Over the past few years, the UNLV Rebels football program has made a huge jump, going from a college football afterthought to a legitimate Mountain West Conference championship contender. Former head coach Barry Odom got this program off the ground, and now it looks like new head coach Dan Mullen is taking the reins and running, building off the success that Odom had in Las Vegas.
With the realignment of the Mountain West Conference set to take place in 2026, most notably with the Boise State Broncos, who defeated UNLV in the past two Mountain West Championship games leaving for the Pac-12, the door is wide open for the Rebels to become a G5 powerhouse and potential perennial College Football Playoff contender. Especially if they add even more teams to the tournament, like they are reportedly mulling over.
Recently, Adam Breneman took to Instagram to talk about how he believes that UNLV is the next team to make a huge leap in college football:
“College football’s sleeping giants are waking up. Last year, it was Arizona State, and this year, it is UNLV.”
He spoke about how they have everything in place to be a powerhouse football program. Particularly because of their location and facilities. They have access to a ton of major high school programs and stud prospects. The fact that Las Vegas is a very unique city also plays into their hands. Coach Mullen has also raved about the facilities and compared them very favorably to what he had to work with, even in the SEC:
"Talent. Location. Facilities. All in place. 5 hours from SoCal. 3 from Texas. Bishop Gorman in their backyard. Even Dan Mullen said their setup blows Florida’s away. Play for the Rebels by day… ringside at UFC by night."
We've been hearing it all offseason, but it does seem to be true. Everything is in place for UNLV to become a major college football program for the foreseeable future:
"The stars are aligning in Vegas."
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