UNLV Rebels Head Coach Dan Mullen Responds To His Defense's Poor Play After Week 10 Loss

The UNLV Rebels, after starting off 6 - 0 and having big dreams of earning a College Football Playoff bid, have now dropped two in a row after losing 40 - 35 to the New Mexico Lobos. In their back-to-back losses, they have allowed 96 points. The issue has clearly been the defense all season, and head coach Dan Mullen seems to completely understand that, even if the coaching staff hasn't been able to come up with answers to fix the issues.

However, it does not mean that he doesn't have a plan to work on the problems and understand that they need to be addressed. Whether or not they can execute that plan and fix things remains to be seen. Following the loss, coach Mullen spoke about the defensive shortcomings and spoke about the failures of both the coaches and the players, and what they need to do to turn things around.

UNLV Rebels Head Coach Dan Mullen On His Defense Not Performing Like They Need To

“It’s my responsibility to make sure we perform the way we need to perform,” Mullen said. “There are a lot of things we can look at. To me, the consistency of our performance is not where it needs to be and that goes to the head coach 100 percent.

Of making sure we’re doing everything the right way all the time comes down to me. Right now, we’re not doing a good enough job with that.”

Mullen On His Defense Needing To Change Some Things Schematically

“We have to make sure schematically that we’re in the right looks and we don’t ask guys to do things they can’t do. We’re not causing enough confusion on defense right now. We’re making things too easy on the offense. That’s on me. We have to make sure to just not allow them to have explosive plays.”

Mullen On His Defense Struggling To Adjust To Different Looks

“We’re going to see things we haven’t seen before. They ran some things today they hadn’t run before in all three phases. But you should be aligned and take care of where you’re going to be. We’re not doing a good enough job of making those adjustments.”

Mullen On Having To Be Prepared To Compete Every Week And Avoid Repeating Mistakes

“It’s a tough league where we have to battle every single week. We know it. We see it. I have to make sure we don’t make the mistakes and errors that cost us that game today.”

More UNLV Rebels On SI News