The UNLV Rebels Dismantle The Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors In Week 13

The UNLV Rebels dismantled the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors on Friday night at Allegiant Stadium. They took home the Golden Pineapple and kept their Mountain West Championship hopes alive. While the final score wasn't close at 38 - 10, it could have been more if the Rebels decided to keep their starters in or simply put more points on the board when the opportunity was there in the fourth quarter. This may have been the most complete game that UNLV has played all season, and head coach Dan Mullen was thrilled with the way his team played when he spoke to the media after the game.

"That was a great win for us tonight as a team," Mullen said. "We talked about senior night, our last home game of the year. We wanted to come out and play our best game of the season. Why not come out and do that? Why not play to the level we can play at? I thought for the most part that we did that. Our defense had an unbelievable night. We had one blown coverage on the first series on the 70-yard play. That was about it. Our guys executed. We keep talking about eliminating mistakes. We had the one mistake that cost us, but the rest of the night was just a dominant performance against one of the best offenses in the league.

This is a big win for our team. There is a standard of which we expect to play and we want to keep improving. We want to be playing our best football at the end of the year. We are going to enjoy this win tonight, give the guys two days off, and get ready for another huge rivalry game next week. And then if we can compete at the end of the year, hopefully we have a chance to play for a championship and play our best football right when the days get shorter, the nights get longer, and the games get bigger."

This win moves the Rebs to 5 - 2 in the Mountain West, and temporarily into second place all alone before the games kick off on Saturday. For the Rainbow Warriors, it ended their championship game hopes, dropping them to 4 - 3.

The offense was dominant and did whatever they wanted, led by Anthony Colandrea, who threw for 253 yards and three touchdowns. On the ground, the Rebels averaged 5.3 yards per carry for the game. Jai'Den Thomas led the team with 61 yards, but Keyvone Lee had the most impressive run, rumbling through the Hawai'i defense for a 14-yard touchdown run. Taeshaun Lyons led the team in receiving with 75 yards, most of it off the back of a dynamic 72-yard touchdown reception. Jaden Bradley, Daejon Reynolds, and JoJo Earle all found the end zone as well with touchdowns of their own.

UNLV's defense played its best game of the season. Marsel McDuffie led the team with eight tackles, Aamaris Brown racked up 1.5 sacks, and Jake Pope came away with a spectacular interception off of a Tre Fulton deflection. When this group plays like this, the Rebels can beat anybody.

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