Defense turning the corner for UNLV football

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Friday, Sept. 16, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Lost in the UNLV football team's late-game offensive failings in a six-point defeat at Cal last week is just how well the Scarlet and Gray played on defense, especially over the final three quarters.

After allowing touchdowns on each of Cal’s first two possessions, UNLV clamped down and kept the Golden Bears out of the end zone for the rest of the game. Cal did not score at all in the fourth quarter.

Simply put, the defense is what gave UNLV a chance to win.

Before the season, that would have been a difficult scenario to imagine. UNLV hasn’t fielded a good defense in decades, but early signs point to this unit bucking that trend.

It starts up front, where Marcus Arroyo’s strategy of leaning on experienced college transfers appears to be paying off. The run defense has been surprisingly stout through two weeks, holding opponents to 2.9 yards per carry — good for the 26^th-best mark in the country.

UNLV held both Idaho State and Cal to fewer than 3.0 yards per attempt, and neither team cracked 100 rushing yards.

Senior linebacker Austin Ajiake led the charge against Cal with two tackles behind the line of scrimmage, giving him 3.0 tackles for loss on the young season.

Ajiake said run defense is a tenet of the defensive scheme under new coordinator Keith Heyward.

“That’s what we pride ourselves on as a defense,” Ajiake said. “One of the keys to victory every week is to be able to stop the run. Our philosophy, we believe that it starts up front. The secondary takes care of the front, and vice versa. It’s all connected. So if we’re able to stop the run and get teams doing stuff that they’re not comfortable doing, it’s a goal for us.”

The biggest factor in UNLV’s performance against the run is personnel. The front is stocked with upperclassmen who are capable of winning their matchups in the trenches, and sometimes the game is that simple.

It’s just been a long time since UNLV has been able to out-physical opponents consistently.

“When the run game is man to man, it’s a may-the-best-man-win type of mindset,” Ajiake said. “So we go into that and try to be as physical as possible.”

That physicality and depth has bolstered the pass rush as well. Eight different UNLV defenders have recorded at least one sack already, and 12 players have a tackle for loss.

After notching five sacks against a clearly overmatched Idaho State team, the Scarlet and Gray went out and dropped Cal quarterback Jack Plummer four times to prove it was no fluke.

UNLV is currently seventh in the nation in sacks per game and 26^th in sack rate (9.3%).

“Up front, the violence these guys are playing with, you’ve got eight or nine guys now with a sack,” Arroyo said. “Tied for [seventh] in the nation in sacks per game right now? That’s pretty good. I think they’re doing an awesome job.”

Senior defensive end Adam Plant leads the team with 2.0 sacks. Ajiake and Plant are tied with 3.0 tackles for loss apiece. Senior linebacker Elijah Shelton also has 2.0 tackles behind the line.

The defense will face its toughest test so far at 12 p.m. Saturday when UNLV hosts North Texas at Allegiant Stadium. The Mean Green are scoring 33.3 points per game, powered by a rushing attack that averages 5.2 yards per carry and 237.7 yards per game.

Once North Texas gets its running game rolling, it turns to the play-action pass. Quarterback Austin Aune has thrown for 640 yards through three games, with seven touchdowns and two interceptions.

Ajiake said UNLV will have to be disciplined in identifying run or pass on each play, and trust that the Scarlet and Gray’s superior depth can make the difference.

“The depth that we have up front, we look at the sack numbers for the past two games and we’re pretty happy with that,” Ajiake said. “Like coach told us yesterday, it’s not just one guy with a bunch of sacks, it’s multiple people on the D-line and the outside linebackers as well. So it just shows that everybody is fully capable and the scheme that we’re running, it’s working.”

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