Jake Pope Says UNLV Defense Must Play Faster, Trust Its Rules Against Memphis

LAS VEGAS — Jake Pope spent his first season in Paul Guenther’s defense learning the calls, checks and responsibilities that came with playing safety in a new system. A year later, the terminology is no longer the difficult part. The challenge now is using that familiarity against an offense UNLV cannot fully prepare for on film.

Memphis will arrive at Allegiant Stadium on Saturday with a new coaching staff, more than 70 newcomers and an unannounced starting quarterback. UNLV can study offensive coordinator Kevin Decker’s previous work at Old Dominion and what Memphis transfers did at other schools, but there is no game showing how all of those pieces will operate together. For Pope, that makes UNLV’s own defensive rules more important.

“Memphis likes to run really wide splits, so we’ve been planning and scheming for that and just playing our rules and playing our defenses that we’ve installed through spring and fall,” Pope said Monday.

That answer fits the progression Pope described throughout fall camp, when he talked about becoming more comfortable in Guenther’s system and spending less time processing his own assignment before the snap. That familiarity matters at safety because Pope has to process more than his own responsibility. Memphis can stretch the secondary across the width of the field and use tempo to shorten the time he has to identify a formation, communicate an adjustment and make sure everyone is aligned.

Pope believes another year in the defense should allow UNLV to make those decisions faster. “Scheme-wise and play-wise, I think it’s going to help us play a lot faster than we did last year,” Pope said.

Pope has more reason than most of the secondary to recognize the difference. He arrived at UNLV last year after spending his first three college seasons waiting for a larger defensive role. Pope redshirted at Alabama in 2022 while playing behind future NFL defensive backs Jordan Battle, Brian Branch and DeMarcco Hellams, then appeared in 12 games mostly on special teams in 2023. He transferred to Georgia and appeared in four games as a reserve in 2024 before finally getting an opportunity to become a full-time starter at UNLV.

Pope started all 14 games last season and finished second on the team with 81 tackles, while adding three tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, five pass breakups and his first college interception. His first full season as a starter earned him a spot on the 2026 Preseason All-Mountain West team.

That gives Pope’s expectation of playing faster another layer. Last season was his first learning Guenther’s defense and his first handling a full season as a college starter. Neither is new anymore.

The experience around him is more scattered. Mumu Bin-Wahad, Quandarius Keyes, Denver Harris and Tre Fulton return, while Avery Helm and other transfers were added during the offseason. Guenther does not have the same secondary he finished last season with, but he also is not rebuilding the entire unit from the beginning. Pope has become one of the players responsible for helping connect the returning experience with the new pieces around him.

That continuity was tested again this week when Laterrance Welch and Donovan Spellman were absent from Monday’s practice and no longer appeared on UNLV’s active roster or the numerical roster in the Memphis game notes. UNLV has not announced a change in either player’s status.

“It is tough, and I hate to see it because I feel like sometimes it’s not the players’ fault,” Pope said. “They’re kind of just going by whatever they hear. We just have to keep moving forward as a team and stay behind those guys.”

Whether either player returns before Saturday or not, Pope said the defense still has to prepare with the group available. “If they’re here, great,” Pope said. “If not, we’ll just stay patient with it and move on.”

The opponent presents enough uncertainty on its own. Memphis has not announced whether Air Noland or Marcus Stokes will take the first snap at quarterback. Noland has attempted only three passes in college after stops at Ohio State and South Carolina. Stokes arrives after passing for 3,297 yards and 30 touchdowns at Division II West Florida last season.

Their backgrounds are different, but UNLV cannot build a completely separate defense for every possibility. The same applies to the rest of Memphis’ offense. Decker can carry concepts from Old Dominion into his new job, but the personnel around those concepts has changed, leaving UNLV to prepare for tendencies without knowing exactly how the Tigers will use them.

That places more responsibility on Pope once the game begins. The first formations can reveal where Memphis wants to create space. The opening series should begin showing which receivers are being featured, how quickly the Tigers want to play and which parts of Decker’s previous offense carried into the opener. Pope and the secondary have to identify those answers without allowing the discovery process to turn into explosive plays.

That is where Pope’s second year in Guenther’s defense becomes more than a comfort-level story. Knowing the system faster gives him more time to process what Memphis is doing, communicate with the players around him and react without spending the beginning of each play making sure he understands his own assignment.

UNLV will not know exactly what Memphis looks like until Saturday. Pope believes the difference this season is that the Rebels should spend less time thinking about their own defense while they figure it out.

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