After a Week 1 date with the Utah Utes, the UCLA Bruins will hit the road but remain on the West Coast. They will head to Sin City to face the UNLV Rebels in Week 2 at Allegiant Stadium, where former Bruin head coach Chip Kelly now works as the Raiders’ offensive coordinator.
The UNLV offense was dynamic last year, finishing 15th in the country with an average of 35.4 points per game, helping the Rebels go 11-3 in 2024. UNLV saw their offensive coordinator Brennan Marion depart to become the head coach at Sacramento State. Marion helped conduct the go-go offense with UNLV last season so it’ll be interesting to see how the Rebels fare without Marion on their sideline in 2025.
The Rebels hired head coach Dan Mullen back in December and Mullen prefers to run the spread offense, which could lead to a noticeable shift to UNLV’s offense in 2025 even with the good results in 2024.
UNLV doesn’t have a surefire starting quarterback as we head towards the season, with Michigan transfer Alex Orgi and Virginia transfer Anthony Colandrea competing for the starting spot. The Rebels’ offense has room to improve from 2024, as they completed just 57.61% of their passes attempted last and averaged just 172.64 passing yards per game.
The Rebels ground game averaged 243.5 yards per game, getting 5.47 yards per carry, which is where the Bruins’ defense will need to focus if they’re going to be able to stop the physical UNLV offense.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Against UNLV, UCLA will take on an offense that is working out the kinks
Reporting by Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
