UNLV

Iowa State Dominates UNLV, 48-3, At Allegiant Stadium Saturday With Cyclones Fans Enjoying Lopsided Laugher

September 18, 2021September 19, 2021 Alan Snel Brock Purdy, Cameron Friel, Charles Williams, Doug Brumfield, Marcus Arroyo, Tate Martell

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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

Allegiant Stadium is a nice modern football stadium with palatial whiz-bang amenities, a huge technological step over ol’ Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.

But the UNLV football team is still trying to find an identity — and a win.

Nationally-ranked Iowa State toyed with the Rebels Saturday in Las Vegas, where the cardinal and gold fans of Ames, Iowa re-settled into the comfy chairs at Allegiant Stadium and watched the Cyclones dominate UNLV, 48-3, with an announced attendance of 35,931.

UNLV promoted tickets starting at $33 and parking on the Strip across from the Luxor for 10 bucks in hopes the university can goose more UNLV football fans to Allegiant Stadium for the UNLV-Iowa State game Saturday evening.

UNLV, still looking for its first win under coach Marcus Arroyo, faced 14th-ranked Iowa State that was upset by 10 points by Iowa last week.

And it looked like many fans made the journey from Iowa to Las Vegas for this game. The Cyclones fans were loud from start to merciful finish for the Rebels, which were clearly out-talented and outmanned by a powerful Iowa State team.

Iowa State led 24-0 at the half and 38-3 after the third quarter. The Cyclones added a 54-yard field goal and a touchdown in the fourth quarter for the 48-3 final.

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Las Vegas is 0-3 after last season’s 0-6 pandemic year.

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Iowa State had lots of cardinal-and-gold fans in the 65,000-seat stadium. A rough guestimate would say 70 percent of 35,000 fans in the building were Iowa State fans.

And they were Kansas City Chiefs fans, too.

Would you like numbers? You have numbers. Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy played pitch and catch with his receivers, completing 21 of 24 passes for 287 yards and three TD passes. Meanwhile, Breece Hall ran 20 times for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

The UNLV quarterbacks were Cameron Friel and Tate Martell. They played for injured Doug Brumfield, who nearly pulled out a win in the season-opener against Eastern Washington.

UNLV mustered a mere 130 total yards. Iowa State moved the ball most of the game with 493 yards. Iowa State improved to 2-1 and starts conference play with a game against Baylor next week. Charles Williams, the “Chuck Wagon,” squeezed out 42 yards on 19 carries for UNLV.

Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.

July 5, 2021

LVSPORTSBIZ.COM, launched June 2017: We are a digital magazine providing market-leading news, intelligence, enterprise and breaking info on Las Vegas’ sports/stadium industry. Our stories are quoted nationally and we set the sportsbiz news agenda in Las Vegas. Publisher Alan Snel has reported on the business of sports and stadiums in Denver, South Florida, Seattle and Tampa besides Las Vegas and is considered a national authority on the topic.

ADVERTISEMENT: Please shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip. Jay’s Market is the official presenting sponsor of LVSportBiz.com’s stories.

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To contact LVSportsBiz.com Publisher Alan Snel or buy his book, Bicycle Man: Life of Journeys, email him at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com

LVSportsBiz number for 2024: $1,178,161,041. That’s the amount of debt Las Vegas (actually, Clark County) owes for its public share of building the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium.