Dan Mullen Era Begins At UNLV With Big Buzz At Mountain West Media Days

Pope was the only player to attend media days that was an incoming transfer, with no playing experience at UNLV. He's an especially notable transfer addition for the Rebels given where he comes from: Georgia and Alabama. Not many players got to play under both Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, Pope did. He said there were lots of similarities between those two and Dan Mullen, who will be hoping to have similar success in Las Vegas. How Mullen and UNLV deals with those expectations remains to be seen. It's the first time the Rebels have had these sort of expectations since becoming an FBS program in 1996, how they manage them will be one of the key storylines in the Mountain West this fall."

These expectations may be high, but fair. The team went all in making a splashy signing in Dan Mullen and loaded the roster with high-end transfers, many were players he previously knew from his time in the SEC. With so much change in just one offseason, there is always a chance things don't go well in Year 1. Nevertheless, expectations are high and no one is going to want to hear any excuses if the team doesn't live up to them.