Live blog: Rebels fall to Boise State, 38-13

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Published Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019 | 2 a.m.

Updated Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019 | 11:18 p.m.

The Rebels' season is now on life support, as tonight's 38-13 loss to Boise State drops them to 1-4 on the season.

Offense was hard to come by for UNLV, which averaged just 3.8 yards per play with freshman Kenyon Oblad making his first career start at quarterback. Oblad finished 24-of-55 for 262 yards, with two late touchdowns and one interception. UNLV has scored just 30 total points in its last two games.

The Rebels will head to Vanderbilt next week looking for a road win, and you'd have to imagine the team will turn to junior Armani Rogers at quarterback (assuming he is healthy by then). 

Rebels on the board, still trail Boise State, 24-7

UNLV is finally on the board, as Kenyon Oblad hit Mekhi Stevenson on a fade from the 11-yard line for the Rebels' first touchdown of the night. The perfectly-placed pass capped an 8-play, 65-yard drive.

Oblad is now 11-of-25 on the night for 89 yards with the one TD and no interceptions, but he'll have to get scorching hot in order to bring the Rebels back in this one. Boise State is still averaging 8.2 yards per play (to UNLV's 3.4).

Rebels trail Boise State at half

Boise State kicked a 52-yard field goal at the buzzer to take a 17-0 halftime lead.

It was an impressive drive, as the Broncos took over at their 12-yard line with 32 seconds left, but freshman QB Hank Bachmeier led them into UNLV territory to set up the kick.

The Rebels should feel lucky to only trail by 17, as this game has been as lopsided as they come. Boise State has already gained 339 yards of offense (compared to UNLV's 111), and only a couple ill-timed turnovers (one fumble, one on downs) have kept the score from getting comical.

UNLV quarterback Kenyon Oblad is just 5-of-17 for 32 yards, but head coach Tony Sanchez said earlier in the week that he plans to stick with him regardless of performance, so don't expect Armani Rogers to ride to the rescue in the second half.

Boise State increases lead to 14-0 over UNLV

Kenyon Oblad's first start isn't going the way anyone on the UNLV sideline hoped, as UNLV just punted for the sixth time tonight (on six possessions). The Rebels have gone 3-and-out on five of those drives, and they've gained just 34 total yards on 20 plays.

Oblad has missed on his last six passes and is now 4-of-12 for 16 yards.

Boise State's freshman quarterback has stood in stark contrast, as Hank Bachmeier tossed his second touchdown of the night to give the Broncos a 14-0 lead. Receiver John Hightower got behind the Rebels defense and Bachmeier dropped in a perfect over-the-shoulder bomb for a 76-yard score.

With 8:55 left in the second quarter, Boise has out-gained UNLV by a margin of 276-34. The Rebels have to consider themselves lucky to only be trailing by two scores.

Boise State takes 7-0 lead over UNLV

The Rebels are having trouble getting anything going on offense, with two of their first three possessions going 3-and-out, but with 2:25 left in the first quarter Boise State has only managed to build a 7-0 lead.

It could be much worse for UNLV. With the way Boise State drove the length of the field for a touchdown on its first drive (capped by a 1-yard touchdown pass from Hank Bachmeier to Garrett Collingham), it looked like we were in store for a blowout. But the Rebels defense has gotten a couple of stops since then to keep the score close for now.

Freshman quarterback Kenyon Oblad is 4-of-6 for 16 yards, but he and running back Charles Williams just combined to fumble a handoff on 3rd-and-1 that forced the Rebels to punt it back to Boise State.

Oblad set for first career start vs. Boise State

We are about 30 minutes from kickoff for UNLV vs. Boise State, and Rebels quarterbacks Kenyon Oblad and Armani Rogers are on the field going through warmups. Oblad is making his first career start tonight, and barring injury, head coach Tony Sanchez said he will play the entire game.

Three keys for the Rebels:

Run defense

UNLV was atrocious up front in its 53-17 loss at Wyoming, allowing the Cowboys to run for 374 yards and 7.8 yards per attempt. Fortunately for the Rebels, for as good as Boise State has been offensively, the run game hasn’t been a particular strength this season.

Through four games, Boise is averaging 3.5 yards per carry, which ranks No. 93 in the nation. The Broncos are committed, however, as they run it 44.3 times per contest, making them the 23^rd-most run-heavy team in the country. If the UNLV defense can win on first and second down — or at least be competitive — they might be able to get Boise State into some difficult third-down situations.

Protect Oblad

UNLV reshuffled its offensive line after the Wyoming loss and spent the week practicing with new starters at left tackle, right tackle and right guard. The good news is that all the blockers are experienced — just not necessarily at their new positions. The unit will be tested immediately by a Boise State defense that ranks 13^th nationally by averaging 3.5 sacks per outing.

The last thing freshman Kenyon Oblad needs in his first career start is to be running for his life on every pass play. If UNLV doesn’t give him time to throw, this game will be over quickly.

Ride the Chuck wagon

Speaking of that reconfigured offensive line, it’s not just imperative that they give Oblad a clean pocket — they’ve also got to open holes for running back Charles Williams. He is the team’s most legit offensive threat and to this point in the season he hasn’t been leaned on enough. It’s tough to pencil him in for 20-plus carries when he’s battling through a knee issue, but it’s hard to envision UNLV winning without Williams putting up a dominant stat line.

Previewing UNLV football vs. Boise State with reader questions

It’s been an eventful week for UNLV sports, with a quarterback change, a basketball star gaining eligibility and the grand opening of one of the most ambitious athletic projects in school history, and it continues today.

Not only is UNLV football hosting No. 16 Boise State, but the Runnin’ Rebels are staging their preseason Scarlet & Gray Showcase outside Sam Boyd Stadium before the game. With all of that as the backdrop, let’s jump into your reader questions.

@sportsguy06

Have you started a Top 10 potential list of replacements for Tony Sanchez yet? No. 1 should be Dan Hawkins, former Boise coach.

@MikeGrimala

We’ve seen UNLV finish seasons strong (relatively) under Sanchez before, and athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois is on record saying that no coaching change is imminent, so I haven’t begun compiling lists just yet. But Reed-Francois does keep an ongoing list of coaches that catch her eye in all sports, so I’m sure she’s got a base to work from if a move eventually needs to be made.

As for Hawkins specifically, it’s been more than a decade since his spectacular run at Boise State, when he racked up a 53-11 record (37-3 Mountain West) from 2001-05. His time at Colorado was not impressive, and then he took six years off before getting back into coaching as the head man at UC Davis. He’s done OK there the last two-plus years, but he will be 60 years old by the end of the season. Based on Reed-Francois’s past hiring experience, my early guess (and it’s purely speculation) is that she would try to find a younger, up-and-coming coach.

@Rebelworks

Is the football complex 100 percent complete? Or are the coaches’ offices on the second floor not done yet?

@MikeGrimala

The second floor is still a work in progress, as the coaches' offices, the position meeting rooms, the kitchen/dining space and the auditorium are still waiting to be furnished. But the areas that cater to the players — the weight room, the players’ lounge, the locker room — are up and running. The team will being moving into those spaces on Monday.

@HumminaHummina1

Does Sanchez last thru the end of the season or get fired right after the Reno game?

@MikeGrimala

Is this a trick question? The Rebels travel to UNR for the season finale, so…

@nevadaracer00v

The wheels came off both times against teams (Arkansas State, Wyoming) UNLV was supposed to be competitive with. Do you have any concrete reasons that has happened??? Execution, coaching, game plan, intangibles, combination of all???

@MikeGrimala

The Arkansas State loss was pretty clearly a game-plan issue. The Rebels came out determined to sling the ball around the field with a pass-first approach on offense, and it turned out to be a disastrous choice; Armani Rogers threw a pick-6 on UNLV’s first series and it spiraled from there. Wyoming was a failure of execution; there was no mistaking what Wyoming intended to do, and the Rebels made mistake after mistake. Senior linebacker Javin White admitted as much after the game, saying that the players’ performance was “disrespectful” to the coaches.

Obviously, UNLV isn’t good enough to get away with any of that and still win games. The Rebels need to hit on the game plan, the execution, the in-game coaching and the intangibles all at the same time in order to compete. We’ve seen them do it before for short stretches, but doing it consistently week to week is very difficult.

@LouDog777

My gut tells me that if DRF does fire Tony, she is going to try and make a huge splashy hire. I keep thinking someone like Jack Del Rio at $5 million a year, with the money mostly coming from the Boyd group. Thoughts?

@MikeGrimala

I don’t see the “big splash” hire coming from Reed-Francois. She’s been someone who values the process of a coaching search and mining for a good, young coach on the way up. When she fired Marvin Menzies, everyone pushed their theories and rumors about big-name coaches and outside money, but in the end Reed-Francois stuck to her guns, went through the process and landed on T.J. Otzelberger. And she did it while staying within the athletic department budget. If she were to solicit money from outside boosters and make a hire that spreads UNLV’s budget beyond its means, I would be surprised.

@cisow77

Any timeline when the first batch of recruiting targets will visit the Fertitta Complex?

@MikeGrimala

That has been happening during the entire construction period. Sanchez has frequently talked about taking recruits through the construction site in hardhats and telling them about the future home of Rebel football, so it’s already being used in the recruiting pitch.

The better question is, how long will it take to have an impact on the kind of players UNLV can attract? Both Sanchez and Reed-Francois remarked at the grand opening that the Fertitta Complex should start paying immediate dividends.

@a_dub1028

Talk about what you think UNLV will do about the starting quarterback spot through the rest of the season, is it now based on performance and will be week to week? Or is Armani still the guy and will be back in the spot when 100-percent healthy? Do we see Max Gilliam play this season?

@MikeGrimala

I think the job still belongs to Armani Rogers, but only when he’s healthy enough to run at full speed and with full strength. Kenyon Oblad and Max Gilliam can replicate Rogers’ work from the pocket (and probably exceed it), but the thing that separates Rogers is his ability to pull it down and bowl over linebackers for first downs. Without that failsafe, the UNLV offense has collapsed in recent years.

Once Rogers is able to practice without restrictions and run the ball without limitations, he’ll be back under center.

@Reb_Hombre

Now that Tillman is eligible, what’s the ceiling for this year’s Rebels team ?

@MikeGrimala

Donnie Tillman boosts the expectations significantly for UNLV basketball. He’s got the tools to be a star player in the Mountain West, and there couldn’t be a better system fit for him than Otzelberger’s spread offense. Tillman solidifies the frontcourt, adds much-needed shooting and brings a defensive edge that should help the entire team. It’s a big get for the Rebels.

As for the big picture, I think this is looking like a good MWC team. Tillman and fellow junior Amauri Hardy could start for just about any team in the conference, and sophomore Bryce Hamilton still has a high ceiling. There is some thinness on the fringes of the rotation, as a lot of the supporting cast is one-dimensional and untested at this level, but it will be Otzelberger’s responsibility to use those players wisely and get the most out of them.

Add it all up and I think the ceiling is probably 11 wins in conference play and a Cinderella run to the MWC championship game. That’s if things break right. The more likely scenario is probably a .500 regular season. Anything better than that and the fans should be stoked about the future of the program.

@KonaSimon

How does the new football complex stack up nationally? Great for a Group of 5 but nowhere near as nice as even a lower level Power 5? Nicest in MWC? Second best in MWC? Etc.

@MikeGrimala

I’m not exceedingly qualified to answer this, as the Fertitta building is the only college football facility I’ve been inside. I did a little internet research to see how it stacks up, numbers-wise, with some noteworthy competitors. For the purposes of this comparison, we’re only looking at on-campus facilities.

Here’s the list:

So the Fertitta complex doesn’t stack up to the facilities at the top of the Pac-12, but I don’t think that was the expectation. But in terms of money spent and sheer size, it does compare favorably to Mountain West programs.

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