LAS VEGAS — Ten yards separate Anthony Colandrea’s first two UNLV games from Jackson Arnold’s. Colandrea produced 560 yards of total offense against Idaho State and Sam Houston last year; Arnold has 550 against Memphis and Hawaii. Arnold also has five touchdowns, one more than Colandrea had at that point, and no turnovers. But UNLV has needed him to carry much more of the work to get there.
Dan Mullen spent fall camp explaining why the next quarterback did not have to reproduce Colandrea. He wanted to build around what Arnold or Alex Orji could do. “You have to be yourself,” Mullen said. “Sure, you can take things and we do different things that people have done in the past. But ultimately, we as coaches have to enhance those guys and play to their strengths more than anything.” Colandrea’s first two games showed how that process could work.
It did not immediately look that way against Idaho State. UNLV trailed 10-0 after the first quarter and 17-14 at halftime before rallying for a 38-31 win. Colandrea completed 15 of 21 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown, but some of his most damaging work came on the ground. He ran 13 times for 93 net yards, including a 37-yard gain, and finished with 288 yards of total offense. Jai’Den Thomas carried much of the rest of the rushing load, finishing with 147 yards and three touchdowns. Orji also remained part of the offense, completing all three of his passes for 37 yards and scoring the eventual game-winning touchdown on an 11-yard run. UNLV finished with 532 yards, including 300 rushing, and averaged more than 7.8 yards per play despite needing four fourth-quarter interceptions from the defense to complete the comeback.
Mullen came away from that opener encouraged by the way both quarterbacks managed their first game in his system. “I thought they played fantastic,” Mullen said the following week. He pointed to their willingness to take available throws, check the football down and avoid turning every snap into something bigger than it needed to be. Colandrea had not yet become the unquestioned centerpiece of the offense. Mullen still planned to use both quarterbacks and was learning how what he had seen in practice would translate once the season started.
Six days later, Colandrea made the picture much clearer.
Colandrea completed 19 of 23 passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns at Sam Houston, added 23 rushing yards and scored again on the ground. He completed 82.6% of his attempts and averaged 10.8 yards each time he threw. Jaden Bradley caught six passes for 125 yards, including a 43-yard touchdown on UNLV’s opening drive, and Colandrea later found DeAngelo Irvin Jr. for another score. UNLV needed only 56 offensive plays to gain 404 yards, averaged 7.2 yards per snap and won 38-21.
Mullen had given Colandrea a specific standard as the offense developed. “You have to be close to a 70 percent completion guy,” Mullen recalled telling him. Colandrea was well beyond that mark through two weeks. His 77.3% completion rate eventually came down. He finished the season completing 65.9% of his passes for 3,459 yards and 23 touchdowns and became the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year.
The first two games had already shown why the offense could work around him. UNLV gained 936 yards on 124 plays against Idaho State and Sam Houston, an average of about 7.5 yards per snap. The Rebels produced 481 passing yards and 455 rushing, recorded 45 first downs and scored 76 points. One touchdown at Sam Houston came on Aamaris Brown’s 52-yard interception return, leaving the offense responsible for 69. Orji still had a meaningful role alongside Colandrea, and the offense was producing enough around both quarterbacks to finish drives.
Arnold’s debut against Memphis initially looked capable of resembling Colandrea’s early passing production. Arnold completed 17 of 21 passes for 203 yards before halftime as UNLV took a 14-7 lead. He finished 25 of 37 for 291 yards and two touchdowns, connected with Tavian McNair for a 38-yard score and later found Kayden McGee for another from 22 yards.
Arnold also ran for a touchdown and finished with 345 yards of total offense after adding 54 net rushing yards. UNLV gained 460 yards, recorded 23 first downs and possessed the football for 35 minutes, 9 seconds. Those gains produced a halftime lead, but Memphis’ pass rush changed the second half.
Memphis sacked Arnold six times, all after halftime, and UNLV scored only once after the break. The Rebels converted three of 15 third downs and two of five fourth downs. They reached the Memphis red zone four times, scored touchdowns twice and came away empty after a fourth-down failure and a missed field goal. “The game came down to red-zone scoring,” Mullen said afterward. Arnold had played well enough for Mullen to largely abandon the quarterback rotation he originally planned. The offense still did not finish enough of the opportunities Arnold helped create.
A week later, Mullen did not ask him to solve the same problem the same way. UNLV went to Hawaii and cut Arnold’s pass attempts from 37 to 18. He completed eight for 116 yards, numbers that look modest until they are placed next to everything else the Rebels did. Arnold ran 16 times for 89 net yards and scored twice. Thomas carried 20 times for 143 yards and another touchdown. UNLV used more two- and three-tight-end personnel, stayed out of many of the obvious passing situations that had hurt it against Memphis and finished with 248 rushing yards in a 21-6 win. “We wanted to try to control the ground game a little bit,” Mullen said afterward. “I thought we were able to do that.”
Colandrea completed 34 of 44 passes for 444 yards, three touchdowns and an interception through two games. Arnold is 33 of 55 for 407 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He is 37 passing yards behind despite attempting 11 more throws. His 60% completion rate trails Colandrea’s 77.3% by 17.3 percentage points, and his 7.4 yards per attempt is 2.7 below Colandrea’s 10.1.
The ground game moves the comparison in the other direction. Colandrea ran 19 times for 116 yards and a touchdown; Arnold has 37 official carries for 143 and three scores. That is 27 more net yards, two more touchdowns and nearly twice as many carries. Removing sacks leaves 30 rushing attempts for Arnold and 15 for Colandrea, including designed runs and scrambles. UNLV has relied on Arnold much more often as a runner.
The sack totals help explain why his rushing line needs to be separated. Colandrea was sacked four times through his first two games. Arnold has already been sacked seven times, six against Memphis and one at Hawaii. College football charges sack yardage against individual rushing totals, so Arnold’s 37 carries for 143 yards combine his productive runs with the yards lost on sacks. Arnold has gained 207 yards on his recorded rushing attempts before 64 yards in losses are subtracted. Against Memphis, his official line was 21 carries for 54 yards. He actually gained 108 before losing 54, much of it on sacks. At Hawaii, the total was 16 carries, 89 net yards, two touchdowns and one sack.
Arnold has protected the ball better through the same two-game span. He has thrown 55 passes without an interception, and UNLV has not lost a fumble through two games. Colandrea threw an interception at Sam Houston, while Orji lost a fumble against Idaho State. The Rebels had two giveaways through two games last season. They have none this year.
That has not translated into more points because UNLV has lost possessions in different ways. The six sacks against Memphis created long-yardage situations, failed fourth downs ended drives and scoring opportunities disappeared without points. Arnold has avoided giving opponents the short fields that often make those problems worse, but avoiding turnovers has not been enough to offset everything else.
UNLV has gained 824 yards on 140 plays this season, 112 fewer yards on 16 more snaps than last year’s first two games. The average is down to 5.9 yards per play, and the first-down total is 41 instead of 45. The Rebels converted eight of 21 third downs and both fourth-down attempts last year. This year they are 10 of 30 on third down and two of seven on fourth. UNLV has punted 12 times, twice last year’s two-game total. Possession time has increased from 60:54 to 63:04. More time and more plays have yielded fewer points and yards.
Arnold’s share of those yards is another difference. His 550 yards account for about 67% of UNLV’s 824 total yards. Colandrea’s 560 represented just under 60% of the Rebels’ 936 through two games last season.
Some of that comes from the quarterback rotation Mullen was still using in 2025, and some comes from Arnold becoming such a significant part of this year’s rushing attack. He has thrown every quarterback pass against Memphis and Hawaii and accounted for nearly 44% of UNLV’s official rushing attempts.
The red-zone comparison points in the same direction. UNLV reached the red zone 11 times against Idaho State and Sam Houston last season, scoring on eight possessions with six touchdowns and two field goals. The Rebels have reached it only six times this year and scored on four, all touchdowns. The current 66.7% red-zone touchdown rate is actually better than the 54.5% rate through two games last season. The issue is getting there. Colandrea’s first two offenses created five more red-zone possessions. Arnold’s offense has been more likely to score a touchdown once it reaches that part of the field, but it has not reached it nearly as often.
There are limits to treating any of this as a direct quarterback comparison. Colandrea opened against an FCS Idaho State team before playing Sam Houston. Arnold began with Memphis and then traveled to Hawaii for an early Mountain West road game. UNLV also lost starting center Austin Boyd during the Memphis game and had to reconstruct the middle of the offensive line before going to Honolulu. The receiving corps is different, offensive coordinator Corey Dennis has a larger role in the offense and Mullen has another year of information on Thomas and the rest of the returning personnel. Two-game statistics cannot separate either quarterback from all of that, but they can show how differently Mullen has built the production around them.
Colandrea arrived as an experienced, improvisational quarterback whose willingness to create could occasionally work against him. Mullen spent much of the 2025 preseason teaching him that every snap did not require something extraordinary and emphasizing the value of completing the routine throw. By the end of his second game, Colandrea was completing more than 77% of his passes, averaging more than 10 yards per attempt and still giving UNLV enough on the ground to make defenses account for him. Arnold brought a different set of concerns. His arm talent and running ability were already obvious from his previous stops, but sacks and inconsistent passing stretches had followed him. Mullen did not hand him Colandrea’s offense and demand the same statistical line.
Ten yards do not explain why one start was 2-0 and the other is 1-1. The extra punts and missing red-zone trips get much closer. Arnold has given UNLV production with his arm and legs; the offense has to carry more of those possessions through the finish.
