DENTON, Texas — Jackson Arnold had already been sacked twice, lost a fumble and watched another UNLV possession end with Jaylon Glover putting the ball on the ground before the first quarter was over Saturday afternoon. Four possessions had produced 36 yards, two punts and two turnovers, and North Texas led 13-0. By the end of a 44-6 loss, UNLV had gained 301 yards, averaged 2.5 yards per rush, turned the ball over four times and never reached the end zone. Arnold completed 18 of 27 passes for 194 yards without an interception, but he was sacked four times, lost a fumble and was called for intentional grounding after the Rebels reached the North Texas 13. Three red-zone trips produced three points.
North Texas did not uncover one new flaw in UNLV’s offense. It put most of the problems from the first three weeks on the field at the same time. The line has allowed enough pressure to change two games, Arnold has continued a sack trend that followed him through Oklahoma and Auburn, and Corey Dennis already changed the structure once by leaning on heavier personnel and the run game in a 21-6 win at Hawai‘i. North Texas held Thomas to 37 yards and forced UNLV back toward the same passing situations that became a problem against Memphis. The receiving corps has spread the football around without replacing the vertical production, yards after catch and matchup advantages that left with Jaden Bradley, Troy Omeire and DaeDae Reynolds.
The difference from last season is substantial. UNLV scored 106 points and gained 1,287 yards on 177 offensive plays through three games in 2025, approximately 7.3 yards per snap. Through Memphis, Hawai‘i and North Texas this season, the Rebels have scored 48 points while gaining 1,125 yards on 212 plays, approximately 5.3 per snap. They have run 35 more plays for 162 fewer yards and 58 fewer points. Last season opened with Idaho State and Sam Houston before UCLA, while this year began with Memphis and consecutive road games at Hawai‘i and North Texas. Starting center Austin Boyd has also missed the last two games. The comparison is not schedule-neutral, but UNLV has still gone from 35.3 points per game through three weeks last season to 16 now.
The efficiency numbers fit that decline. UNLV has produced a successful play on 36.3 percent of its offensive snaps, 122nd nationally, while averaging 2.73 points per scoring opportunity, 117th, according to Punt & Rally. Success rate accounts for down and distance rather than treating every gain equally: six yards on first-and-10 improves a possession, while six yards on third-and-12 ends it. The Rebels are averaging 375 yards per game but too often fail to make the next snap easier.
That becomes more pronounced when the defense can anticipate a pass. UNLV has succeeded on 18 percent of its passing downs, 128th nationally. Dennis has not reached those situations by abandoning the run. Punt & Rally classifies 52 percent of UNLV’s snaps as runs and 45 percent as passes. The problem has come after something changes a possession. A sack, holding penalty, unsuccessful run or incompletion puts the offense behind schedule, and UNLV has struggled to recover.
Memphis provided the first example. The Tigers generated 21 pressures in the opener, including six sacks, four quarterback hits and 11 hurries. Amare Taase and Will Thomas combined to allow 11 pressures and four sacks, with additional losses elsewhere along the line. Arnold completed 17 of 21 passes for 203 yards before halftime while UNLV built a 14-7 lead, and Memphis did not sack him once during those two quarters. All six sacks came after halftime, including four in the fourth quarter, when the game demanded more from UNLV’s dropback passing game.
One sequence showed how quickly a productive possession could unravel. Glover broke a 44-yard run to the Memphis 27. Arnold was sacked for a six-yard loss on the next snap. Dennis went back to Glover on second-and-16, and Memphis stopped him for no gain. Two plays after gaining 44 yards, UNLV faced third-and-16. Similar sequences have followed the Rebels through September. A good early-down play disappears because of a sack or penalty, and the offense reaches the down where its protection has been least reliable and Arnold has the least room to wait for something to develop.
Hawai‘i allowed UNLV to avoid that game. The Rebels ran 43 times and attempted 18 passes, Thomas carried 20 times for 143 yards and Arnold added 89 net rushing yards and two touchdowns. UNLV finished with 248 rushing yards. Arnold was pressured on only four of 21 dropbacks, according to PFF, and Hawai‘i recorded one official sack. Two- and three-tight-end personnel gave UNLV additional bodies around the formation without eliminating play action, while Thomas and Arnold forced Hawai‘i to account for both in the run game.
North Texas stopped that version of the offense. Thomas did not have a run longer than eight yards, and UNLV finished with 98 rushing yards on 39 attempts. Two first-quarter turnovers pushed the Rebels into a 13-0 deficit, and the Mean Green eventually forced the game back toward Arnold and the protection. North Texas had not recorded a sack against Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover the previous week. It sacked Arnold on UNLV’s opening possession, strip-sacked him on the next one and finished with four.
Boyd’s absence remained part of the offensive-line picture, but most of Saturday’s pressure did not come through center. Griffin Scroggs played 66 snaps there and BJ Tolo took another 10. Scroggs allowed one hurry on 37 pass-blocking snaps, while Tolo did not allow a pressure. Alekai Afoa allowed six pressures at left tackle, including a sack, a hit and four hurries. Jackson Brown allowed three at right tackle, while Colton Thomasson allowed two from left guard, according to PFF.
The line deserves a significant share of the responsibility for UNLV’s 11 sacks through three games, but Arnold cannot be removed from it. He was sacked 35 times on 246 pass attempts at Oklahoma in 2024, 30 times on 215 attempts at Auburn last season and 11 times on 82 attempts through three games at UNLV. Using pass attempts plus sacks as a simple denominator, with scrambles excluded, Arnold was sacked on 12.5 percent of those opportunities at Oklahoma, 12.2 percent at Auburn and 11.8 percent so far at UNLV.
Three schools, offensive lines and systems have changed around him. The number has barely moved.
That does not turn 76 sacks into a quarterback statistic. Oklahoma had protection problems, Auburn had protection problems and UNLV allowing 21 pressures against Memphis was a line performance no quarterback could erase. Arnold also arrived in Las Vegas with a history of pressures becoming sacks. A little more than one out of every four pressures he faced during his final Oklahoma season became a sack, according to PFF’s historical data, and the rate increased early in his Auburn season. His performance also dropped sharply once the pocket was disturbed, with his early Auburn grade falling from 90.1 from a clean pocket to 33.5 under pressure, almost identical to the 33.9 pressure grade he posted at Oklahoma the previous year.
Arnold has shown that pressure itself does not automatically ruin the play. Against Memphis, he completed six of seven passes for 102 yards and both of his touchdowns when the Tigers blitzed, with the ball coming out in an average of 2.14 seconds. When an additional rusher created an immediate coverage answer, Arnold found it. The more difficult snaps have come when the first picture changes and the pocket begins to deteriorate. North Texas produced several of those without Arnold throwing an interception. A sack ended the opening possession, Davion Rhodes’ strip-sack ended the next one and another sack followed by intentional grounding damaged a third-quarter red-zone possession.
The Anthony Colandrea comparison shows another part of what has disappeared. Colandrea completed 49 of 65 passes for 647 yards, six touchdowns and one interception through three games last season. Arnold is 51 of 82 for 601 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Only 46 passing yards separate them, but Arnold has needed 17 additional attempts and produced four fewer touchdowns. Colandrea averaged 9.95 yards per attempt through three games. Arnold is at 7.33. UNLV allowed six sacks through the same point last season compared with 11 now.
The comparison is not as simple as replacing one quarterback with a worse one. Arnold has not thrown an interception, has scored three rushing touchdowns and showed his athleticism with a 54-yard scramble against Memphis and two rushing scores at Hawai‘i. Colandrea also faced an easier opening schedule. Last season’s offense did have more production available after a play moved away from its original design. Colandrea finished with 3,459 passing yards and 23 touchdowns while rushing for another 649 yards and 10 scores. A covered first read or deteriorating pocket did not end as many possessions.
UNLV has asked Arnold to replace some of that production with his legs while operating behind a line that has broken down badly in two games. The Rebels entered the season with the possibility that Arnold and Alex Orji would share some of the quarterback-run burden, but Arnold attempted every UNLV pass through the first two weeks and accumulated 37 official rushing attempts, a total that included sacks and scrambles but also reflected how much of the ground game had already moved onto him. Orji did not receive significant offensive work until the North Texas result was largely decided, when he ran twice for 32 yards and completed 1 of 5 passes with an interception.
Thomas has not disappeared because of a lack of carries either. He had 32 attempts for 273 yards and four touchdowns through three games last season. This year he has 42 carries for 224 yards and one score. Ten additional attempts have produced 49 fewer yards, and his average has fallen from 8.5 yards per carry to 5.3. Thomas ran for 1,036 yards and 12 touchdowns on 148 attempts last season, averaging seven yards per rush. He produced 147 yards and three touchdowns on 10 carries against Idaho State and 103 yards with four touchdowns on 11 attempts at Nevada. His value came from how much individual touches could produce, not from requiring 20 carries every week.
The first three games this season have been less consistent. Memphis held Thomas to 44 yards on 12 attempts. He ran for 143 on 20 carries at Hawai‘i, including the 50-yard touchdown that effectively ended the game, then North Texas held him to 37 on 10. Even the Hawai‘i performance leaned heavily on one explosive, with his other 19 carries producing 93 yards. UNLV is giving Thomas the football. What has changed is how often one of those touches becomes the play that changes a possession.
The receiving turnover has changed what Dennis can ask from the passing game as well. Bradley, Omeire and Reynolds combined for 122 receptions, 1,916 yards and 14 touchdowns last season, accounting for roughly 55 percent of UNLV’s receiving yards and 58 percent of its receiving touchdowns. None is on the roster now. UNLV’s estimated average target traveled 10.1 yards downfield last season before falling to 8.5 through the first two games this year, while estimated yards after catch dropped from 5.5 per completion to 3.2.
Arnold showed against Memphis that the deeper passing game is available when he gets time, producing 216 of his 291 passing yards on throws at least 10 yards downfield. Hawai‘i produced 116 passing yards, but 91 came on three completions. Against North Texas, Reddicks caught five passes for 75 yards, including a 35-yard gain, before losing a fumble near the goal line. He was still UNLV’s most productive receiver after not starting, and the Rebels have gone two consecutive games without a receiving touchdown.
A receiver who quickly wins isolated coverage gives Arnold somewhere to go when an extra rusher removes a defender from coverage. A legitimate vertical threat can keep a safety from freely adding himself against Thomas. A player who creates yards after the catch can turn a short throw into an explosive without asking the line to maintain protection for a deeper route. Bradley, Omeire and Reynolds gave last season’s offense more of those answers.
The offensive line changed around those skill positions too. Only Will Thomas and Boyd remained from the early 2025 group in the starting line UNLV used against Memphis, and Boyd had moved to center before suffering his ankle injury in the opener. Mullen has pointed to the communication UNLV lost without Boyd, particularly the calls he handled in the middle of the line. Scroggs and Tolo have taken those snaps since. North Texas also showed the limits of using Boyd’s absence as the explanation when the largest pressure totals came from the tackles.
The offense’s mistakes have reached beyond its own scoring total. North Texas began each of its first three possessions on UNLV’s side of the field, and Mullen thought the defense handled those circumstances reasonably well early. “I thought our guys were put in a bunch of tough situations in the first half, played fairly well,” he said afterward. The defense eventually opened the third quarter by allowing consecutive 75-yard touchdown drives, but the offense and special teams had already forced it to defend short fields throughout the opening quarter. Mullen did not separate his staff from the players afterward. “Just bad football all around, and when you have bad football, that’s bad coaching,” he said. “Really poorly coached in all three phases. That’s on us.”
The 301 yards in Denton probably describe UNLV’s offensive problem better than six points alone. The Rebels reached the North Texas 1 on a 15-play drive before halftime and scored nothing. Reddicks’ 35-yard catch helped put UNLV into the red zone to begin the second half before a sack and intentional grounding left Ramon Villela kicking a field goal. Another drive reached the North Texas 4 before Reddicks fumbled. Thomas had an 18-yard run to the 3 erased by holding. UNLV moved the football often enough to create opportunities and repeatedly failed on the snaps that decided whether those drives became touchdowns.
Dennis has individual calls to review, including the sequence before halftime at North Texas and the second-half protection plan against Memphis, but three games have made the problem broader than one decision. The line has struggled most when the pass becomes obvious. Arnold’s poorest results have come after the pocket loses its original shape. Thomas becomes easier to remove when down and distance make the run less credible. The receivers have not consistently supplied the quick one-on-one wins that can punish pressure. Heavy personnel worked at Hawai‘i until North Texas stopped the run and forced UNLV outside of it.
Last season’s offense had more ways to survive one mistake. This one has not.
Memphis took away the pocket. UNLV changed the game at Hawai‘i. North Texas took away the run and forced the protection problem back onto the offense.
Mullen’s assessment afterward did not require anything more complicated.
“Offense never got it going,” he said. “So we got a lot of things to fix.”