UNLV rides explosive plays to lopsided season-opening win
Even after UNLV football’s largest margin of victory under Marcus Arroyo, the third-year head coach said he wasn’t afraid to admit that there were still some areas that need improvement.
But for now, he took time to enjoy the Rebels’ 52-21 season-opening win over Idaho State Saturday at Allegiant Stadium.
“To see them jell and start to get rhythm early, that’s exciting,” Arroyo said. “That says a lot about the possibility of what we can become.”
Arroyo answered the question on who his opening game starter at quarterback would be by sending redshirt sophomore Doug Brumfield on the field with the starting offense on UNLV’s first drive.
Brumfield led the Rebels down the field for a touchdown, relying heavily on Louisville transfer running back Aidan Robbins for seven carries and the eventual one-yard score.
“It was big for an offense to have that confidence and momentum,” Brumfield said of the offense getting off to a fast start. “In a lot of games last year, we weren’t able to do that. So to come out this year in our first game and execute is very big.”
Brumfield and the offense clicked in the second quarter. The Rebels had five drives in the quarter and ended each drive with a touchdown.
Michigan State transfer Ricky White made an impact in the quarter, starting off by hauling in a 72-yard touchdown pass from Brumfield. All 182 of his receiving yards and both touchdowns came during UNLV’s 35-0 showing in the second quarter.
Throughout fall camp, Arroyo reiterated the importance of the starting quarterback being able to generate explosive plays. Brumfield was looking forward to getting a chance to showcase what the offense had prepared in the offseason in a game setting, knowing explosive plays are key to their production.
“We want to stack as many explosive plays as we can and build off those plays,” Brumfield said. “As soon as we get explosive plays, we want to get back on the ball and take advantage of the defense being off guard. It helps us stay on pace with our offense.”
Brumfield completed 21 of 25 passes — an 84 percent completion percentage — for 356 yards and four touchdowns.
Defensively, the Rebels came up with five sacks, forced an interception and limited the Bengals to 50 total rushing yards. Arroyo said he was pleased with the efficiency he saw on both sides of the ball in an opening week game.
“It was really good to see these guys settle in and fall into how the system works,” Arroyo said. “It was a really nice job of these guys understanding what needs to get done.”
With the Rebels leading by 38 points at halftime, Arroyo was able to rotate in a lot of his second- and third-unit players on both sides of the ball.
That included both Tennessee transfer Harrison Bailey and 2021 Mountain West Freshman of the Year Cameron Friel at quarterback. Bailey played most of the second half. He completed 3 of 8 passes for 26 yards but was sacked three times. None of the drives he started ended with a score.
Friel appeared in the Rebels’ final drive and completed both his passes, one was to Zyell Griffin for a 14-yard touchdown.
When asked if Brumfield had done enough to be named the starter moving forward, Arroyo took a long pause before he answered.
“Yeah … I liked it. He did a really nice job,” he said.
The Rebels have a bye next weekend and travel to face California in Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 10.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on Twitter.
