Dan Mullen had not lost a game by this much in nearly nine years. UNLV’s 44-6 loss at North Texas was the third-largest defeat of his 15-year head-coaching career and his worst since Mississippi State lost 49-10 at Auburn on Sept. 30, 2017. Only Mississippi State’s 51-3 loss at No. 1 Alabama in 2016 and the Auburn defeat the following season were larger. For UNLV, the 38-point margin was its largest since No. 14 Iowa State beat the Rebels 48-3 on Sept. 18, 2021, which was also the last time the Rebels played a game without scoring a touchdown. UNLV had reached the end zone in every game for nearly five years before leaving Denton with two field goals.
A week earlier, UNLV had left Hawai‘i with a much different set of answers. The defense kept the Rainbow Warriors out of the end zone, the Rebels ran for 248 yards and an offensive line playing without injured center Austin Boyd allowed one sack after surrendering six against Memphis. Jai’Den Thomas ran for 143 yards, Jackson Arnold added 89 net rushing yards and two touchdowns, and the Rebels controlled most of the night on the ground in a 21-6 win. North Texas brought most of UNLV’s early-season problems back at once.
The Mean Green led 20-3 at halftime after UNLV turned the ball over twice in the first quarter and repeatedly gave North Texas short fields. The Rebels reached the North Texas 1 before halftime and came away with nothing, then opened the second half by allowing consecutive 75-yard touchdown drives. UNLV reached the North Texas 13 between those scores and settled for a field goal after a sack and intentional-grounding penalty. The Rebels later reached the 4 and fumbled. By the end of the third quarter, North Texas led 34-6.
Mullen had already called UNLV “mentally soft” during his halftime radio interview. His comments after the game went further. “We’re gonna find out how we’re gonna respond mentally. I promise you that,” Mullen said. “Maybe we have guys here, maybe we don’t. Maybe guys will be leaving. I don’t know, but we’re gonna find out how we respond mentally to this.” He followed with an even stronger warning: “There’s one thing to do. You get knocked down, you get back up, and you charge ahead, and you start fighting and throwing. And if you don’t like that, then you’re probably not gonna fit in here, and you probably need to head home.”
The criticism did not stop with the roster. North Texas began each of its first three possessions on UNLV’s side of the field, the Rebels finished minus-four in turnover margin and three red-zone trips produced three points. Mullen also called UNLV’s punt team “really bad” after problems with the first two snaps, although Ramon Villela made both of his field-goal attempts. “Just bad football all around, and when you have bad football, that’s bad coaching,” Mullen said. “Really poorly coached in all three phases. That’s on us.”
The offensive line will be one of the first groups under examination during the open week, although Saturday made it difficult to place the protection problems entirely on Boyd’s absence. Griffin Scroggs played 66 snaps at center against North Texas and BJ Tolo took another 10. Scroggs allowed one hurry on 37 pass-blocking snaps, while Tolo did not allow a pressure in five. Most of the pressure came elsewhere. Left tackle Alekai Afoa allowed six pressures, including a sack, a hit and four hurries. Jackson Brown allowed three pressures at right tackle, while Colton Thomasson allowed two from left guard. North Texas finished with four official sacks and five quarterback hurries.
The protection has now swung dramatically from week to week. Memphis recorded six sacks in the opener, all after halftime. Hawai‘i had one. North Texas produced four more. Against Memphis, Arnold completed 17 of 21 passes for 203 yards before halftime while UNLV built a 14-7 lead, then spent much of the second half under pressure as the game turned. In Honolulu, UNLV ran 43 times, threw 18 passes and kept Arnold out of many of those situations. North Texas held Thomas to 37 yards on 10 carries and eventually forced the passing game back into the type of downs that had given UNLV trouble against Memphis.
The timing of the pressure in Denton was as damaging as the total. Davion Rhodes’ first-quarter strip-sack gave North Texas possession at the UNLV 23 and led to a field goal. In the third quarter, UNLV had driven from its own 25 to the North Texas 13 before Arnold was sacked and then called for intentional grounding. Villela made a 37-yard field goal, cutting the deficit to 27-6, but another chance to reach the end zone had disappeared. The Mean Green answered with a 75-yard touchdown drive.
Arnold completed 18 of 27 passes for 194 yards and did not throw an interception before Alex Orji entered late. That passing line does not remove Arnold from the review. He took sacks, lost the first fumble and had plays where the ball could have come out sooner. It also does not support reducing the offense to a quarterback problem. UNLV lost three fumbles while Arnold was in the game, Thomas averaged 3.7 yards per carry and the line allowed pressure from multiple positions. Arnold has been sacked 11 times through three games after taking 35 sacks at Oklahoma in 2024 and 30 at Auburn last season, leaving both the protection around him and his response to pressure as part of the same problem.
Orji completed 1 of 5 passes for 9 yards with an interception after entering with 8:24 remaining, but his two rushing attempts went for 32 yards. Nothing from those final minutes creates a quarterback competition on its own. His running ability does give Dennis another option during the bye. Arnold remains dangerous with his legs, as Hawai‘i showed, but UNLV has placed most of the quarterback-run burden on him through the first three games while Orji has had little role before the outcome was decided.
The skill-position rotation also gives Mullen room to make changes without replacing the entire offense. Reddicks did not start against North Texas and finished with five catches for 75 yards, including a 35-yard reception on UNLV’s first possession of the second half. PFF’s matchup chart listed six targets for Reddicks, while the other receiving options produced mostly shorter gains. His afternoon also included one of UNLV’s most costly mistakes when he fumbled at the North Texas 4 late in the third quarter. The mistake ended another scoring opportunity, but Reddicks was also the Rebels’ most productive receiver on an afternoon when they struggled to create explosive plays through the air.
Thomas enters the bye from the opposite direction. One week after carrying 20 times for 143 yards at Hawai‘i, he ran 10 times for 37 yards against North Texas and had one target without a catch. He has 42 carries for 224 yards and one touchdown through three games after opening last season with 32 carries for 273 yards and four scores. The workload has increased while the explosive return has declined. Hawai‘i showed how much easier the offense can become when Thomas and Arnold are both threatening the defense on the ground. North Texas showed what happens when the first part of that plan disappears.
Mullen thought the defense handled the first half better than the 20 points suggested, particularly after the offense and special teams repeatedly left it with difficult field position. “I thought our guys were put in a bunch of tough situations in the first half, played fairly well,” Mullen said after the game. North Texas still had only 119 yards after the first quarter despite beginning each of its first three possessions on UNLV’s side of midfield. The response after halftime was different. The Mean Green opened the third quarter with a six-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, then went 75 yards again after UNLV answered with a field goal.
Jahiem White was at the center of both the preparation and the breakdown. UNLV knew throughout the week that North Texas wanted to create space for him, and White finished with 124 rushing yards, 34 receiving yards and two touchdowns on 14 touches. His first score came on a short pass that became a 32-yard touchdown. On the second play of the third quarter, White broke a 43-yard run from the North Texas 33 to the UNLV 24, setting up another touchdown four plays later. Tayven Jackson added 233 passing yards, 43 rushing yards and three total touchdowns. UNLV did not lose because North Texas unveiled something it had never seen. The Mean Green repeatedly got production from the players the Rebels had spent the week preparing to stop.
North Texas gained 158 yards on 19 plays in the third quarter, including 108 rushing yards on 14 attempts, and converted all three of its third downs. UNLV gained 98 yards, rushed for 18 and went 0-for-3 on third down. The Mean Green won the quarter 14-3 immediately after Mullen had questioned his team’s mentality.
The problem has followed UNLV through all three games. Memphis trailed 14-7 at halftime before its pass rush took over and the Tigers won 27-21. Hawai‘i controlled possession for much of the third quarter a week later, although UNLV’s defense kept the Rainbow Warriors from turning it into enough points to threaten the final result. North Texas started the second half already ahead by 17 and pushed the margin to 28 before the fourth quarter. Through three games, UNLV has been outscored 34-10 in the third quarter after spending the offseason talking about becoming the “third-quarter Rebels.”
The North Texas loss does not count in the Mountain West standings, and UNLV still has its conference schedule in front of it. Denton did leave fewer problems that can be dismissed as a single bad game. The protection has broken down badly twice. The run game went from 248 yards at Hawai‘i to 98 at North Texas. UNLV has repeatedly moved the ball into scoring position without finishing drives. The defense followed a five-sack, six-point performance with 444 yards allowed. The third quarter has been a problem every week.
Mullen now has two weeks before UNLV plays at Akron on Sept. 26. Reddicks has given the staff a reason to reconsider the receiver rotation. Orji’s legs give Dennis another package to work with. Thomas remains the most proven back on the roster, but the offense has to recreate the conditions that made his touches explosive. Scroggs and Tolo have both played center without most of the North Texas pressure coming through that position, which leaves the tackles and the overall protection plan under the same scrutiny. The defensive staff has its own work after White and Jackson repeatedly reached the areas UNLV had identified before kickoff.
Mullen put all of them in the same conversation after the game: starters, reserves and coaches. The first answer comes Sept. 26 at Akron.