Friday, October 13, 2017
Armani Rogers threw an interception on the opening drive, so we had an extra tough time ahead of us. Utah State scored and we now had to stay up with them in terms of scoring. Rogers didn’t make another mistake for the rest of the game, so that helped.
By halftime, we had tied the game at 14 apiece. The Aggies were still going strong as their passing attack scored again to start the third quarter. We matched them and kept it tied at 21. Them we held their next drive to just a field goal. All we had to do now was score to go ahead, and make sure we had the ball to close out the game. It wasn’t easy, though. With 1:40 left in the game, and us leading 31-24, Utah State was facing 4th and goal. They threw a pass into the end zone, but our linebacker David Tate Jr. swatted the ball away just in time. This gave us a hard fought victory. Rogers ended the game with 460 passing yards and 4 touchdowns.
UNLV 35, Fresno State 7
We scored easily on the opening drive as Armani Rogers found Kendall Keys in the end zone. It was time for the Bulldogs to answer, but they were stopped at the goal line for a turnover on downs. But we kept scoring. It wasn’t long before the scoreboard read 35-0. Fresno State finally put together a good drive and ruined the shutout. Rogers threw for 250 yards and Sean Watkins ran for 121 yards, putting on a great showing for our visiting recruits, offensive linemen Tim Lilly and Lavelle Weaver.
We are now 9-0, and have been ranked #4 in the coaches’ poll. I don’t put too much stock into national rankings. Things will shake out how they may in the end. We’ve got to focus on next week if we want any chance of making our goals this year.
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Offensive Line
We’ve got two tackles on our radar. We’re looking at Lavelle Weaver from Kirkwood, MO (71 OVR) and Brett Taylor from Bellaire, TX (70 OVR) to be our bookend tackles of the future. We’re also heavily recruiting guard Isaac Washington from La Verne, CA (77 OVR) and center Tom Lilly from Montebello, CA (75 OVR). We like our chances to get at least two or three of these guys.
Defense
Strong safety is still a need, and we cast our net out for two promising recruits. We still have a chance to get Josh Bonner from Palm Springs, CA (77 OVR), but we lost out on Ike Roth from Pasadena (69 OVR) to Wyoming. Full disclosure, if we can’t get Bonner, I’m thinking about switching immediately to a 4-3 Defense next season and eventually transitioning to a 3-4. The 4-2-5 absolutely needs these strong safeties to work, and we’re feeling the pain of having just one good SS on the roster this year.
We’ve got good news that defensive end Dan Beck from Mission Viejo, CA (72 OVR) has committed to UNLV. This will help tremendously as we’ve now got all the pieces in place for a front four that will be dominant in the future.
Athletes
Two athletes have shown interest in UNLV. Canadian Mike Jones (78 OVR, 93 SPD) and Marcus Hamilton from San Francisco (73 OVR, 92 SPD) can be running backs, cornerbacks, or even receivers due to their versatility. We hope to get them and make this team a lot faster.
Extra Notes
We received a commit from punter, Andy McFarland from Magna, UT. He’s got a big leg and can replace Evan Pantels quite well. We also got a commit from wide receiver Andrew Dickens from Santa Monica, CA (68 OVR, 91 SPD).
This was by far the most impressive win of the season so far for us. BYU wasn’t ranked, but they were superior in terms of talent and passing prowess. In fact, it was nearly impossible to stop their offense in the first half. The score was tied 14-14 with minutes to go before halftime, and we killed the rest of the clock with a drive led by the option running of Sean Watkins and Armani Rogers until we scored to close out the half.
The beginning of the second half saw BYU answer with a quick score to tie the game 21-21. But those were the last points they would manage to put up. We kept scoring, and we found a way to stop BYU from staying with us. Once we switched to an under front, our line got penetration and our linebackers cleaned up in the running game. On the day, Rogers passed for a touchdown and ran for 2 touchdowns, and Watkins ran in for 3 TDs.
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
UNLV 35, Toledo 30
It was surprising how close this game was. But we did what we had to do to get the victory.
UNLV 28, #11 Louisiana Tech 10
La Tech was severely overrated and it showed. Going up 28-3, we knew we had this game. They saved face a little and scored in the final seconds.
UNLV 35, Air Force 31
This was a game I felt we were going to lose for most of it. First of all, they are the first team in ages that wanted the ball first. They scored quickly on a strong triple option game. It seems we still have work to do there. But on our first offensive drive, Armani Rogers threw an interception. We would then go down 14-0. It took everything we had the entire game to come back, and at halftime we had the lead cut down to 10. We got the ball back and scored with Sean Watkins. But Air Force kept the ground attack going and scored. We finally stopped them and were able to go ahead late in the game, sealing the victory.
UNLV 49, Hawaii 37
This game was in our control the entire time. We had built a big enough lead that Hawaii couldn’t catch up. Our offense was very balanced, as Armani Rogers threw for 300 yards but Sean Watkins ran for over 100 as well.
UNLV 42, New Mexico 32
The Lobos always have a strong running attack, but we did a fairly good job of stopping it when it counted. We had a good showing on the ground ourselves, as Sean Watkins ran for 141 yards. We came away with the victory pretty easily.
Now at 6-0 and ranked #15, we face BYU next. Although we’ve shored up our defense against the run, we are having some issues defending the pass. Hopefully we can figure it out before this game.
Friday, October 6, 2017
The season started in Tucson, as we faced a fairly superior Arizona Wildcats team. But our new balance showed as we stopped both of Arizona’s first two offensive drives with three-and-outs. This would’ve had us ahead early, but we couldn’t get our offense going either at first. So it was scoreless until the second quarter. We went up 7-0 at halftime. But then the floodgates opened. We stopped their drive and went up 14-0. They came back and scored on a deep bomb and showed they could score quickly. But I never felt we were in any danger of losing. We started clicking on offense and never turned the ball over again. They would still get off the deep pass and score, but it wasn’t enough.
Despite the deep passes, our defense was very impressive. Arizona just couldn’t run on us, and I’ve never been able to say that in the past year since I got hired to coach at UNLV. The defensive line collapsed the pocket on many occasions, and freshman strong safety Avery Edwards made three tackles for losses in the backfield. The potential to do great things this year is very much present.
Next week is at Toledo, but we can’t get soft because of this big win and overlook our next challenge. We’re practicing hard, and trying to find new ways to get Sean Watkins out in space. But so far, a great start to season 2.
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Offense
Armani Rogers returns in even better form, adding a ton of awareness and throwing accuracy. He might break even more records this year. His targets include wide receivers Kendal Keys, Brandon Presley, Darren Woods Jr., and Mekhi Stevenson. He lost tight end Trevor Kanteman to graduation, but sophomore Giovani Fauolo looks poised to fill in nicely at that position. And we can’t forget about the shiny new freshman we recruited, Sean Watkins. He will be the starting halfback as his talents eclipse any other running back we have. I’ve decided to redshirt Lexington Thomas for his senior year. He seems to have some lingering injury issues from the prior season, so it’s safer to sit him as we still have Charles Williams and Xaviar Campbell on the squad. I will say that offensive line is something that we hadn’t been aggressive on upgrading yet, but it looks like we will have a stronger unit than last year.
Defense
This squad will have four true freshman playing immediately. But they are sure upgrades and our veteran defensive players shouldn’t have any trouble leading them on the field. So among those freshman are defensive linemen Ernest Nelson, Anthony Thorne, and Phil O’Donnell, and strong safety Avery Edwards. These players should help with the 4-2-5 scheme I’ve installed. This defense still features cornerback Darius Mouton, and we should see some great plays made by him.
Special Teams
Our kicking and punting games are nearly identical to last year. Senior Evan Pantels will still be handling double duties both kicking and punting, but he’s gone after this season so we will need to address the void he will create when he graduates. Mekhi Stevenson will handle return duties as he is pretty fast and shifty.
Monday, October 2, 2017
This is great news because although there will be a lot of true freshman on the field playing defense next season, it will upgrade our ability to stop the run immediately. I can’t wait to get these guys in pads and see what we’ve got.
UNLV 21, San Diego State 16
The game never really felt as close as the score would indicate, but we were having trouble on offense in the second half. Kendall Keys went down with an injury, so we were down two wide receivers now. So things just weren’t clicking the way they had been. The good thing is, our defense was finally getting stops. The momentum of 9 straight wins seems to have sparked our run stopping abilities. So even though we didn’t even score in the second half, the Aztecs couldn’t come back on us.
Mountain West Conference Championship Game - UNLV 42, New Mexico 28
This was the best our team looked all season. The Lobos couldn’t stop us, which not many teams could this year. But they couldn’t run on us either. Strong safety Dalton Baker stepped up and made big plays in the backfield, the likes of which we hadn’t seen from this team. It was just a great victory all around.
Las Vegas Bowl - UCLA 45, UNLV 28
We started off great. Devonte Boyd, back from injury for the final game of his college career, made plays all the way down the field until we scored on the opening drive. UCLA scored immediately after, but we knew this was going to be a dog fight. On our second drive, Boyd fumbled after catching a pass. It seemed to unravel from there. The Bruins scored again. And we fumbled again. This time it was Kendall Keys. UCLA kept scoring. We tried to stay in the fight, but Armani Rogers began to force throws in desperation. He ended up with 3 interceptions. There was just no way to catch up from there. UCLA was just too talented and played a great game.
So this concludes season 1 of this UNLV first-person dynasty. Final record: 12-2. There are a lot of positives to take into next season. Rogers ended the year with 4474 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. He will be in year two, so he will be that much better. And we’ve got some great prospects coming in to make us even better. So I believe we will be a constant threat to anyone in the Lountain West next year.
Side note: Southern Miss went undefeated this season, so they somehow leapfrogged their way to #1 in the rankings and played in the BCS National Championship game against the Washington Huskies. Fortunately, all was right with the world as Washington crushed them to become national champions.
Heisman winner: Baker Mayfield
Thursday, September 28, 2017
In other good news for recruiting, we have received commits from DE Paul O'Donnell, FS Taylor Douglas, and quarterback Justin Wilson. It's great to get all of these guys, but O'Donnell is especially good news as we need to upgrade this D line as fast as possible.
Speaking of defensive line, we're still in a battle with other schools for DTs Anthony Thorne and Ernest Nelson. 3-star recruit Thorne visits this coming week against San Diego State, and the 4-star man, Nelson, has already visited. I'm hoping I can get Thorne to commit soon so that I can spend most of the offseason on Nelson.
Armani Rogers had a huge day with over 400 passing yards. The lead was held at an arm's distance for the entire game. Going up 14-0 in the beginning, San Jose St. couldn't really gain ground on us. Our tight end Trevor Kanteman fumbled the ball on a tackle (very questionable), so the Spartans did get within one score. But they eventually threw an interception to quarterback Tim Hough and we then ran out the clock.
UNLV 42, Utah St. 21
We had both the run game and the passing game going in this one. Utah State was never really a threat. Backup halfback Xaviar Campbell was very impressive. He bowled over many defenders in this game and scored four touchdowns.
UNLV 36, Air Force 35
When we went three-and-out on our opening drive, I knew this was going to be an uphill battle. And when Air Force broke out the triple option and scored easily, I was wondering if our winning streak would finally be over. We went back and forth scoring from there. In the third quarter, we finally found a defense that slowed them down. It was a zone blitz from the 4-4. With the score tied, we finally held them to a field goal. We scored and cut their lead to 4. Then we held them to another field goal, and then we scored to go ahead by one. We stopped them completely the next time, but we turned the ball over immediately. They scored and got the 2 point conversion, putting them back up by 7. With just enough time for one more drive, we marched down the field and Xaviar got into the end zone with no time left. Instead of tying it up and going into overtime, we did a two point conversion of our own, taking the victory by one point.
Standing at 10-1, we have one more regular season game to play, against San Diego State. They are on a five game losing streak, so the odds are in our favor. As long as we don't screw this up, we will make it into the MWC championship game.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
This game had all of the players remembering last year when Nevada destroyed UNLV 45-10. So it was time for revenge. But it was a tough battle. Once again, we couldn't stop the run. Nevada ran for over 300 yards. Luckily for us, Armani Rogers was on point. He threw for 460 yards. Being that this was just a back and forth scoring fest, I figured that one mistake would give us the loss. So when Rogers threw a pick in the red zone late in the third quarter, I thought we were done. But on the very next play, redshirt freshman linebacker David Tate Jr. came up with a pick six to save the day. And with 2:45 left in the game, our defense finally got the stop we needed as we forced Nevada to punt. From there, it was all too easy to run out the clock and get the win.
On a bad note, we lost Lexington Thomas for two weeks due to a rib injury. We will be missing his speed for sure.
We are now 7-1 and Bowl eligible. I could have never thought in my wildest dreams that we'd be doing so well considering that turning Fatigue OFF keeps the CPU at their strongest. But the teams in the Mountain West are rated low like mine, and the games are fiercely competitive. Although I complained about how I couldn't get a challenge against the CPU in other dynasties, this one is very different. I don't think I'll be getting anywhere close to the national championship game any time soon.
Monday, September 25, 2017
In a surprising turn of events, Jason Martinez, a strong safety who we had a good shot at landing, has committed to Hawaii one week after he told us we were his top school. This puts even further stress on us to sign Avery Edwards or the gem, Sean Allen. We're in a fierce battle with other schools over each of them, so it's probably going to come down to the wire as to whether or not we'll be upgrading that important part of the defense.
A bit of good news has emerged just as quickly, though. 4 star athlete Sean Watkins has taken interest in the UNLV football program and now has us at the top of his list. He's most likely a running back, with 95 SPD, 95 ACL, 90 AGI, and 92 ELU. But he could also play quarterback as he has 80 THP and 79 THA. Coaching him up would put him in the mold of Jalen Hurts or even Lamar Houston. So this is huge for us.
As far as defensive tackle, another position of great importance, we are currently winning the battle for 3-star prospect Anthony Thorne, and we're losing major ground on 4-star man Ernest Nelson. With the high aspirations we had on upgrading this 4-2-5 defense, we absolutely need to do what it takes to lock down Thorne.
It seems our top receiver has played his last game as a Rebel unless we make it to a bowl game. Devonte Boyd's hand will not be fully healed for the remainder of the regular season, and he still wouldn't be ready if we made it to the conference championship game. The new depth chart at WR is now 1) David Presley, 2) Kendall Keys, 3) Mekhi Stevenson, 4) Darren Woods Jr.
Ohio State 45, UNLV 42
Armani Rogers' throwing ability kept us in this game up until the very end. He broke a school record for passing yards in a game with 563. But it wasn't enough, as we couldn't stop the Buckeyes running attack. They managed over 300 yards on the ground! And in the last seconds, Evan Pantels missed the tying field goal that would've taken us to overtime.
UNLV 42, BYU 37
Another close one, but a more balanced attack was employed. We still couldn't stop the running game, or the passing game for that matter. But lucky for us, we can score. That put us at 2-1.
UNLV 35, New Mexico 28
You'll see a lot of 35-28 scores this season it seems. We are doing just enough to make a couple stops when it counts, then we go up by two scores. But our opponent, just like the Lobos did, find a way to get within one and go for the onside kick at the end of the game. Luckily, we've been able to recover those inside kicks.
UNLV 28, Idaho 21
This one was a lot closer than I had expected, as the Rebels are rated very close to the vandals. But we had trouble getting much going offensively. The good thing is, the Vandals had trouble too. In the end, though, Armani Rogers made the throws he needed to and our running back by committee, due to Lexington Thomas leaving the game with a concussion, pounded it on the ground until we got the win.
UNLV 35, Hawaii 28
These games have gotten progressively tougher, but we've stuck to the plan that seems to be working: elect to receive the kickoff to start the game, do what we do best which is score first and quickly, and make sure we are ahead by halftime. As was the case in this game, we were able to make a stop in the third quarter, score to go up by two touchdowns, and play conservative for the rest of the game. That way, when Hawaii came back, we were still up by a touchdown and could milk the clock. We did get some bad news during this game, though, as star wide receiver Devonte Boyd went out with a broken hand. He's looking to miss the majority of the season.
UNLV 35, Fresno State 28
The Bulldogs are the only team we've faced this season that are actually rated lower than us. That didn't matter, though. For much of the game, it felt that we were going to lose. It took an interception right before halftime to get us back on track to have the lead at halftime. Still, they didn't let up and kept the score tied for most of the game. Finally, with the help of some great running by Lexington Thomas, we sealed the victory.
So now we've improved our record to 6-1. It's a great start that we'll need, because there are a lot of good teams left on the schedule.
Friday, September 22, 2017
Strong Safety
The bread and butter position of the 4-2-5 defense, strong safeties need to be athletic. They need to be good tacklers, good block shedders, and possess good coverage skills to boot. I have three strong safeties on my radar.
Sean Allen (81 OVR) - This gem from Delray Beach, FL may be out of my league, but I'm still making a push for him as I need to turn this run defense around at all costs. His notable attributes are 88 SPD, 88 TAK, 73 BSH, 75 MCV, 75 ZCV.
Jason Martinez (74 OVR) - Another Floridian, but we have a much better chance of landing this recruit. He has 80 SPD, 75 TAK, 73 BSH, 72 MCV, 80 ZCV.
Avery Edwards (71 OVR) - From Strongsville, OH, another prospect that's not in our pipeline. But that's why I'm targeting three SS so I can better my chances. This recruit has 80 SPD, 76 TAK, 75 BSH, 65 MCV, 76 ZCV.
Defensive Tackle
I've gotta get big in the middle, so I'm recruiting two guys heavily.
Ernest Nelson (75 OVR) - From Waipahu, HI, this 6'1" 267 pound recruit is coveted by most of the Pac-12. My chances are slim, but I'm swinging for the fences here. His notable attributes are 83 STR, 78 PMV, 78 FMV, 79 BSH.
Anthony Thorne (73 OVR) - My first pipeline recruit, 6'3" and 269 lbs from Florence-Graham, CA, we have a good shot at landing him and shoring up the middle. He's got 83 STR, 79 PMV, 70 FMV, 77 BSH.
Defensive End
This isn't as pressing a concern as the aforementioned positions, but I do want to get this front four established as soon as possible.
Paul O'Donnell (67 OVR) - Probably not an elite talent, but would improve the pass rush and even the run. Not too impressive on speed at 69 but does have 88 ACL. Other attributes include 74 PMV, 71 FMV, 75 BSH.
Quarterback
I've got two on my radar, but will probably stick to pursuing one as soon as it looks like a lock.
Danny Brown (75 OVR) - This is my favorite of the two. At 5'11" 184 pounds, he's an athlete that I can make into a quarterback. He's got 80 SPD, 80 THP, and 76 THA.
Justin Wilson (68 OVR) - He's more of a pocket passer, but at 6'1" 188 pounds, he still lacks the size and durability for pocket presence. He has 84 THP and 80 THA.
Fullback
Not a flashy position, but all of my fullbacks are graduating after this year so I need one to step in for blocking purposes in my I formation.
Colin Jones (64 OVR) - rated at one star, this guy has more than enough ability to do what we need him to. Rated in the mid 70s in both blocking ratings, he looks poised to start as a freshman.
Micah Webber (62 OVR) - He's more of a receiving fullback, but he seems determined to play for UNLV as we are his first choice. So we'll take a flyer on him.
Free Safety
This is the final position of need, and we found a player who can fill the void for now.
Taylor Douglas (65 OVR) - He's not particularly fast and he doesn't have exceptional coverage skills, but this isn't a position we are too concerned with at this time. When we get the meat and potatoes of our 4-2-5 established, we will worry about substantially upgrading that position as well.
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