Dan Mullen Says UNLV Must Prepare for Memphis Unknowns in Week 0

LAS VEGAS — Dan Mullen cannot watch a game showing the Memphis team UNLV will face Saturday night. The Tigers have a new coaching staff, more than 70 newcomers and no film showing how the current pieces will work together. UNLV can study the coaches’ previous stops and what the players did elsewhere, but nobody has seen this version of Memphis play.

“There’s no film on the team we’re playing,” Mullen said Monday. “I can’t watch one play of this team. There are new faces, new coaches, new everything.”

That makes the Week 0 opener as much about UNLV as Memphis. The Rebels have spent the offseason installing their offense and defense, and Mullen does not want the uncertainty surrounding the opponent to pull them away from what they have built.

“So much has to be based on yourself when you get into Week 1 and your execution,” Mullen said. “No matter what we prepare them for, it’s going to look a little different on game day and feel a little different on game day.”

Memphis hired Charles Huff after one season at Southern Miss and rebuilt most of the roster around more than 70 newcomers. Several players followed Huff, but the Tigers also added transfers from across the country and have not publicly named a starting quarterback.

Mullen compared Memphis to his first UNLV team. The Rebels entered 2025 coming off an 11-win season, but roughly 80 new players and an entirely new staff made the previous year a poor guide for what UNLV would become. Mullen sees a similar reset at Memphis.

Mullen expects that uncertainty to work both ways. Memphis will be playing its first game under Huff, and he expects the Tigers to bring the same kind of energy UNLV had when his first team took the field last season.

“They’re gonna bring a lot of juice, a lot of energy, and they know it’s a big game,” Mullen said.

UNLV can still find clues in the systems Memphis’ coaches have used elsewhere. The Rebels have spent time studying offensive coordinator Kevin Decker’s work at Old Dominion, and Mullen expects Memphis to spread the field from sideline to sideline, use tempo and create one-on-one matchups across the formation.

Mullen also sees enough size and speed to make those matchups matter, particularly at receiver and running back. What UNLV cannot know is exactly how Decker will use those pieces. Mullen expects him to adjust his system around the personnel available at Memphis rather than simply reproduce what he ran at Old Dominion, leaving the Rebels to identify some of those changes after the game begins.

UNLV at least knows more about itself this time. Mullen was asked whether that made him more comfortable entering this opener than he was one year ago, but he did not pretend it did.

“If you ever know me, I’m never comfortable going in,” Mullen said. “I think where I’m more comfortable is the routine of the coaches, the routine of a lot of the players and the understanding of what our game week is like.”

Mullen has also pushed back on measuring continuity only through returning starters. He said he cares less about who gets labeled a starter than how many players are actually ready to play.

“Everyone gets caught up in starters,” Mullen said. “What’s important to me is: Are our guys ready to play?”

That includes players who spent last season as reserves or redshirts. They have already been through a UNLV game week, know how the routine changes and can help younger teammates adjust. That experience gives the Rebels more players who understand how opponent-specific preparation differs from the work they have done throughout spring and fall camp.

That familiarity becomes more important when UNLV makes smaller changes to its offense and defense. Memphis might require a different protection, route adjustment or variation in a coverage from what the Rebels used throughout camp. Veteran players already understand the base call, allowing the staff to make those changes without teaching everything again.

“Having those veteran players, I think making those small adjustments is a little bit easier,” Mullen said.

That experience can also help when UNLV works younger players into the lineup. Mullen pointed to freshman receiver Peyton Zachary as someone who has handled the speed and adjustments well enough to stay in position to make plays, something Mullen said is often more difficult for freshmen than the physical part of the game.

Mullen said UNLV can prepare for formations, protections and situations, but it cannot reproduce Allegiant Stadium on game day, with the crowd, game speed and an opponent the Rebels have never seen play together.

“You just can’t simulate that in practice,” Mullen said.

Practice can repeat a third-down call after a conversion or reset the ball after a touchdown or turnover. A game cannot. Those plays change the drive, the field position, the crowd and what each team has to handle next.

“I want to see us play with great effort, but handle the situation, the adjustment and the speed of the game,” Mullen said. “I want to see us handle the emotional roller coaster that occurs during the course of the game.”

The opening minutes will test the part of preparation Mullen cannot simulate. UNLV has spent months competing against itself, and Saturday will be the first time this group of Rebels takes the field together against another team.

“We get to see what type of team we have, where we’re at,” Mullen said. “This team’s never played anybody.”

Memphis is entering the same test, with its own identity still taking shape. Saturday is also UNLV’s last home game until Cal visits in early October, with three straight road games at Hawai‘i, North Texas and Akron following the opener.

Mullen said winning the opener matters immediately because of that stretch, but he also believes the result could remain part of the national discussion if UNLV and Memphis stay in their conference races later in the season.

“You might not feel it after this game, but there’s going to be a lot of discussion about this game as the season goes on, especially late into November,” Mullen said. “You’ve got to be able to win at home if you want to be successful.”

UNLV and Memphis will kick off at 7 p.m. Saturday at Allegiant Stadium. The game will be televised nationally on Fox.