New and improved: UNLV football clinches bowl with comeback win over CSU

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 | 8:55 p.m.

Times aren’t changing for the UNLV football program. Barely halfway through Barry Odom’s first season as head coach, they’ve already changed.

That was the recurring theme as the Scarlet and Gray scored a final-second victory over Colorado State at Allegiant Stadium on Saturday, 25-22, to notch their sixth win (6-1) and earn bowl eligibility for the first time since the 2013 season.

For a team that hasn’t done a lot of winning over the past decade, victories are now expected, and the whole operation is collectively resolute in a way that must be unfamiliar to those who have watched UNLV football in recent years.

Trailing on the scoreboard for the first time in more than a month and staring at a 13-3 halftime deficit? No problem.

Averaging just 3.0 yards per carry after coming in ranked in the top 20 nationally in rushing? Doesn’t matter.

Starting the final drive with 44 seconds on the clock and a freshman at quarterback? It’ll all work out.

And it did. UNLV kicker Jose Pizano drilled a 28-yard field goal as time expired to secure the win and clinch the long-awaited postseason bid. As the ball split the uprights, the entire UNLV sideline flooded onto the field to celebrate.

The Scarlet and Gray have now won five straight games and are 3-0 in Mountain West play.

It’s quite a turnaround for a team that had gone 7-23 over the past three years, including losing six of their last seven games in 2022 to necessitate a coaching change.

Odom has quickly instilled a winning standard throughout the program, to the point where Pizano knew he was going to get a chance at a game-winning attempt despite the dire circumstances in which the team found itself.

“I didn’t doubt that they were going to get us into field-goal range,” Pizano said. “I knew that I had to get ready and wait for the moment.”

Call it the Odom effect.

Trailing, 23-22, with less than a minute to play, UNLV got the ball at its own 34-yard line. Quarterback Jayden Maiava hit two short passes to move the chains, and with the clock running inside 25 seconds, he lofted a pass down the left sideline for junior receiver Ricky White.

In a play reminiscent of the long Maiava-to-White connection that set up Pizano’s go-ahead kick in the final seconds to beat Vanderbilt, White hauled in the pass and stepped out of bounds. The next play was a Maiava rocket to junior Jacob De Jesus; that pass gained another 20 yards and De Jesus got out of bounds at the 10 with three seconds remaining.

Pizano stepped up and made the kick, no muss, no fuss, and UNLV now has a bowl game waiting for it whenever this magical season concludes.

This is exactly where Odom expected his team to be.

“That’s the standard each year,” he said. “We’re going to be a bowl season. Now the goal is to go win a championship. That’s our focus; that’s our mindset.”

It wasn’t a cleanly played game by the home team. UNLV didn’t score a touchdown in the first half, digging a 10-point hole. But the defense stepped up to hold Colorado State in check for most of the second half while the offense mounted a comeback, three points at a time.

UNLV scored on all six of its second half possessions, with one touchdown drive mixed in among five field goals.

Odom wasn’t interested in awarding style points after the game; from his perspective, a win is a win.

“Our guys found a way,” Odom said with a laugh. “So thrilled to have a chance to get down and win one like that, because we’ll grow from it. It was obviously an ugly game, but I wanted everybody to get their full ticket price today and make sure it went down to the end.”

Emblematic of this new UNLV program, Maiava, a redshirt freshman, has yet to lose a start in his college career (4-0). Against Colorado State he rebounded from a slow first quarter that included a lost fumble on a sack to complete 27-of-36 passes for a career-high 353 yards. And Odom and offensive coordinator Brennan Marion were confident he’d come through in the end.

On the final drive, Maiava hit all four of his throws for 50 yards.

“I thought Brennan did a great job calling it,” Odom said of the final possession. “And then the play over by our bench, what a throw and catch that was.”

De Jesus, who has taken a backseat on offense since Maiava became the starting quarterback, exploded for a season-high nine catches and 120 yards. White had nine grabs for 74 yards.

De Jesus transferred in from a junior college before the season, so all he knows of UNLV football is what they’ve done in 2023.

"It feels great to be 6-1, man,” De Jesus said while seated next to his coach at the postgame press conference. “And that's all due to this guy right here, coach Odom."

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