2011-2012 Football Previews – Mountain West Conference – UNLV Rebels
The UNLV Rebels are coming off one of their most embarrassing season in school history, and have continued their decade of irrelevancy, winning just two games in 2010.
2011 MWC | UNLV Rebels Football Preview
Coach: Bobby Hauck
2010-11 Record: 2-11 (2-6)
MwC Championship Odds: 75-1
UNLV Rebels Gambling Odds from Bodog.com to win BCS: 50-1
UNLV Team Page – Players Stats – Roster – 2011 Schedule –>
It’ll be 11 years this winter solstice since UNLV received a bowl bid, and don’t expect this year to be any different.
The Rebels only won two games in 2010, and against lowly teams to boot. Not only that but they lost their only productive starter on offense when senior quarterback Omar Clayton graduated.
Coach Bobby Hauck will be in his second full season, but expect a drop (yes, a drop) in production this year after the loss of key players up and down the roster.
Offense:
The loss of Clayton is a huge hit to UNLV’s chances to success this season. Clayton had a decent senior year passing for 1,818 yards and 13 touchdowns.
The team was able to get freshman quarterback Caleb Herring some chances to show what he can do, and that will go a long ways in his success, as he is likely to start at this season and beyond.
In the rushing game, Herring will be back up by fellow classmate Tim Cornett, who has a very impressive freshman year in 2010, rushing for 546 yards and 6 touchdowns. The Rebels also have a lot of other running backs that can give Cornett as breather, and the offense will hardly miss a beat.
The problem with the running game is the front five.
The offensive line is one of the worst at run blocking, and without a consistent push, the running backs will have a hard time ripping off big gains, and this will add more pressure on a young quarterback when the defenses are sending five or six defensive backs out to defend the pass.
This was often the case in 2010, and is a major contributor to Clayton’s failures while under center for UNLV.
One upside for Cornett is he will have the team’s arguably most consistent offensive player back in senior receiver Phillip Payne. Payne’s biggest setback was the failures of his previous quarterback, and the two should fair far better.
This will no doubt be a tough year for the offense of UNLV, and they will need the help of their defense.
Defense:
The defense of UNLV had such a hard time holding opponents out of the end zone, giving up nearly 40 points per game throughout 2010. The unit also was almost non-existent in the turnover category, only forcing seven interceptions. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
This made it hard for the offense to make any progress is games that got out of control, and those happened regularly for the Rebels.
To add to the teams woes on defense, they lost their four best players on that side of the ball. Seniors Ronnie Paulo (LB), Alex De Giacomo (DB), Starr Fuimaono (LB) and Calvin Randleman (DB) will be gone come the beginning of 2011. Unfortunately for the team, those are their top-four leading tacklers in 2010.
At linebacker the Rebels don’t have a single starter back from last year. Senior Nate Carter appears to be a lock to take over at middle linebacker while sophomore Tani Maka and junior college transfer Princeton Jackson will tie down the outsides. Overall this unit is very inexperienced and a big reason why the defense figures to be even worse in 2011.
2011 UNLV Prediction: 6th in MWC
The only thing getting them this high is their fellow cellar dwellers in the WSC. This team has potential along the road, but this season, they seem to have no chance.
2011 UNLV Rebels Schedule
9/1/11 8:00 PM ET @WISC
9/10/11 12:00 PM ET @WSHST
9/17/11 10:00 PM ET HAW
9/24/11 9:00 PM ET SUTAH
10/8/11 12:00 PM ET @NEV
10/15/11 2:00 PM ET @WYOM
10/29/11 6:00 PM ET COLST
11/5/11 10:30 PM ET BOIST
11/12/11 10:00 PM ET @NMEX
11/19/11 6:00 PM ET @AIRFC
11/26/11 10:00 PM ET SDST
12/3/11 2:30 PM ET @TCU
