UNLV Rebels Lineman Reid Williams Says Week 1 Is "A Time To Prove Ourselves"

The UNLV Rebels football team may have won their Week 0 matchup against the Idaho State Bengals by a score of 38 - 31 in Allegiant Stadium, and the offense even looked good, scoring 38 points; however, they still had some glaring deficiencies. While most fingers are pointed at the defense for the team's struggles in Week 1, the offense was not without fault. The biggest concern being the play of the offensive line.

It seemed like the offensive line was fine enough when run blocking, although that could just be Jai'Den Thomas's greatness covering up some flaws. Nevertheless, there is no denying that the line has to get better in pass protection.

It is fair to say that an offensive line full of transfers will need time to gel and build chemistry, but no one is going to wait around and take it easy on them until they do. Teams are now circling UNLV on their schedule, and they are coming hard after them. This group needs to make it a priority to clean up their mistakes in a hurry.

Granted, the saving grace here is that both quarterbacks, Anthony Colandrea and Alex Orji, have the wheels to escape pressure and make something out of nothing, but it's never ideal to have your quarterbacks running for their lives as often as they had to last week. Both QBs played well despite this, so imagine how good they could be if the line improves even just a little bit from week to week.

Senior lineman Reid Williams is one of the best lineman on the team and a leader in this group. He acknowledged that the group has to learn from the adversity of Week 0 and build off the good things they done. Mistakes were made, but he views it as a learning experience that they are determined to get right.

UNLV Rebels Offensive Lineman Reid Williams On The Adversity Of Week 0

“It’s a huge game because it’s our first FBS game and a time to prove ourselves,” Williams said. “It will really test us as a team. Everybody is going to make mistakes. It’s how you handle them that’s important. We preach it every day — just handle adversity the right way.”

Williams On The Value Of Last Week's Win

“A win is a win. That game taught us where we need to get better. That was the most valuable part of it. But a win is a win, and we move forward.”

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