LAS VEGAS — Dan Mullen’s reported choice to lead UNLV’s special teams helped prepare them last season. Mitch Singler, the Rebels’ analyst in 2025 after three years with the Las Vegas Raiders, is expected to become coordinator, according to Matt Fortuna of The Inside Zone.
Singler’s reported promotion would keep that work within Mullen’s first staff after a 10-win season and a Mountain West championship-game appearance. His Raiders experience included offensive quality control and work as an assistant tight ends coach.
The kicking game gives him established production to build on. Ramon Villela made 15 of 20 field-goal attempts and all 58 extra points last season. His 50-yard kick against Ohio in the Frisco Bowl matched the one he made against UCLA. Maintaining that reliability while preparing the return and coverage units would be part of the coordinator’s weekly job.
UNLV has not announced the promotion.
Before joining the Raiders in 2022, Singler spent four seasons at Duke: as an analyst from 2018 through 2020 and offensive quality control coordinator in 2021. He held an offensive quality control role at Oregon State in 2016 and 2017.
Singler played receiver at Oregon State and earned a business administration marketing degree there.
The Wyoming game last October shows how much those groups can supply. In a 31-17 road win, Jaden Bradley blocked a punt that Kayden McGee returned 16 yards for a touchdown. Later, McGee blocked another punt and Bradley carried it 13 yards for the score. The players traded the finishing jobs, and UNLV reached halftime with a 24-3 lead on a field covered by hail.
McGee also downed two punts during that first half and earned the Mountain West special teams and freshman player of the week awards.
Those punts ended at the seven-yard line and the two. On the first, McGee pushed the ball back toward the field to prevent a touchback. On the second, Brown’s kick traveled 71 yards before McGee finished the coverage near the goal line.
Bradley has departed, leaving UNLV to replace his punt-rush and coverage work alongside the returning McGee.
The punt operation has another substantial job to fill. Cam Brown averaged 43.8 yards on 46 punts last season, with 17 downed inside the 20. Matt Choules and Ethan Schwartz are candidates to replace him. Their competition requires the protection and coverage to develop with the kick, rather than treating a punter’s practice distance as the complete measure of the unit.
Kickoffs also involve a different recent workload from field goals. Caden Costa handled 88 kickoffs in 2025 and produced 41 touchbacks, while Villela handled one. The dependable field-goal record is therefore not proof that every kicking responsibility is settled. Whoever takes the kickoffs needs coverage players who can arrive in position and finish the tackle when the ball comes back.
Villela missed two of three field-goal attempts in the opener against Idaho State, then made 10 consecutive attempts before missing from 59 yards against Utah State.
