Blog: Rebels cruise to 63-13 victory against Jackson State

By Taylor Bern

Published Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016 | 11:16 p.m.

The second season of UNLV coach Tony Sanchez’s new era kicks off tonight at 7:05 p.m. on the Mountain West Network, and the primary goal is to turn the promise of 2015 into 2016 results.

That starts with taking care of business against Jackson State, which is looking for the third Division I-AA victory at Sam Boyd Stadium in the last six years. It would be quite an upset as offshore sports books have the Rebels as a 37.5-point favorite, but UNLV knows it’s not in a position to take any team lightly.

The Rebels want people to buy in. Now is when they must start to convince them.

OFFENSE

It’s time to start finding out what the Rebels have in junior quarterback Johnny Stanton.

Considering it’s the first game of the season, any struggles shouldn’t be dwelled on. Considering the competition, any great successes shouldn’t automatically be the expectation moving forward. But first impressions are always important, and Stanton is about to make his.

An ideal outcome for Stanton, or at least the one most in line with Sanchez’s expectation of the position, would be an average outing relatively devoid of mistakes. The Rebels will take plenty of shots with junior receiver Devonte Boyd and others this season, but Sanchez has been stressing the importance of avoiding errors over being able to make big highlight plays.

The coaching staff has a lot of confidence in the revamped offensive line, a running back group led by sophomore Lexington Thomas and freshman Charles Williams and receivers coach Cedric Cormier’s Flight Crew. All Stanton needs to do is hand off the ball and make the easy throws.

Anything on top of that, like using his 245 pounds to steamroll linebackers in the red zone, is a plus.

DEFENSE

If UNLV’s defense plays like it did for the first half of last season, things will be fine. The problem was the significant drop off as the year wore on and UNLV’s depth issues came to the surface.

Through the first six games, the Rebels’ defense allowed 5.53 yards per play. That jumped to 6.96 over the final six games, as bodies and confidence wore down.

Much like the offense, UNLV feels it is much deeper now on this side of the ball, even though many of the starters are the same faces from a year ago. Seniors Ryan McAleenan, Tau Lotulelei and junior Matt Lea combined to fill 80 percent of the starting roles at linebacker, the interior defensive lineman are the same and all but one of the starting defensive backs has started at least five games.

The difference is how much some of those guys will be able to move around or take rest because the second group can handle a larger role than last year’s reserves. Expect to see linebackers Gabe McCoy and LaKeith Walls try to carve out roles as edge rushers, and senior Jeremiah Valoaga could lead the team in sacks with six or more.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Sophomore Evan Pantels is UNLV’s new starter at both punter and kicker, replacing Logan Yunker at punter and supplanting senior Nicolai Bornand as placekicker. Pantels started his career with a redshirt year at Georgia State and then transferred to UNLV after a season as the punter and kicker at Georgia Military College.

Last year, Pantels averaged 39.3 yards per punt with a long of 69 while making six of his 12 field-goal attempts and 44-of-47 extra points. Bornand was UNLV’s full-time kicker last season on kickoffs, field goals and extra points, converting 12-of-17 field goals and 43-of-44 extra points.

Bornand might get another chance to win the job this season, but he has to win back the confidence of the coaching staff after missing his last three kicks last season.

Vegas connections

It’s likely that Jackson State will use multiple quarterbacks tonight, and one of the possible backups is a former Rebel. Tigers junior Jarin Morikawa, a Mililani, Hawaii, native, redshirted as a walk-on at UNLV in 2013.

Morikawa led the Rebels’ scout team during their Heart of Dallas Bowl season before transferring to Jackson State to play for then-offensive coordinator Timmy Chang, a former Hawaii quarterback. Last season, Morikawa appeared in six games, completing 50.3 percent of his passes (63-of-125) for 633 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions.

And for those watching the game online tonight, Caleb Herring, the starting quarterback from that 2013 season, is the color commentator on the stream. Herring has called a handful of games over the past few years since leading UNLV to its best season since 2000.

Quotable

“We’ve got to be careful not to be arrogant. We are a proud university and a proud football program and we are working on being a team that people can depend on and rely on, but we haven’t been so for 30 years. So for us to presume that we can beat anybody would be a little bit uncalled for. We have to learn to take care of our own house and win the games that we’re supposed to win.”

— Sanchez on not overlooking Division I-AA opponent

Random stat

On average, UNLV’s starting offensive line weighs 19 pounds more than the first game of the 2015 season. The change is embodied by left tackle Kyle Saxelid, who’s now listed at 290 pounds after starting at 270 last year.

Song and beer recommendation

Listen to Chance the Rapper’s album "Coloring Book" while drinking several Mango Even Keels from Ballast Point. It’s still hot outside so you need some easy drinking, and Chance’s relentless optimism pairs nicely both with this session IPA and all of the possibilities of an 0-0 record.

Game predictions

Ray Brewer

UNLV 34, Jackson State 13

Case Keefer

UNLV 41, Jackson State 17

Jesse Granger

UNLV 45, Jackson State 13

Taylor Bern

UNLV 39, Jackson State 10

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.