UNLV looks to slow Wyoming’s rushing attack in pivotal Mountain West matchup

Put succinctly, UNLV’s game with Wyoming on Saturday has major championship implications in the Mountain West.

The Cowboys, coming off a bye and a 28-14 victory over Air Force in Week 8, sit second in the conference standings behind No. 22 New Mexico with a 4-1 conference record.

As the Rebels hope to make their fourth consecutive Mountain West championship game appearance, a win over Wyoming at Allegiant Stadium this week would move UNLV into second place behind the Lobos. A Week 11 matchup in Albuquerque could then go a long way toward determining where the conference championship game is played.

However, Rebels coach Dan Mullen emphasized that Saturday’s game will be a challenge, as Wyoming (5-3) also has an opportunity to control its own destiny and return to the championship game for the first time since 2016.

“There are three teams that really control where you want to be in November, and two of them play this week,” Mullen said. “This is not just one of the biggest games of the week in the conference, but one of the biggest games of the season in the conference.”

Offensively, Wyoming has averaged 19.5 points per game and has been particularly effective on the ground, averaging 185.8 rushing yards per game. Senior quarterback Tyler Hughes leads the Cowboys in both passing and rushing production.

A Marietta, Georgia, native, Hughes is in his first season with Wyoming after spending four years at William & Mary. Through eight games, he has thrown for 1,131 yards and five touchdowns on 172 attempts while adding 605 rushing yards and six scores on 101 carries.

For Mullen, Hughes poses a different kind of threat that UNLV (5-3, 3-1) hasn’t seen this season, with the quarterback serving as the Cowboys’ primary running option.

“It all starts with the quarterback,” Mullen said. “He is the leading rusher, leading passer, and leading everything on the team. When you go with a little more traditional offense, you’re like, ‘we have got to stop the back and then be aware of the quarterback.’

“I think one of the things that makes them challenging is that they are the opposite: You have to stop the quarterback and then be aware of the running backs that are the complement to it.”

The running backs Mullen referred to are Markell Holman and Samuel Harris, who have combined for 768 rushing yards and six touchdowns while both averaging roughly five yards per carry.

Mullen compared Wyoming’s offensive approach to his days helping develop the spread offense at Florida.

“We used a lot of the zone read back when we started creating the spread offense a long time ago and all of a sudden I have this quarterback and a kid named Tim Tebow,” Mullen said. “We had Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps, these two running backs that ran 4.2 40s.

“They weren’t really big … and Tebow is this big guy, so we were diving the back up the middle and running the quarterback around the edge. What if we flipped those into a reverse zone read? Now you see a lot of people run that play.”

For defensive coordinator Paul Gunther and the Rebels, slowing down Wyoming’s ground game will be a major challenge. UNLV ranks second-to-last in the Mountain West in rush defense, ahead of only Northern Illinois, allowing 189.8 rushing yards per game.

The Rebels have allowed 670 rushing yards over their past two outings, including 430 against Air Force in Week 7. Despite those struggles, Mullen expressed confidence in his team’s preparation as the regular season enters its final stretch.

“Every weekend in November, games get bigger at this point of the season,” Mullen said. “I think for our guys there will be a great focus for us.”

Contact Donovan Hicks at [email protected]. Follow @HicksSports on X.