UNLV Rebels Next Up for Golden Bears

Fresh off a 31-13 victory over Big Sky opponent UC Davis, the California Golden Bears will play a second straight home game this weekend. This week’s opponent, also off a dominating victory over a Big Sky opponent, is the UNLV Rebels, who jumped out to a 45-7 halftime lead over Idaho State August 27 and cruised to a 52-21 win.

UNLV has not been a Mountain West powerhouse in recent years; indeed, this was only their third Opening Day win in the past 13 seasons. The last time they started a season 2-0 was 1999 under head coach John Robinson.

This game was supposed to be played in 2020, but due to the pandemic was canceled that season. There will be some familiarity along the sidelines, as four members of the Rebels coaching staff have experience on the Golden Bears sidelines: Head Coach Marcus Arroyo (Cal passing coordinator, 2011-2012), OLB coach Kenwick Thompson (same duties at Cal, 2007-2012), defensive coordinator Keith Hayward (Cal OLB coach 2021), and ILB coach Michael Bruno (quality control at Cal 2018-2021). Additionally, TE coach Nate Longshore will be a familiar face to Old Blues as he quarterbacked the Golden Bears from 2005-2008.

Few teams have taken greater advantage of the transfer portal (and the added attraction of going to school in Las Vegas) than UNLV. As a result, it would be unwise to put too much stock in the fact they only won 3 games last year (albeit 2 of the final 3), and have just a handful of winning seasons over the past quarter-century.

For evidence of that, Exhibit A: Wide receiver Ricky White gave up the joys of winter in East Lansing, Michigan, to join the Rebels. In his first action, White hauled in 8 passes for 182 yards and a pair of TDs to pace UNLV.  It’s instructive to notice that he only played in the first half.

The passing game is what allowed the Rebels to achieve superiority by halftime; it is likely that Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week (Week 0) Doug Brumfield, the Rebels’ sophomore quarterback will not enjoy the same kind of success (21-25 passing, no interceptions) against Cal as he did versus the Idaho State Bengals. Although the school takes great pains to enforce the fact that ONLY the basketball team is known as the “Runnin’ Rebels”, nevertheless Cal should expect to see UNLV try to control the line of scrimmage and establish the running game fairly early on. After being a 21.5 point favorite against Davis (and narrowly failing to beat the spread), the Golden Bears are generally a two-touchdown favorite against UNLV.

The Rebels ran for a net 149 yards, averaging 4.5 yards per carry, against Idaho State. They were led by junior running back Courtney Reese, who racked up 73 yards on 7 carries, but with 47 coming on a single burst. Other contributors were junior running back Aidan Robbins, 10 carries for 35 yards, and Stetson transfer Jordan Younge-Humphrey, who showed quickness on a 30-yard bolt and totaled 48 yards on 4 carries. UNLV is still sorting through their running back room as they try to replace the graduated Charles “Chuck Wagon” Billy Dee Williams, only the second Rebel player to lead the team in rushing four consecutive years, and their first Academic All-America selection ever.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Rebels have three sophomores in their starting backfield, and that has to tweak Cal QB Jack Plummer’s anticipation for Saturday. Counting third and fourth downs, Idaho State was able to convert 9 of 17 opportunities even while only averaging 1.3 yards per rush. It would seem the Golden Bears should be able to move the ball, particularly through the air, against the Rebels, who did rack up five sacks in their first game, three by defensive linemen and two by linebackers. Their leading tackler was CCSF transfer Fred Thompkins with 10 total, seven solo and one tackle for a loss.

Gametime at Memorial Stadium will be 1 pm. The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.