UNLV football nearing huge milestone under second-year coach

UNLV football is a win away from being eligible for a bowl game. The team’s reaction to that milestone is indicative of the strides the program has made.

Bowl eligibility requires six wins, a feat the Rebels (5-1) have not accomplished often in recent years. But they could win their sixth game Saturday when they travel to face Oregon State.

Barry Odom, now in his second season at UNLV, set the tone last year. He became the first coach to win six of his first seven games with the Rebels since Ron Meyer in 1973. Odom also led UNLV to its first bowl game appearance since 2014.

He said during his weekly news conference Monday his players are simply meeting the expectations he set when he took over the program.

“I said it early when I got the job, that this is the standard — that we go to bowl games every single year here,” Odom said. “And as UNLV should, we’re a game away from capturing that.”

Odom said he’s aware there’s history at stake. The Rebels could make it to back-to-back bowls for the first time in school history, something he talked to the team about Monday morning.

Still, UNLV views that milestone as a stepping stone to its real goal: Winning a Mountain West championship.

“(A bowl game is) not the ultimate goal,” Odom said. “But that is one of our benchmarks on things we’re trying to achieve. “So certainly getting to win six is a huge deal, and the sooner you can get to that, then then you can add to not only the story, but your legacy as a program.”

Rebels’ new reality

UNLV would also extend another impressive streak with a win Saturday in Corvallis, Oregon.

The Rebels have won their first three away games for the first time in program history. Their 50-34 victory over Utah State on Friday was their fifth straight road win dating back to last season, a school record.

Those accomplishments illustrate how much things have changed since Odom’s arrival. A glimpse at the Fertitta Football Complex on Monday also had the same effect.

The program updated the exterior of the practice building over the weekend, replacing the previous large black-and-white banners of former players to three action photos of team captains Jackson Woodard, Ricky White III and Jacob De Jesus.

Woodard, a standout senior linebacker, became just the second UNLV football player to earn three Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week awards in the same season Monday.

He called the image of himself “cool,” but later admitted he felt embarrassed talking about it.

“I take a lot of pride in trying to make this city proud,” Woodard said. “That’s a lot of what we do as a university, just trying to help the city as much as we can.”

UNLV has never won a Mountain West title in football and neither has UNR. It’s an accomplishment the entire state of Nevada has never seen.

“You should want to make it to a bowl game,” sophomore running back Jai’Den Thomas said. “That’s just one key, but the main goal right now is trying to get to the championship.”

‘They’re all special’

Odom said he doesn’t remember how many bowl games he’s been to between his time as a player at Missouri and as a coach at his alma mater, Arkansas and Memphis. But he said “they’re all special.”

For a player like senior running back Kylin James, who transferred to UNLV from FCS school Central Arkansas, a bowl game appearance was previously unheard of.

“That means a lot,” James said. “I never went to a bowl game myself. I want to get there, but we got different goals about that too. We want to win a championship.”

Contact Callie Fin at clawsonfreeman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X