LAS VEGAS — Dan Mullen still has not named a starting quarterback for UNLV, but he has answered one of the biggest questions surrounding the competition between Jackson Arnold and Alex Orji. Whichever quarterback takes the first snap against Memphis will not be the only one who plays.
Mullen made that clear Sunday while discussing Memphis’ decision not to announce a starting quarterback. “They might not have a starter, but both ours are going to go,” Mullen said.
That does not settle the competition Mullen has carried through spring practice and fall camp. UNLV still has to determine who starts, how the snaps are divided and whether one quarterback eventually creates enough separation to take control of the job. What Mullen’s comment does establish is that the decision will not simply be Arnold or Orji.
There is already precedent for that at UNLV, and Orji has been part of it. Anthony Colandrea separated himself late in fall camp last season and entered the year as UNLV’s primary quarterback, but Mullen still found a role for Orji. The Rebels opened the 2025 season against Idaho State with Colandrea and Orji on the field together for the first snap, showing immediately that one quarterback emerging did not remove the other from the offense.
Colandrea completed 15 of 21 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown against Idaho State and continued establishing himself as UNLV’s primary quarterback during the opening weeks. Orji remained involved, completing all three of his passes for 37 yards and scoring on an 11-yard run in the opener before receiving additional work at Sam Houston and against UCLA.
Orji’s injury against UCLA did not determine which quarterback had won the job because Colandrea had already become the primary option by that point. What the injury ended was the chance to see how Mullen would have continued using Orji alongside him. That history matters now because Mullen has already shown that a clear No. 1 does not necessarily mean the other quarterback disappears.
The question in 2026 is whether Arnold or Orji creates that kind of separation and, if so, how Mullen uses the other one. Arnold enters the competition with considerably more recent starting experience after making eight starts at Auburn last season and 10 over two years at Oklahoma, giving him 18 career starts entering his first season at UNLV.
Arnold threw for 1,309 yards and six touchdowns at Auburn while rushing for 311 yards and a team-high eight scores. That rushing production is important because the competition is not simply a choice between a passer and a runner. Arnold has generally operated more conventionally within the passing game during the portions of camp open to media, but he has already shown he can hurt defenses with his legs.
Orji brings a different physical profile at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, but he has spent the offseason competing for more than the secondary role he held early last season. During the portions of fall camp open to media, neither quarterback has created obvious separation. Arnold has generally looked comfortable getting the ball out quickly when his first option is available, while Orji has shown a willingness to work through another option before using his legs when the play starts to break down.
Mullen has also given Orji opportunities to operate the offense rather than using him only as a designed-run quarterback. Publicly, however, Mullen has offered little indication of which player is ahead.
“If you want compliments on quarterbacks, I’m the wrong guy to come to on that one right there,” Mullen said.
Mullen joked that even after a quarterback plays well, his attention tends to go immediately toward the handful of mistakes. He used conversations with his wife after games as an example of how quickly his focus shifts to what could have been better.
“She’ll be like, ‘You played so amazing,’” Mullen said. “I’m like, ‘Obviously you missed the third and fourth throw that he missed, right?’ Like, he threw two incomplete passes and I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s talk about those two.’”
That does not mean Mullen has been unhappy with the progress of Arnold and Orji. “I think the comfort level, they’re getting there and getting comfortable,” Mullen said.
The competition is also entering a different phase as UNLV moves from fall camp into preparation for Memphis. Arnold and Orji spent much of camp working through UNLV’s installations against Paul Guenther’s defense. Now those concepts are being narrowed into a plan built around a specific opponent.
“It’s a good transition from, ‘Hey, we’re running the stuff and installations and running our base stuff against all our stuff against our defense,’ to, ‘Let’s implement it all now into a specific game plan with specific checks against what we expect Memphis to do,’” Mullen said.
Running the base offense during camp is different from identifying why a specific check is built into the Memphis plan, recognizing the defensive look that calls for it and making the decision quickly once the play starts. That gives Mullen another part of the quarterback competition to evaluate during the final stretch before the opener.
“That’s a big difference in the quarterback play,” Mullen said. “We gotta make sure we start making that transition this week.”
Memphis has its own quarterback competition, which prompted Mullen’s clearest statement yet about his room. The Tigers have not announced whether Marcus Stokes or Air Noland will start against UNLV, but Mullen said the Rebels studied both during the spring and summer rather than waiting for Memphis to make a public decision.
“I wonder if he knows, or maybe we’ll see,” Mullen said. “I wouldn’t. I mean, if they don’t have to, why would you?”
Mullen does not expect the lack of an announcement to significantly change UNLV’s preparation. “Whatever, whoever starts, starts, and go figure out what they’ll do,” Mullen said.
Memphis now has a similar problem preparing for UNLV because Mullen has not said whether Arnold and Orji will alternate series, split the game evenly or operate with one quarterback handling a defined package. Last season suggests those roles can remain flexible even after one player separates himself.
That is still the part UNLV has to sort out. Mullen has not named the starter, and the practices open to media have not made the decision obvious. He has established one part of the plan, though: Memphis will have to prepare for both Arnold and Orji when the Rebels open the season.