UNLV Rebels Fall To The Boise State Broncos In The Mountain West Championship

The UNLV Rebels football team lost to the Boise State Broncos in the Mountain West Championship for the third consecutive year on Friday night. After fighting back from being down by a score of 28 - 7 to make it 28 - 21, the Broncos ultimately pulled away and won the game by a score of 38 - 21. The Rebels fought hard, but ultimately they dug themselves a hole too big to dig themselves out of. On this night, the Broncos were a better team and too much to overcome on their home field. Following the tough loss for the Rebels, head coach Dan Mullen spoke about the game.

"Tough loss. Great job by Boise State," Mullen said. "They're a good football team that is very well coached and disciplined. I give them credit on getting the win tonight. I'm proud of our guys' effort and how they all came together throughout the course of the season. Nobody knew each other last January and this team came together to compete for a championship. I'm proud of the effort our guys gave from the beginning to end of the season, since last January, in what we've tried to do, what we've tried to build and how we've played together."

Rebels' quarterback Anthony Colandrea played another solid game just days after being named the All-Mountain West First Team and the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year. He threw for 225 yards, a touchdown, and no interceptions, while also leading the team with 66 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground. UNLV struggled to run the ball after falling behind early and being plagued by pre-snap penalties that kept them behind the sticks far too often. The star quarterback spoke about the game following the loss.

“It sucks,” Colandrea said. “You work so hard during the offseason, and we came in January with 70 transfers to get this moment right here. We wanted this game, and Boise just outplayed us.”

The defense struggled to tackle at times in this game and fell victim to too many big plays; however, they showed a lot of fight in the second half after looking non-existent in the first half. A lot of that fight came from their defensive leader and leading tackler in the game, linebacker Marsel McDuffie, who finished the game with nine tackles (five solo). He also spoke to the media following the game.

“You work so hard to get to this moment and third straight year against the same team, and you put in all the work and do everything you can,” McDuffie said. “Sometimes it doesn’t work out the way you want it to.”

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