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Photos by Hugh Byrne for LVSportsBiz.com
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The much-anticipated debut of UNLV’s new football coach, Dan Mullen, got off to a rocky start with a halftime deficit, but Mullen’s Rebels ended up winning his first game Saturday, 38-31, over an upset-minded Idaho State squad.
UNLV trailed, 10-0, after one quarter and 17-14 at halftime inside Allegiant Stadium before an announced crowd of 25,723. UNLV was even down, 31-24, early in the fourth quarter.
UNLV rallied in the fourth quarter with two straight touchdowns in the back-and-forth tussle before walking out of the NFL Raiders stadium with a 38-31 victory.
Mullen said, “We have so many new faces on the field. I could get up here and give you all the different boring things of what happened in the game and all the little things that we have to fix, but the exciting thing of what happened is we were in a tough game against a team that this is their big game.
“They had the opportunity to come play in our stadium, to get to come play against a team like us and they’re going to come out and give everything they have and they did. Their quarterback Jordan Cooke is an unbelievable football player,” the UNLV head coach said. “But the great thing is that we found a way to win. It could have been very easy for us to find a way to lose as a team, but this team, these guys all stuck together and found a way to win when it was important.”
Even A’s team president Marc Badain, who helmed the Raiders stadium construction project as the Raiders former president, celebrated the UNLV win. Badain opened the domed stadium on budget and on time in mid-2020.
It was an entertaining game as both teams each racked up more than 500 yards of offense.
But UNLV has to clean up its defense, which did not exactly resemble the defense of former head coach Barry Odom, who left Las Vegas to coach Purdue after the Rebels lost to Boise State in the Mountain West Conference game in Idaho in December.
Idaho State quarterback Jordan Cooke completed 30 of 50 passes for 380 yards as the Bengals had 555 yards of offense.
Idaho State actually led in the fourth quarter, 31-24, before UNLV responded with two touchdowns to seal the win.
The Rebels’ runner, Jai’Den Thomas, had a huge game with 147 yards of rushing on only ten carries, including an explosive 70-yard dash to the end zone in the mid-second quarter.
UNLV’s next game is Friday at Sam Houston.
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