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March 28, 2024

Rebels shake off slow start, roll to 56-23 win in opener

2019 UNLV Opener Against Southern Utah

Steve Marcus

UNLV Rebels quarterback Armani Rogers (1) runs with the ball during a game against Southern Utah at Sam Boyd Stadium Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019.

2019 UNLV Opener Against Southern Utah

UNLV Rebels quarterback Armani Rogers (1) makes a 66-yard touchdown run during a game against Southern Utah at Sam Boyd Stadium Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019. Launch slideshow »

UNLV started slow in Saturday’s season opener, and the malaise lasted just long enough for an uneasy feeling to begin creeping in at Sam Boyd Stadium. Early-season games against low-level competition have infamously tripped up the Rebels before.

But not this time. While it took the offense a couple possessions to sort things out, the UNLV defense took up the charge and forced punts on each of Southern Utah’s first three drives. Given enough time to get up to speed, the Rebels offense then reeled off five straight touchdowns to bury SUU on the way to a 56-23 victory.

The UNLV defense kept the game scoreless until Charles Williams finally put the Rebels on the board with a 22-yard touchdown run with 4:58 left in the first quarter. Williams scored again on an 8-yard run early in the second quarter to make it 14-0, and by halftime UNLV had built a 35-7 advantage.

Coach Tony Sanchez credited the defense for not letting Southern Utah get any crazy ideas about an upset.

“They did a great job,” Sanchez said. “When the offense was trying to find themselves and find their rhythm, the defense did a really good job of not getting behind the 8-ball. Really impressed with that.”

Could the season-opening performance portend a different kind of season for UNLV football? In past years, letting an inferior opponent hang around for the first 10 minutes could have probably spelled doom. But on Saturday, the Rebels figured it out and ultimately overpowered Southern Utah.

The performance of UNLV’s first-string defense was encouraging. The Rebels sacked the quarterback four times and recorded seven tackles for loss, and they limited SUU to 4.2 yards per play on the night (a figure inflated by garbage-time yardage).

Offensively, the numbers were all there at the end of the night, and in a way that you would expect a bowl-bound team to dominate an FCS school. UNLV racked up 331 rushing yards and averaged 7.3 yards per play while tying a school record with seven rushing touchdowns in a single game.

Armani Rogers started shaky, completing just 1-of-4 passes on the Rebels’ first two drives — both of which went 3-and-out. On the second possession, Rogers tossed a ball that should have been intercepted and returned deep into UNLV territory, but the Southern Utah defender botched the catch.

No damage was done, however, and thanks to the strong showing of the defense the Rebels had time to shift gears and turn to the run game. Keeping it on the ground almost exclusively for the rest of the half, Williams and Rogers took turns running through mammoth holes and gashing SUU for big gains.

Williams, a junior serving as the lead running back for the first time, finished with 144 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries. Rogers rushed for 114 yards on 11 carries and scored twice, including a magnificent 66-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that put the Rebels ahead, 42-7.

Rogers gave the team a scare on the next drive, when he took a seemingly innocuous hit in the pocket and stayed down after the play. It turned out to be a minor issue with cramps, leading to a lighthearted moment on the sideline when Rogers tried to talk his way back into the game and Sanchez shut him down (with a smile).

With a 35-point lead and all the momentum they could possibly want heading into a critical Week-2 matchup with Arkansas State, the Rebels were mostly content to run out the clock. Freshman backup quarterback Kenyon Oblad played the rest of the way (7-of-11 passing, 59 yards), and backup running backs Darran Williams (eight carries, 39 yards, one touchdown) and Courtney Reese (five carries, 20 yards, one touchdown) split the carries throughout the fourth quarter.

Next up is Arkansas State, which claimed a 27-20 decision over UNLV last year in Jonesboro. The Rebels would probably admit they beat themselves in that game, and Rogers sounded determined to have his team operating at full capacity for the rematch next week.

With a few tweaks and a few big plays, he believes UNLV can move to 2-0 — thought it undoubtedly won’t be as easy as the season’s first victory.

“We just have to keep moving forward and fix the little details that we had errors on in this game,” Rogers said. “Just execute on the big-time plays that we have, because we’re not going to get many chances on them. When you do get the chance, we have to capitalize on them.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

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