UNLV football coach Dan Mullen wasn’t as chipper as usual during his weekly press conference on Monday. There were no jokes or laughter, and smiles were few and far between.
Mullen is still trying to digest the Rebels’ 40-35 home loss to New Mexico. The 21-point hole his team dug for itself isn’t keeping him up at night. He’s gotten over all the missed tackles and the 532 yards of offense his team gave up.
What’s still eating at him is the fact the Rebels had a chance to win late and didn’t. UNLV battled back to cut the Lobos’ lead to one with a little more than six minutes to play, but the defense gave up a touchdown run with 2:54 left, and the offense squandered its last chance at points.
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“That hurts, as a team,” Mullen said on Monday. “It’s our focus to get back into making sure we’re performing better, and when we have opportunities to make things happen, to win games, we’re doing things to win games.”
But like Mullen also said, there’s still a lot of football to be played, and the Rebels (6-2, 2-2 MWC) are focused on staying in the Mountain West title hunt with a win at Colorado State (2-6, 1-3) on Saturday.
The good news for UNLV is quarterback Anthony Colandrea continues to be one of the top signal callers in the Mountain West. He completed 36 of 46 passes for 382 yards and three touchdowns against the Lobos. The bad news for the Rebels is they struggled to run the ball against New Mexico, finishing with just 88 yards, and the defense struggled.
Colorado State has lost back-to-back games, including a 28-0 setback against Wyoming.
UNLV vs. Colorado State Betting Odds
UNLV is a 4.5-point college football betting odds favorite on BetMGM as of this writing, and the Over/Under is 62.5 points. The moneyline is at -200 for UNLV and +165 for Colorado State.
Colorado State leads the all-time series 17-7-1. UNLV won their last meeting 25-23 in 2023, snapping the Rams’ four-game winning streak in the series.
UNLV is 11-9 overall and 9-11 against the spread in its past 20 regular season games as the favorite on the road. Colorado State is 4-16 overall and 10-10 ATS in its past 20 regular season games as an underdog at home.
UNLV vs. Colorado State On TV
The Mountain West game featuring Colorado State and UNLV at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado, will be televised on FS1.
Kickoff is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
UNLV vs. Colorado State Prediction
I predict UNLV wins 35-17.
I expect the Rebels are going to be hungry for a win and desperate to show the world, and themselves, they’re still worthy of a third-straight appearance in the Mountain West title game. I’m looking for Colandrea to push the ball downfield early and often and for running back Jai’Den Thomas to have a big day.
I believe Colorado State will move the ball on one of the worst tackling teams in the conference, but the Rams haven’t been able to find much consistency on offense.
