LAS VEGAS — Tyler Hughes has rushed for 421 yards in Wyoming’s last three games. He is coming to face a UNLV defense that allowed 670 in its last two, including 240 to a Northern Illinois team that arrived at Allegiant Stadium without a win.
Dan Mullen left the 31-24 win with the same complaints he had taken into the bye.
“We’re missing tackles, missing gaps, not getting off blocks,” Mullen said.
Hughes did most of the running himself in Wyoming’s 28-14 win over Air Force. He gained 146 of the Cowboys’ 188 net rushing yards; Markell Holman added 35 on nine carries and Samuel Harris seven on three. His 68-yard touchdown gave Wyoming an early lead, and his 15-yard run on third-and-6 set up the touchdown that secured it. The Falcons could not keep him from making the decisive gain even when they knew Wyoming wanted to run.
Christian Taylor has built more of the offense around those carries during the Cowboys’ three-game winning streak. Hughes can keep on a designed run or leave the pocket after his receivers are covered. Holman and Harris let Taylor change runners without surrendering the threat, while tight ends Jake Wilson and Kyle Frendt give Hughes places to throw when a defender steps toward him.
Two weeks earlier, Air Force gained 430 rushing yards against the Rebels in a 41-31 victory at Falcon Stadium. Quarterback Evan Medders ran for 152 yards and three touchdowns. The Falcons scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, and UNLV could not take the ball away or finish enough drives to slow them. Mullen had an open week afterward to work on precisely the areas that had failed.
The Huskies scored touchdowns on their first two possessions. Telly Johnson Jr. finished the first by gaining 20 yards on third-and-1, getting outside and using a stiff arm near the goal line. Elijah Porter had already run for two gains of 16 on the drive. NIU needed no time to discover that its backs could get beyond UNLV’s first tackler.
NIU was willing to keep running because the attempts were producing enough yards to leave manageable downs. Elijah Porter finished with 113 rushing yards. Johnson added 72. Quarterback Taron Dickens did enough with his legs to make UNLV account for another runner on passing plays. The Huskies possessed the football for 35:09 and gained 493 yards, including 240 on the ground. Their 9-for-17 third-down line showed they had not merely collected yardage after the result was decided. They stayed on the field with the game still there to win.
Even a two-touchdown lead lasted less than two minutes. Jai’Den Thomas broke a 60-yard touchdown run with 11:18 left in the third quarter. The Rebels led 31-17. On NIU’s next possession, Dickens faced third-and-8 at his 39. He found George Dimopoulos across the middle, and the receiver ran away for a 61-yard touchdown with 9:31 remaining in the quarter.
Mumu Bin-Wahad kept NIU from tying the score by jumping a throw near the UNLV 10 and returning the interception 53 yards. Avery Helm and Denver Harris also broke up passes. The Huskies did not score again after Dimopoulos’ touchdown, giving UNLV enough stops to preserve the win.
Mullen’s review of the NIU film put numbers to the breakdowns. He estimated more than 20 missed tackles, responsible for roughly 30 percent of the Huskies’ yardage, and later described the cost as about 150 yards. Those are his estimates, rather than official statistics. He also identified defenders failing to fit and hold their assigned gaps and a lack of physicality. The problems went beyond one long run or one missed tackle.
The defense had shown it could finish those plays against North Dakota State. UNLV stopped fourth-and-1 at its own 9 in the second quarter, with Jake Pope and Justin Flowe credited on the tackle. The Rebels shut out the Bison after halftime and intercepted Nathan Hayes three times, including Andre Porter‘s 23-yard touchdown return. That performance came one week before Air Force ran for 430 yards. Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther’s group has already demonstrated a much higher level of execution than it produced in the next two games.
That success also had limits. North Dakota State still rushed for 176 yards. UNLV won by stopping critical downs and taking the ball away, rather than eliminating every running lane. Late in the game, Dee Crayton‘s sack helped push the Bison backward before Bin-Wahad’s second interception ended their last possession. Those were specific plays that protected a six-point lead. Against Hughes, Guenther needs that execution again.
Mullen had liked the preparation after the bye. “The peak of the week should be the game,” he said. NIU’s first two possessions left him explaining why the work had not carried over.
Against NIU in Laramie, Hughes broke his 53-yard touchdown after the coverage held up downfield. On another drive, Eric Richardson and Frendt gained 67 yards on two catches before Hughes ran six for the score. Against Air Force, Hughes supplied the long touchdown and the late third-down conversion. Taylor has given him enough help in the passing game to punish a defense that sends another player toward the run.
The way to expose Hughes’ remaining weaknesses is to make him throw in situations Wyoming hasn’t controlled. All seven of his interceptions have come on the road. At North Dakota State he threw one on the opening snap, putting the Bison 19 yards from the end zone. At Colorado State, an illegal-formation penalty erased a third-down conversion and an interception followed. Guenther cannot build a plan around waiting for those mistakes to return, but denying the easy rushing yardage would at least make Hughes answer the question that has troubled him away from Laramie.
NIU scored touchdowns on third-and-1 and third-and-8, then gained 24 yards on its only fourth-down attempt. Guenther needs his defenders to finish those plays without relying on an interception to end the next threat.
The Rebels have had an open week, a win and another film review since Air Force. Mullen is still asking for the same corrections. Hughes has rushed for at least 92 yards in each of Wyoming’s last three games; he gives UNLV little room to spend another Saturday finding out whether those corrections reached the field.
