LAS VEGAS — UNLV spent Sunday practicing two-minute drives, special teams, offside attempts and clock scenarios as Dan Mullen shifted camp toward the decisions players will face against Memphis. A receiver may need the sideline on one play and only the first-down marker on another; Mullen wants the choice understood before the snap.
“You don’t need it until you need it, right?” Mullen said. “And then when you need it, it’s the most important play of the game in every one of those situations that we went through today.”
On a final play, the quarterback may have to attempt a covered throw because taking a sack ends the game.
“I think it’s such a huge part for some of the guys of just making sure you understand the exact situation that you’re in and what the play is needed at that time,” Mullen said. “Not just, ‘I’m gonna go try to run and make something happen.’ Know your situation.”
“I just want to make sure our guys are ready for whatever happens,” Mullen said. “Everything that can occur during the game, I want to make sure we’re prepared for it.”
A good throw can still be the wrong play when the clock demands something else. The competition between quarterbacks Jackson Arnold and Alex Orji also moves into a new phase. Mullen did not offer a major update on which was ahead, joking about his reluctance to hand out public praise.
“If you want compliments on quarterbacks, I’m the wrong guy to come to on that one right there,” Mullen said.
He said both are becoming more comfortable. The task now is to apply the concepts they practiced against defensive coordinator Paul Guenther’s defense to the checks needed against Memphis.
“Let’s implement it all now into a specific game plan with specific checks against what we expect Memphis to do,” Mullen said. “That’s a big difference in the quarterback play, and we gotta make sure we start making that transition this week.”
“Our defense has played against the same offense for a long time,” Mullen said. “They’re gonna play a very different offense in two weeks in Memphis. Our offense has played against the same rhythm, same players. ‘Hey, I know how this guy runs a route.’ They’ve never gone against the Memphis guys.”
UNLV studied both Memphis quarterback candidates, Air Noland and Marcus Stokes, during the spring and summer. Tigers coach Charles Huff has not named a starter, a choice Mullen understands.
“I wouldn’t,” Mullen said when asked about the Tigers not announcing a starter. “If they don’t have to, why would you?”
“To me, whoever starts, starts, and go figure out what they’ll do,” Mullen said.
The uncertainty extends beyond quarterback. Huff is in his first season with Memphis, which added more than 70 newcomers. Mullen compared it with the roster UNLV assembled before his own first year.
“They’re like us last year,” Mullen said. “We probably had 70 new guys last year on our team. So they’re probably really in the same situation we were in this time last year.”
The Rebels cannot watch game film of this Memphis group playing together.
“This team hasn’t been together and played, so a lot of your focus has to be on yourself in Game 1,” Mullen said.
Mullen is also deciding who can carry those assignments in a game. Returning starters and players trying to earn their first meaningful snaps do not need identical practice workloads.
Running back Jai’Den “Jet” Thomas has already shown Mullen what he can do in a game. His late-camp work is directed toward being ready for the season.
“I don’t need to see Jet run a lot,” Mullen said. “I’ve seen him run a lot on a game day. I gotta get him game ready. He doesn’t have to go prove to earn his reps.”
At other positions, Mullen is still deciding how far he can go into the depth chart and how to divide the snaps if multiple players are ready.
“How many linebackers are ready to go into a game?” Mullen said. “How many safeties do we have? What’s our corner rotation? If we have like four starters at a position, that’s good. How are we gonna rotate those guys? We should be able to stay really fresh during the course of the game.”
Receiver is likely to require more game-day evaluation. Mullen said UNLV lost more production there than at any other position, leaving a group with several players who have not taken many college snaps.
“Our wideouts, that’s probably the position we lost the most production at, is wide receiver,” Mullen said. “We’ll probably play a lot of receivers in the first game. I would expect us to do that.”
“You might look like one thing in practice and look something differently in game,” Mullen said. “We gotta have another guy ready to get in there. We’ll see on game day when the real lights come out.”
UNLV’s returning coaches give Mullen familiarity on his sideline. He expects their experience together to help with headset communication and game-day adjustments.
“We might have a lot of new faces in players, but we have a lot of coaches back,” Mullen said. “When you have coaches that have been around each other before, I think that there’s a lot more comfort within the communication factor with how game days go run. That’s at least one stress we can take off our plate.”
