UNLV Rebels Fall To Ohio Bobcats In Low-Scoring Frisco Bowl

The UNLV Rebels football team lost the 2025 Scooter's Coffee Frisco Bowl in Texas to the Ohio Bobcats on Tuesday night in a low-scoring affair by a score of 17 - 10. This game did not go how anyone expected, heading into the half with Ohio leading 6 - 0. Most expected this to be a high-scoring game, but it was the defenses that showed up and made the offenses look bad. It was a tough way for the season to end. While they would have loved to win, at the end of the day, it's just an exhibition game. Following the loss, Dan Mullen spoke to the media.

"I didn't do a good enough job of preparing us for this game," Mullen said. "Our goal was to come out and start fast, so that's on me and the preparation that I need to have everybody clicking and rolling (but) I don't take anything away from Ohio. They're a really good football team. They came out and executed the game they wanted to, and we didn't execute the game we wanted to.

We're going to continue to grow, continue to build and continue to raise that standard of being a program that's going to compete for championships year in and year out."

Quarterback Anthony Colandrea looked rusty as a passer in this game. He completed just 19 of 30 passes for 184 yards, zero touchdowns, and one interception. On the ground, he rushed for 28 yards and a touchdown. The reigning Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year did not have his best game in this one, but the good news is that he'll be back next season. Colandrea took responsibility for the loss after the game.

“It starts with me,” Colandrea said. “When your quarterback doesn’t play well, you have no shot at winning a bowl game. It was on me. I played badly the whole game.

I’m excited about (next season). I trust coach Mullen to bring the right guys in here and get this thing going again.”

There simply wasn't much offense in this game, with Jai'Den Thomas leading the team in rushing with 51 yards and Jaden Bradley leading them in receiving 62 yards. However, there were some big plays on defense. Linebacker Marsel McDuffie led the team with nine tackles and recovered a fumble in his final game at UNLV. Laterrance Welch played great and picked a pass off and Cohen Fuller sacked the quarterback. We also want to acknowledge safety Jaheem Joseph, who played very well in this game and made seven tackles.

The star of this game and the Bobcats' top player was running back Sieh Bangura, who carried the ball 19 times for 149 yards and a touchdown at 7.8 yards per carry.

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