UNLV football has a playmaker in quarterback Matthew Sluka

In his pursuit to determine which player was the right man for UNLV’s No. 1 quarterback job, head coach Barry Odom left no statistical stone unturned.

During the three-man competition that spanned all of training camp, Odom and his staff kept numbers on everything during practice. His passers couldn’t run a play or participate in a drill without it ending up in a spreadsheet somewhere.

“We charted a number of different things,” Odom said, “from production, to turnovers, to third-down efficiency, to executing the offense, to mental errors, to touchdowns, to a whole list of things that we looked at.”

Senior Matthew Sluka ultimately won the job, and in the second quarter of UNLV’s season opener at Houston on Saturday, he did something that is impossible to chart.

Working with an early 7-0 lead, UNLV had another pivotal scoring opportunity just outside the red zone. A shotgun snap went awry and bounced back to Sluka’s left; he deftly fielded the ground ball, and with the Houston pass rush closing in, the Holy Cross transfer rolled out of the pocket and fired a perfect pass to Jacob De Jesus in the front corner of the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown.

It goes into the box score as seven points, sure, but according to Odom there’s really no way to quantify the impact of the pure-playmaking ability Sluka displayed in conjuring that touchdown out of thin air.

“That was such a huge play for us,” Odom said. “Placed perfectly where the only guy that could have caught it was our receiver, and then the reaction to be able to get the ball off the turf, get your eyes fied back on the target, and you’re moving at the same time and deliver it, that was a big-time play.”

According to ESPN’s win probability metric, that touchdown increased UNLV’s odds of victory from 69.2% to 77.4%, the biggest swing of any single play in a game the Scarlet and Gray eventually won, 27-7.

The rest of Sluka’s day didn’t jump off the page. He completed 6-of-13 passes for 71 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. He also ran 11 times for 59 yards, picking up several key first downs with his legs.

For Sluka, who is used to putting up video game numbers, the stat line was a little underwhelming. Part of that could be attributed to UNLV’s strategic approach; Odom said on Monday that once UNLV built a three-possession lead midway through the third quarter, he instructed his offensive staff to “take the air out of the ball” and focus on running clock rather than slinging the ball around in search of more points. That led to Sluka attempting just three passes in the entire second half.

Sluka gave himself a passing grade for his debut, with a notation that his passing accuracy could stand to improve.

“It was all right,” Sluka said. “I think it could definitely be better. One-hundred percent it could be better. There were some good throws, some bad throws. That’s kind of how the game rolls.”

There’s no arguing with the result, however, as Sluka helped UNLV secure a statement win on the road. Sluka said he had to put in a lot of work in order to get there, as he had the least amount of experience with the playbook when he arrived on campus for training camp.

While senior Cameron Friel has been at UNLV his entire career and senior transfer Hajj-Malik Williams was on campus early and able to participate in spring practice, Sluka didn’t take his first real snaps in Brennan Marion’s go-go offense until five weeks ago when camp opened.

The coaches informed Sluka he had earned the starting job toward the end of camp, giving him just more than a week of practices to work full-time with the first-team offense.

Sluka said he made the most of that time.

“Just making sure I did my job to get my reps with the receivers first, be on time with them, talk to the O-linemen about communications, what blitzes we have to go over and pick up. And then just getting comfortable with the team and the running backs, the run meshes and everything like that. So overall, just making sure the guys that are going to be out there with me are ready to go, and that I’m ready to play with them.”

Once he got in sync with the offense and his teammates, it was up to Sluka to deliver. There were jangling nerves as the opener approached, but that only lasted until Sluka took his first hit.

After that, he was able to shift into playmaker mode.

“That first game, you get a little bit of jitters before you go out there just because you’ve never played with this new team, you’ve never played with those guys,” Sluka said. “But after going out there and being more confident, getting plays under your belt, getting tackled again — during camp you don’t get tackled — so going through those kind of little things, you start feeling good and feeling like you’re playing football again.”

UNLV will have an opportunity to open up the offense this week, with the 2024 home opener set for Saturday against FCS opponent Utah Tech.

Sluka is likely to put up better numbers against the Utah Tech defense, but as Odom can attest, some aspects of playing quarterback don’t fit into a statistical category.

“The playmaking ability, I think all three quarterbacks have the ability to extend plays with their legs” Odom said. “The key is, can you extend it and keep your eyes downfield and then have the physical traits to be able to deliver the ball downfield? And [Sluka] did.”

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