Michigan opponent preview: UNLV's new coach aims for 1st winning season in decade

By Andrew Kahn |
A variety of coaches have been unable to turn UNLV football into a winner. The Rebels have just one winning season since 2000, and it came 10 years ago. Can the latest hire turn things around?
Michigan will host UNLV in the second game of the season for both teams, on Sep. 9. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. and CBS will broadcast.
UNLV went 5-7 last season, including a 3-5 mark in the Mountain West Conference. Until a 27-22 win in the season finale, UNLV had lost all four of its one-score games. Whether that was a result of bad luck or poor coaching or both, head coach Marcus Arroyo was fired after three years on the job.
Enter Barry Odom, who spent the past three seasons as Arkansas’ defensive coordinator. He was Missouri’s head coach in the four years before that, posting a 25-25 record.
“When I look at Vegas -- there’s one in the world -- this place should have a successful football program,” Odom said during Mountain West media days last month. “And I want to be the person who consistently gets that done.”
He’ll lean on quarterback Doug Brumfield, a 6-foot-6, 225-pound lefty who started 10 games last season and is in his fourth year with the program. He’s had some trouble staying healthy but can move the chains with his arm and legs.
UNLV had a running back crack 1,000 yards last season but he has since transferred. In response, UNLV brought in Vincent Davis, who ran for 1,813 yards and 16 touchdowns over four seasons at Pittsburgh. The Rebels also used the transfer portal to add a few pass catchers and a couple of offensive linemen.
Odom should help immediately improve a defense that ranked ninth in the MWC last season, with a bunch of transfers likely seeing the field.
He’ll have his work cut out for him to make a splash in his first season. UNLV didn’t place a single player on the preseason all-conference offensive or defensive teams. The Rebels were picked to finish in ninth place in the 12-team MWC, though they did receive a first-place vote from one of the 37 voters.
UNLV went 7-6 in 2013 and 8-5 in 2000. That’s it for the program’s winning seasons since joining the Mountain West.
Michigan, meanwhile, is coming off consecutive Big Ten titles and playoff appearances, and is loaded again entering 2023. The Wolverines welcome East Carolina in the opener on Sep. 2, the same day UNLV hosts Bryant, an FCS program.
Michigan and UNLV have met once before, during head coach Jim Harbaugh’s first season in 2015, a 28-7 Michigan win in Ann Arbor.
There’s little reason to think this year’s matchup will be any more competitive.