UNLV football coach Dan Mullen: Championship teams are selfless

Dan Mullen gives his UNLV football team a 9 out 10 when it comes to being an unselfish side.

He’s a perfectionist. Nobody gets a 10 at anything.

But he will also tell you this is the time of year when selfless play means the most in a long college football season, that when November arrives, the team that can play together the best usually reaps the most rewards.

“Championship teams are selfless,” Mullen said. “There’s a team out there in the (Mountain West) that’s going to be the most selfless team and that team is going to be holding up the trophy. That team is going to win it at the end of the year. So you’re fighting human nature to be the least selfish team out there.”

What he means: From starters to subs, from players who might see 60 snaps of action as compared to none or a few, things have to be in unison throughout a lineup.

Sacrifices must be made. A team concept must be embraced. Any swaying from it could derail an entire mission to win a conference title.

Human nature

The Rebels (5-3, 3-1) take their next step towards possibly accomplishing such a goal when meeting Wyoming (5-3, 4-1) on Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium.

Two sides that control their destiny in reaching a league championship game. Two sides that will strive to exhibit the selfless nature of which Mullen speaks.

“Selfishness is human nature,” Mullen said. “I guess we could go back 100,000 years and there’s one piece of food there and I’m selfishly going to want it more than you. Like, only one of us gets it. That’s selfishness.”

You can translate it, he said, to football: It’s no secret at any level of the game. Everybody wants more passes and catches and tackles and reps and blocks and interceptions.

And everybody is hearing they should receive them from family and friends and teammates and agents and so on.

This is where the best teams thrive. Those that feature players who don’t get personally caught up in such things, who can separate individual desires from team goals.

“I’ve been through being a backup before,” quarterback Jackson Arnold said. “Preparing for weeks like you’re going to play and then not have it happen. It’s a hard thing to do.

“But our team is at a really good point with its selflessness. You just have to be prepared for the moment and not be disappointed or disgruntled where you’re at. I feel all our guys are prepared to go out there and play a full game. That speaks volumes to our character as a team and the type of people we have.”

They need those who won’t play much on Saturday to be on point during the week. They need scout team members to give starters the best look possible. They need everyone at their best with the most positive of attitudes.

“Those are the things you fight more and more into a season as it starts to wear on you,” Mullen said. “Everything is longer. The season is longer. Games are longer than in high school. That’s why the most selfless team is going to win. We have to come out ready to go every day in practice.”

New Mexico next

It’s a critical game for UNLV, this matchup against a Wyoming team also very much in the conference race. The Rebels follow with a date at first-place New Mexico.

So things are getting serious in the pursuit of a Mountain West championship. The Rebels haven’t played particularly well in spots while splitting their last two games, meaning everything needs to be ramped up as the competition stiffens.

Which brings us back to the selfless part of things.

Everyone needs to be on the same page. UNLV learned quite the lesson in beating winless Northern Illinois by seven.

“Anybody can beat anybody on a given week,” safety Jake Pope said. “We need to come out and start fast. But that all starts on Monday at practice, watching film, making sure we’re out there flying around. Just being prepared for game day.

“We have to get a lot better moving forward, especially with our schedule.”

Contact Ed Graney at [email protected]. Follow @edgraney on X.

Up next

Who: UNLV (5-3, 3-1 Mountain West) vs. Wyoming (5-3, 4-1)

When: Saturday 7:30 p.m.

Where: Allegiant Stadium

TV: CBS Sports Network

Radio: KWWN (1100 AM 100.9 FM)

Line: UNLV minus-5 1/2; total 48 1/2