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March 29, 2024

UNLV rolling with freshman QB in battle for Fremont Cannon

April 6, 2021: UNLV Football Practice

Steve Marcus

UNLV Rebels quarterback Cameron Friel (7) passes during practice at Rebel Park Tuesday, April 6, 2021.

On paper, the quarterback matchup for Friday’s game between UNLV and UNR is a total mismatch.

On one side the Wolf Pack have Carson Strong, a three-year starter with 7,659 passing yards and 58 touchdowns to his name. He is a likely first-round pick in this year’s NFL Draft, with some prognosticators pegging Strong as a potential No. 1 overall selection.

On the other side, UNLV has Cameron Friel. And the scarlet and gray are more than OK with that.

As inconceivable as it seemed at the beginning of the season, Friel has emerged as UNLV’s top choice at quarterback, and though he’s a true freshman — a frosh who didn’t play his senior season of high school football in 2020 due to the pandemic — his coaches and teammates believe he is capable of going toe to toe with an established star like Strong.

It’s been a quick ascent for the Hawaii native. Friel enrolled early at UNLV, allowing him to participate in spring practice; that turned out to be a smart decision in helping him get up to speed with the playbook, especially after COVID-19 canceled his senior season at Kailuah High School.

Friel finished training camp at No. 3 on the depth chart, as 2021 was supposed to be a learning experience for the young passer. But when the two players ahead of him dropped due to injury (Doug Brumfield) and ineffectiveness (Justin Rogers) he was inserted for his first career start on Sept. 18 against Iowa State.

It didn’t go well. Friel was sacked three times on 16 dropbacks, threw an interception and passed for just 67 yards in a brutal 48-3 loss. He did not trust his reads and was hesitant to throw the ball, which is understandable considering the circumstances.

The important thing for UNLV is that Friel has made tremendous strides since then, especially in being more decisive with his throws.

In Thursday’s 27-20 loss to San Jose State (Friel’s fourth start and fifth game with significant playing time) he completed 20-of-28 passes for 240 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. It was the best performance UNLV has gotten from a quarterback in the two years since Marcus Arroyo took over as head coach.

Arroyo said Friel’s feel for the position is increasing every game, which allows him to be more authoritative in his decisions.

“There’s some chemistry and timing you can see that’s getting there,” Arroyo said. “He’s seeing things. He’s anticipating some throws. He’s cutting some balls loose that are hard for a freshman to cut loose. Shoot, I’ve coached true freshmen, I’ve been a true freshman throwing those balls — sometimes it’s blind. Just throw it, absence of fear and just cut it loose.”

Friel still took too many sacks against San Jose State — five for the game, including the final play — but the difference is that it didn’t cause him to question his vision or interfere with his decision-making.

It’s performances like that, even in defeat, that have Arroyo high on Friel’s progress.

“His poise is increasing,” Arroyo said. “You can see his pocket presence, his poise under pressure, his poise in progressions, multiple coverages, poise in situations. There’s a couple drives that are 80, 90 yards, you’re backed up and you’ve got to go, and it’s not affecting him.”

For the season Friel has now completed 64.0% of his passes (73-of-114) for 859 yards and two touchdowns with four interceptions. And more important than numbers, he has seemingly halted the quarterback carousel that plagued UNLV throughout the entire season.

Even when Brumfield is healthy, Arroyo said this week that he won’t walk back into the starting job until he can outplay Friel. And with Friel trending upward, that might not happen immediately, if at all.

Friel is setting the bar high, comparatively. Though he hasn’t been able to help UNLV secure that elusive first win, he is the team’s highest-rated passer, and he also leads the quarterbacks in completion percentage, touchdown passes and passing yards. Friel is the only UNLV QB to top 200 passing yards in a game this season, which he has done twice.

He has also won over his teammates with his physical toughness. Friel has taken a lot of hits behind UNLV’s shoddy offensive line, but he continues to stay in the pocket, absorb the punishment and make throws.

Senior running back Charles Williams hailed the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder as the toughest young player on the team, regardless of position.

“As a young man he’s shown a lot of toughness,” Williams said. “Out of this young group he’s the toughest, because he’s gotten knocked down probably 100 times and he’ll get up 101 times. And I love him for that.”

Can Friel put UNLV in the win column this season? That’s another question. Getting that first victory on the road, in Reno, to reclaim the Fremont Cannon on Friday would be quite a way for Friel to announce himself as “the man,” but his teammates seem to believe he can do it.

Williams, who is in his sixth year with the program, has helped break in young quarterbacks before. He compared Friel’s development to that of Kenyon Oblad, who stepped in as a freshman in 2019 and needed some time to really settle in.

By the end of that season, Oblad went up to Reno for the finale and led UNLV to a 33-30 overtime win by passing for 229 yards and three touchdowns.

Williams is seeing Friel make the same kind of strides.

“I was in the same situation with K.O. two years ago,” Williams said. “At first it was kind of rocky, but as we went along you started seeing improvement and everything, and with Cam he’s only a freshman and I believe he didn’t get to play his senior year of high school, so for him to step up and play at this level and make big plays, I’m applauding him.”

He may not be on Strong’s level yet, and he may never get there, but the UNLV program may have found its answer at quarterback.

“He’s tough,” Arroyo said of his QB. “Mentally, physically, emotionally. Because that’s what you have to be at this position.”

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

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