside. Addazio needs the competition to yield substitutes he can use, as well as an initial five.
The younger players behind the competition
The younger group includes tackle prospects Malik White and Mateo Bilaver, along with Jesus Garcia II, Eli Sanchez, Josh Haney, Ace Robinson, Ed Haynes and Alekai Afoa. Their route to playing time runs through a competition in which several transfers are also seeking larger offensive roles.
Boyd and Will Thomas give Addazio returning experience, while Tolo brings the largest recent starting workload among the incoming players. Fitting those players together is the first step toward replacing Williams and the other departures. The remaining competition will determine whether UNLV has a second option at each position when an injury or a substitution breaks up the initial five.
