Trust from UNLV coaches, respect from team define Alex Orji

It’s not yet known if Alex Orji will take any snaps at quarterback for UNLV’s football team when the Rebels visit No. 23 New Mexico on Saturday.

It’s not yet known if the backup will get any time in place of starter Jackson Arnold.

This much is known: Orji definitely gave the Rebels a spark when entering in the third quarter of a 41-35 loss to Wyoming.

He led the Rebels (5-4, 3-2 Mountain West) on consecutive touchdown drives before throwing an interception in the end zone with just under two minutes left and UNLV down six.

But that doesn’t diminish the trust coaches have in Orji.

Or the respect for him.

“We’ll see what happens (this week),” coach Dan Mullen said. “I want to see how everybody looks in practice. But I think there are some things everybody needs to understand about Alex.

“First, he’s an unbelievable leader for this team and an even better human being. He’s going to be really successful in whatever field he goes into. He has a tremendous amount of trust within the coaches and a tremendous amount of respect within the program.

“Whether he plays this weekend or not, we’re still putting in the initial part of the game plan.”

It was Orji’s first amount of extended playing time since transferring to UNLV from Michigan — he suffered a serious leg injury last season — but Mullen said it wasn’t the first time coaches had thought about playing him.

“I would say, ‘If we don’t score here, we just might need a spark and we’re going to put him in,’” Mullen said. “And then we’d score and then score two in a row and we didn’t need that spark. We’ll see how it goes this week.”

Mullen also addressed the team’s final two play calls from the Wyoming 11. The first pass fell incomplete even though the Rebels had a receiver open on a slant. But a Wyoming defender went unblocked and hit Orji as he was releasing the ball.

“You can’t ask for a better play call than that,” Mullen said. “A guy wide open for a touchdown. We just had a guy not protect. I was thinking, ‘My goodness, we just won the game.’

The second play was the Orji interception.

“Unfortunately, the ball sailed on Alex,” Mullen said. “It wasn’t even intercepted by a guy the receiver he was throwing to. He was throwing it to the front of the end zone and it sailed. If it had worked, it would be like, ‘What an amazing call, the greatest thing in the world.’ We’ve scored several times on that type of play over the years.”

From 12 to 24

The College Football Playoff will expand to 24 teams beginning next season, but such news certainly did no favors for the Group of 6 conferences.

“If we have one (automatic) bid with 12 teams, we should get two with 24,” Mullen said. “Between the six conferences, whatever two are the highest-ranked conference champions should get in. If you’re going to double it, double. You make it pretty simple. We should have gotten another (automatic berth).”

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