Three Things For The UNLV Rebels To Fix During Their Bye Week

The UNLV Rebels are undefeated through three games, but there are still things they can improve on during their bye week.

UNLV Rebels head coach Dan Mullen | UNLV Athletics

The UNLV Rebels enter their bye week coming off a big win against the UCLA Bruins, and now sit at 3 - 0. While things have been shaky at times, they are still undefeated and have improved each week. The team was always expected to take some time to gel under new head coach Dan Mullen, with so many transfer portal players, so the fact that they continue to improve is extremely encouraging for their long-term outlook. With a full bye week to practice and fix some of the issues they've had in the first three games, they should be even better coming out of the other side in Week 4. These are the things we'd like to see them improve during the bye week.

Fly The Jet

Through three games, Thomas has only 32 carries, and we understand the idea of keeping him fresh, but he's a special player who needs to get the ball more. Especially now that they have lost the dynamic option of Alex Orji, who is out for the remainder of the season due to a hamstring injury. Thomas is averaging 8.5 yards per carry on the season, and they need to feed him more. He should be the engine of the Rebels' offense.

Pass Distribution

In the first two games of the season, Jaden Bradley looked like the clear WR1, dominating in all statistical categories. After two weeks, he had 12 catches, 261 yards, and a TD, while no other pass-catcher did much of significance other than one-off TD catches. However, in the team's third game against UCLA, he caught his lone target for six yards, while the rest of the pass-catchers split the receiving yards and catches up pretty evenly. We would like to see them use Bradley as that stud WR1, but also spread the ball around and get other players involved. They need to find a happy medium if they are going to win those tight games.

Defensive Discipline

After vastly improving in the second half against the Sam Houston Bearkats and the first half against UCLA, the defense regressed a bit in the second half against UCLA. The biggest issue they have had when getting into trouble this season is a lack of discipline. They are biting on fakes, not sticking to their assignments, and finding themselves out of place. That is something that can be easily fixed with time, practice, and coaching. We expect them to clean those issues up during their bye week.

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