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Posted on: October 10, 2023 at 12:38:42 CT
zounami MU
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Las Vegas has it all — and now it might have a relevant college football program
By Bruce Feldman
Oct 10, 2023
Las Vegas has everything — glitz, glamour and more star-studded shows than anywhere in the country. The only thing it hasn’t had is a relevant college football program. But that, too, might be coming to town.
The UNLV Rebels are 4-1. It’s quite the departure for a program that has had just one winning season since 2000 and has had 10 seasons in that stretch in which it’s won two games or fewer. It’s been a remarkable turnaround under first-year coach Barry Odom. The Rebels have scored 40-plus points in three consecutive games for the first time in school history and are doing it with a fascinating collection of characters.
In the 46-year-old Odom, the Rebels hired an SEC defensive coordinator from Arkansas who had long been hoping for a second chance to be a head coach. Odom did a respectable job at Missouri, his alma mater, taking over for a legend in Gary Pinkel. Odom went 21-17 in his last three seasons but was fired after his team went 6-6 in 2019.
One subtle change he’s made this time around is how he’s structured practice, starting from spring ball all the way through fall camp and into the season.
“Everybody in our program has gotten equal reps,” Odom said last week. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a first-teamer or a fourth-team guy. They’re all getting the same scripts and the same amount of reps.”
The upshot of that is the Rebels have built more depth and have more game-ready players than most programs in the Group of 5.
“You have to have repetitions,” Odom said. “Our staff has done a nice job with the organization of that, and our kids have really bought into that. They think it’s a huge advantage for us, and it is. I did not do this at Missouri. I didn’t know how to structure it. We did it the first two years at Arkansas (under Sam Pittman), and it was a straight Georgia plan on how they structured practice, and I thought if I ever get another chance, this is what I’m gonna do.
“If you can keep enough guys healthy throughout the year, we’re gonna flood ’em with reps, and you can see the improvements if you put on the film from practice from Week 1 to this week. We look like a different football team.”
Odom was pleased by something he noticed in Week 2 amid the Rebels’ 35-7 loss at No. 2 Michigan. His team never backed down, especially late in the game.
“Our guys were still swinging,” he said. “That was a good sign for me to see.”
What wasn’t great was losing standout quarterback Doug Brumfield the following week against Vanderbilt. UNLV was down 17-0 but rallied for a 40-37 win behind redshirt freshman Jayden Maiava. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Maiava has proved to be a revelation, triggering UNLV’s new Go-Go offense under new coordinator Brennan Marion. It’s a two-back misdirection offense with a ton of window dressing that has the triple-option coming off of every run and also attacks the field vertically with the pass.
“He’s like a great point guard out there,” Marion said. “He gets us in the right play and makes great decisions. It gets out of his hands fast. He hasn’t taken any sacks in the last two games.”
Maiava has been so sharp that he’s remained the starter even though Brumfield is healthy.
“We’re playing king of the hill, so until he proves otherwise, he’s the guy,” Marion said.
The Rebels’ other big find has been freshman running back Jai’Den “Jet” Thomas, a speedster from Georgia who didn’t even have a recruiting profile from 247Sports. Marion got word of him from a private wide receivers coach he knew through Jordan Addison, one of his former players during his time at Pitt.
“He goes, ‘Man, I got this guy. He’s undersized, but he’s so fast,’” Marion said.
The new UNLV staff watched his film and loved the 5-8, 180-pounder from Atlanta.
Thomas scored two TDs in the season opener and went for 100 yards and four touchdowns at UTEP.
“He loves football, and I think that makes such a huge difference,” Odom said. “He’s a ball guy, and I think you can win with those guys.”
The 36-year-old Marion, who had a big impact at William & Mary and Howard as an OC at the FCS level, has been a terrific fit with the Rebels. He was the guy Odom turned to after his initial offensive coordinator, Bobby Petrino, bolted after a few weeks on the job to take the same position at Texas A&M. Marion’s funky system — that even has some ring-around-the-rosy motions — has meshed well with O-line coach Vance Vice, whom Odom had worked with at Memphis. Air Force is the only team running the ball better in the Mountain West.
Odom credits Marion and the offensive staff for doing a great job of creating a plan for each opponent and finding an advantage for the Rebels. Vice’s guys block well at the point of attack, and Marion’s scheme with perimeter runs and quick passes creates problems for defenses laterally that help open up running lanes.
“Brennan continues to create plays through running the ball,” Odom said. “Everybody thinks his type of offense is the vertical passing game, and that is part of it, but one of the main reasons he’s here is because of his stance on being able to run the football, and that’s absolutely what I believe in.”
Marion, a record-setting receiver at Tulsa under Gus Malzahn, has some of the same flavor that the UCF head coach has in his offense. Odom notes that what the Rebels are doing demands a lot of eye discipline from a defense. You’re always trying to account for an extra hat, and there are also so many deceptive pictures pre-snap that end up confusing opponents post-snap with all of the motion and shifts that come at them.
“I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface yet on offense of what I think we can be,” Odom said.
As a young coach hoping to get his shot running his offense at the FBS level, Marion was concerned that he’d have to keep things more vanilla, but Malzahn offered sound advice: “If it worked in high school, it’ll work here.”
After the Rebels put up another 40-plus point performance, Marion got a text from his old college quarterback G.J. Kinne, now the first-year head coach at Texas State.
“Keep killin’ it. Just run your s—!”
By Bruce Feldman
Oct 10, 2023
Las Vegas has everything — glitz, glamour and more star-studded shows than anywhere in the country. The only thing it hasn’t had is a relevant college football program. But that, too, might be coming to town.
The UNLV Rebels are 4-1. It’s quite the departure for a program that has had just one winning season since 2000 and has had 10 seasons in that stretch in which it’s won two games or fewer. It’s been a remarkable turnaround under first-year coach Barry Odom. The Rebels have scored 40-plus points in three consecutive games for the first time in school history and are doing it with a fascinating collection of characters.
In the 46-year-old Odom, the Rebels hired an SEC defensive coordinator from Arkansas who had long been hoping for a second chance to be a head coach. Odom did a respectable job at Missouri, his alma mater, taking over for a legend in Gary Pinkel. Odom went 21-17 in his last three seasons but was fired after his team went 6-6 in 2019.
One subtle change he’s made this time around is how he’s structured practice, starting from spring ball all the way through fall camp and into the season.
“Everybody in our program has gotten equal reps,” Odom said last week. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a first-teamer or a fourth-team guy. They’re all getting the same scripts and the same amount of reps.”
The upshot of that is the Rebels have built more depth and have more game-ready players than most programs in the Group of 5.
“You have to have repetitions,” Odom said. “Our staff has done a nice job with the organization of that, and our kids have really bought into that. They think it’s a huge advantage for us, and it is. I did not do this at Missouri. I didn’t know how to structure it. We did it the first two years at Arkansas (under Sam Pittman), and it was a straight Georgia plan on how they structured practice, and I thought if I ever get another chance, this is what I’m gonna do.
“If you can keep enough guys healthy throughout the year, we’re gonna flood ’em with reps, and you can see the improvements if you put on the film from practice from Week 1 to this week. We look like a different football team.”
Odom was pleased by something he noticed in Week 2 amid the Rebels’ 35-7 loss at No. 2 Michigan. His team never backed down, especially late in the game.
“Our guys were still swinging,” he said. “That was a good sign for me to see.”
What wasn’t great was losing standout quarterback Doug Brumfield the following week against Vanderbilt. UNLV was down 17-0 but rallied for a 40-37 win behind redshirt freshman Jayden Maiava. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Maiava has proved to be a revelation, triggering UNLV’s new Go-Go offense under new coordinator Brennan Marion. It’s a two-back misdirection offense with a ton of window dressing that has the triple-option coming off of every run and also attacks the field vertically with the pass.
“He’s like a great point guard out there,” Marion said. “He gets us in the right play and makes great decisions. It gets out of his hands fast. He hasn’t taken any sacks in the last two games.”
Maiava has been so sharp that he’s remained the starter even though Brumfield is healthy.
“We’re playing king of the hill, so until he proves otherwise, he’s the guy,” Marion said.
The Rebels’ other big find has been freshman running back Jai’Den “Jet” Thomas, a speedster from Georgia who didn’t even have a recruiting profile from 247Sports. Marion got word of him from a private wide receivers coach he knew through Jordan Addison, one of his former players during his time at Pitt.
“He goes, ‘Man, I got this guy. He’s undersized, but he’s so fast,’” Marion said.
The new UNLV staff watched his film and loved the 5-8, 180-pounder from Atlanta.
Thomas scored two TDs in the season opener and went for 100 yards and four touchdowns at UTEP.
“He loves football, and I think that makes such a huge difference,” Odom said. “He’s a ball guy, and I think you can win with those guys.”
The 36-year-old Marion, who had a big impact at William & Mary and Howard as an OC at the FCS level, has been a terrific fit with the Rebels. He was the guy Odom turned to after his initial offensive coordinator, Bobby Petrino, bolted after a few weeks on the job to take the same position at Texas A&M. Marion’s funky system — that even has some ring-around-the-rosy motions — has meshed well with O-line coach Vance Vice, whom Odom had worked with at Memphis. Air Force is the only team running the ball better in the Mountain West.
Odom credits Marion and the offensive staff for doing a great job of creating a plan for each opponent and finding an advantage for the Rebels. Vice’s guys block well at the point of attack, and Marion’s scheme with perimeter runs and quick passes creates problems for defenses laterally that help open up running lanes.
“Brennan continues to create plays through running the ball,” Odom said. “Everybody thinks his type of offense is the vertical passing game, and that is part of it, but one of the main reasons he’s here is because of his stance on being able to run the football, and that’s absolutely what I believe in.”
Marion, a record-setting receiver at Tulsa under Gus Malzahn, has some of the same flavor that the UCF head coach has in his offense. Odom notes that what the Rebels are doing demands a lot of eye discipline from a defense. You’re always trying to account for an extra hat, and there are also so many deceptive pictures pre-snap that end up confusing opponents post-snap with all of the motion and shifts that come at them.
“I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface yet on offense of what I think we can be,” Odom said.
As a young coach hoping to get his shot running his offense at the FBS level, Marion was concerned that he’d have to keep things more vanilla, but Malzahn offered sound advice: “If it worked in high school, it’ll work here.”
After the Rebels put up another 40-plus point performance, Marion got a text from his old college quarterback G.J. Kinne, now the first-year head coach at Texas State.
“Keep killin’ it. Just run your s—!”
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for you poorfolk... - zounami MU - 10/10 12:38:42