UNLV Rebels Top The Mountain West Conference Power Rankings

The UNLV Rebels have looked like the best team in the Mountain West Conference after a convincing Week 1 win over the Sam Houston Bearkats, and people are begging to take notice. After they moved to 2 - 0 on the season, and both the Boise State Broncos and San Jose State Spartans looked bad in losses, the Rebels are now viewed as the class of the Mountain West Conference. Mountain West Connection was impressed by the turnaround from Week 0 and moved them up three spots in their Power Rankings into their No. 1 spot.

Mountain West Connection's Take On The UNLV Rebels

"The Rebels looked like a much-improved team this past week, handily beating Sam Houston, showing that teams can get better after the first game of the season. After featuring a strong running game in Week 0, this past game demonstrated they can beat teams through the air as well. And while the defense for UNLV wasn’t perfect, it found a winning formula to keep the opposing offense off the scoreboard more often than not."

"The Rebels showed signs of improvement in their week two victory over Sam Houston. Anthony Colandrea has secured the starting quarterback spot and had a very good showing against Sam Houston. Colandrea completed 19 of 23 passing attempts for 249 yards and two touchdowns. It also looks like the Rebels may have their number one receiver in Jaden Bradly who caught six passes for 125 yards. I still have some concerns about UNLV’s defense, but they did show improvement this week holding the Bearkats to 332 yards of offense. We will see what the Rebels are made of this weekend when they host a UCLA team that just got destroyed by Utah. If UNLV is a realistic playoff contender, they have to get the win over the Bruins."

We can't argue with anything they said here. After watching Boise State get dismantled by USF, the Mountain West is wide open. There is no reason that UNLV can knock them off if they continue on their current trajectory. However, this weekend against the UCLA Bruins will be a huge test that they'll have to pass if they want to be taken seriously on a national level. If they can beat UCLA and go on to beat the Broncos to win the Mountain West, they could earn themselves a playoff spot.