UNLV scored 48 points across its first 37 offensive possessions and allowed Jackson Arnold to be sacked 11 times. Dan Mullen spent the bye cutting what the Rebels were not executing well enough, and Akron was the first afternoon the run game, protection and downfield passing worked together.
LAS VEGAS — Dan Mullen did not come out of UNLV’s bye looking for more offense to install around Jackson Arnold. He came out of it deciding which parts of the offense were no longer worth carrying.
Three games had produced 37 offensive possessions, 48 points and three substantially different ways for UNLV to move the football. The Rebels gained 460 yards against Memphis in the home opener but allowed six second-half sacks in a 27-21 loss. They went to Hawai‘i and ran 43 times for 248 yards while Arnold attempted only 18 passes. North Texas then held UNLV below 100 rushing yards, sacked Arnold four times and forced four turnovers in a 44-6 loss.
Mullen and offensive coordinator Corey Dennis used the bye to start removing calls instead of adding them.
“Just because I love a play and I think this is a great play doesn’t mean this roster runs it real well,” Mullen said. “I think it is us learning what guys do well and making sure across the board at every position we’re putting the guys in, getting a little bit more comfortable with what we’re calling, what this team’s gonna be able to do and what we’ll be able to execute.”
Akron was the first game after that review. UNLV scored 38 points, gained a season-high 493 yards and averaged 7.8 yards per play. The Rebels rushed for 203 yards and threw for 290. Arnold completed 17 of 29 passes for three touchdowns without an interception and, for the first time this season, was not sacked.
Jai’Den Thomas ran 15 times for 113 yards and caught three passes for another 54. Taz Reddicks finished with four catches for 116 yards. Taeshaun Lyons added 49 yards on two receptions. UNLV had a productive running back, an explosive receiver, a quarterback able to push the ball downfield and an offensive line that kept the pocket intact long enough for those throws to develop.
Those pieces had appeared separately before. Akron was the first time they stayed together.
Memphis had already shown that Arnold could move the passing game. He threw for 291 yards and two touchdowns without an interception while UNLV built three separate leads, but the protection eventually changed the game. All six Memphis sacks came after halftime, repeatedly turning manageable downs into situations where the defense could rush without having to respect much else.
Mullen does not put the 11 sacks from the first three games into one category. Some came from offensive-line losses, some from protection problems and some because Arnold stayed with a read longer than Mullen wanted. Game situation mattered, too, particularly once UNLV fell behind and the defense knew Arnold had to throw.
“A couple of it, bad protection on the O-line,” Mullen said. “A couple of them were holding on the ball too long within the read. It can be game situation. Could be poor O-line play. Could be a missed pickup by the back. It could also be him holding the ball too long.”
Hawai‘i reduced that exposure by changing how UNLV played. The Rebels leaned on Thomas and Arnold in the run game, finished with 248 rushing yards and won while throwing for only 116. There were snaps where Hawai‘i left six defenders in the box against five offensive linemen, a tight end, Arnold and a running back, giving UNLV enough bodies to account for the first level and still carry another blocker or runner toward the secondary.
That approach worked because Hawai‘i never consistently forced UNLV away from it. North Texas did. Thomas finished with 37 rushing yards, UNLV managed 98 as a team and Arnold was sacked four times. Once the run disappeared and the score pushed the Rebels toward predictable passing situations, the problems that had surfaced against Memphis returned with less room to work around them.
Mullen’s work during the bye went beyond telling the offensive line to block better. He wanted a clearer picture of what Arnold processed comfortably, which calls fit the personnel around him and how quickly the quarterback moved from one read to the next when the defense changed the picture after the snap.
“I don’t see him make a ton of bad reads,” Mullen said. “I think he’s a little conservative at times with the ball and needs to be a little bit more aggressive. I think he needs to get through reads a little bit faster.”
Arnold’s first touchdown pass at Akron provided one of the better examples of what Mullen was asking for.
UNLV faced third-and-3 from the Akron 40. Thomas released from the backfield as Arnold’s first read, but Akron dropped an edge defender underneath him and sent eight defenders into coverage. Arnold came off Thomas, moved through the rest of the progression and eventually returned after the underneath defender stopped carrying Thomas downfield.
By the time Arnold came back, Thomas had separated from the coverage. Arnold found him for a 40-yard touchdown.
“Jet’s our first read,” Arnold said. “But the way they played it, they dropped the end. They played drop eight. They dropped the end, so he killed Jet. But he didn’t run with Jet the entire time. So I went through my progression. I bounced around. We had time.”
The last part of Arnold’s explanation was what UNLV had lacked too often before the bye.
The Rebels had time.
Thomas looked uncovered by the time the ball arrived, but Arnold’s explanation showed why the play lasted as long as it did. The first read was taken away initially. Arnold moved elsewhere instead of forcing the throw, and the offensive line kept the play alive long enough for him to work through the rest of the field and come back once the defender stopped running with Thomas.
Mullen pointed to the same touchdown when discussing what changed up front. A normal throw may ask the line to survive for roughly 2.5 to three seconds. A deeper concept that requires Arnold to work through coverage can demand considerably more.
“If you’re gonna take a shot down the field, you can’t just pass pro,” Mullen said. “You gotta strain to finish because instead of holding the ball for 2.5 to 3 seconds, we’re holding it 4.5 to 5 seconds to get the ball down the field. First touchdown, a great example of that.”
Arnold still left Akron with throws he would want back. There were misses over the middle, and a 290-yard, three-touchdown line did not mean every part of his afternoon was sharp. Akron also entered the game with only two sacks through three weeks, a much different pass-rush test from the one Memphis presented.
The difference was that the misses did not turn into a series of drive-killing negative plays. Arnold could come off his first read without immediately having to leave the pocket. UNLV could survive an imperfect snap without the next one beginning well behind the sticks.
Arnold has also protected the ball while the rest of the offense has been settling around him. He has not thrown an interception through four games, with UNLV’s only interception coming from Alex Orji at North Texas. The Rebels have had stalled possessions and protection failures, but Arnold has largely avoided adding another problem by giving the football away through the air.
Akron also gave UNLV something it had rarely shown during the first three games: enough downfield production to change where defenders could stand.
“If you’ve never hit an explosive shot downfield, everybody’s squatting, standing around the line of scrimmage saying, ‘Go ahead,’” Mullen said. “Until you can make some plays down the field, we’re gonna stand around the line of scrimmage and shut you down.”
Reddicks was the biggest beneficiary. He caught four passes for 116 yards and scored on a 59-yard throw from Arnold late in the third quarter. The touchdown came immediately after Cam Santee’s interception gave UNLV the ball at its own 38. Thomas gained three yards on first down, and Arnold found Reddicks down the middle on the next snap.
UNLV covered 62 yards in two offensive plays.
Earlier in the quarter, the Rebels had scored in a completely different way. They took the opening possession of the second half 75 yards and finished it with Thomas’ 16-yard touchdown run. Another drive lasted 13 plays and covered 67 yards before Ramon Villela kicked a 38-yard field goal. UNLV could stay on schedule without forcing the ball downfield, then punish Akron quickly when the coverage gave Arnold the chance.
“Once you’re able to hit some explosives down the field, that allows you to get some underneath throws and take what the defense gives you a little bit,” Mullen said. “I think he did a nice job of managing when to take a shot, when to check it down.”
If a defense does not respect those throws, it can keep more bodies near the line, squeeze Thomas and crowd the shorter windows Arnold has been most comfortable using. At Akron, the Rebels finally made the defense defend more of the field.
Thomas did not need 25 carries to control the game. He averaged 7.5 yards on his 15 rushing attempts and finished with 167 yards from scrimmage on 18 touches. Through four games, he has 337 rushing yards on 57 carries, an average of 5.9 per attempt. His two 100-yard games came at Hawai‘i and Akron, the same two afternoons UNLV topped 200 rushing yards as a team.
Reddicks has started giving Arnold another dependable place to go. His 116 yards at Akron followed five catches for 75 at North Texas, giving him 191 receiving yards over the last two games. Kayden McGee’s expected return from a shoulder injury adds another receiver capable of stretching the defense without asking Reddicks to handle all of the downfield work himself.
The offensive line still has more to settle. Austin Boyd’s ankle injury changed UNLV’s offseason plan at center and forced the Rebels to work through different combinations with Griffin Scroggs, BJ Tolo and Joe Metzger inside. Mullen said Boyd is well ahead of the original recovery timetable, but he remains out for now.
Mullen saw more at Akron than a zero in the sack column. The Zips presented several defensive looks that UNLV had identified during preparation as potential problems because the Rebels had not repeatedly blocked them against their own defense throughout spring and training camp. Mullen said the line handled those changes well, which he viewed as a sign the group was beginning to communicate and adjust together.
“I thought we did some great things,” Mullen said. “You see the guys gelling together a little bit. What I was pleased with is them adjusting to some of the game-plan things.”
Mullen considers sacks and tackles for loss defensive explosives because of how quickly they alter a possession. UNLV did not allow Akron one sack after giving up 11 through the first three weeks, but one clean afternoon does not establish that the protection problem is gone. The opponent, score and down-and-distance all contributed to why Arnold was able to play from a cleaner pocket.
Orji remains part of the offense without being an alternative to the larger project around Arnold. Mullen said during the bye that he wanted to use Orji more, but his biggest play at Akron, a 23-yard run, came after the game had already separated. Despite the preseason competition at quarterback, Arnold has clearly become the player around whom Mullen is shaping the weekly offense.
UNLV still has plenty in its four-game numbers to keep Akron from becoming a problem-solved story. The Rebels average 404.5 yards per game but only 21.5 points. They have converted 23 of 60 third downs, 38.3%, and scored on seven of 12 red-zone trips, with six touchdowns.
Yardage by itself has never been the entire problem. UNLV gained 460 against Memphis and lost. The offense has needed to avoid the sack that turns a manageable down into an obvious passing situation, finish possessions once they reach scoring territory, keep Thomas involved when the box changes and give Arnold enough time to punish a defense when it starts crowding the run.
Akron was the first time UNLV did enough of those things together.
Mullen was asked this week whether that meant the Rebels had finally found exactly what their offense was going to be.
“We’re getting closer,” Mullen said. “It wasn’t just like there’s some magic dust and we’re perfect now.”
Mullen spent the bye removing what his players were not executing well enough.
Akron was the first time he got to see what was left work together.
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