UNLV stands as a focal point in Las Vegas sports footprint amid undefeated start, conference expansion hopes

Las Vegas’ footprint is everywhere in sports and entertainment, and UNLV, a program with a handful of winning seasons since the Randall Cunningham days of the early 1980s, is having a run in the middle of it all. 

How it reversed its fortune is not simply a big gamble gone right. The Rebels, ranked in a major poll for the first time, have quickly become a case study of finding immediate success with an open-minded veteran coach who can balance recruiting and the transfer portal. 

Barry Odom is doing historic things just 17 games in. At No. 25, UNLV appeared in the Coaches Poll for the first time in its 46-year history. The 3-0 start is anchored by a blowout over Houston and a comeback at Kansas, which is (theoretically) good enough for No. 1 (2-0) in the Big 12 standings. 

“We got a good thing going. We’ve made progress, but we’re so far away from playing our best ball,” Odom told CBS Sports.

There’s a difficult schedule still to navigate, but Odom has UNLV in contention for a second straight appearance in the Mountain West Championship Game — and perhaps more, with a roster of veteran holdovers complemented by transfers ranging from the SEC to the FCS.

“In the world of college football now, I don’t believe in rebuilds because of the way you can build a roster,” Odom said. “I believe the expectation is the kids don’t want to hear ‘rebuild.’ My vision for them from Day 1 is we’re going to go to work. There is a standard and expectation that UNLV should compete and win a championship ever year. That is our goal.”

The 3-0 start is the program’s first since the Cunningham-led team in 1984. This roster has benefited from FCS transfers in the offensive backfield and a linebacker from Arkansas, but there are several veterans who remained on board with the current staff. Among them is receiver Ricky White III, who set the school’s single-season receiving record last season as a third-team AP All-American.

The staff has worked out, too. Bobby Petrino was a splashy early assistant hire for Odom, but he left for Texas A&M after only a few days on the job. Next up was Brennan Marion, a wunderkind play-caller whose Go-Go offense features a downhill running offense that takes advantage of spacing and tempo. Odom’s defense and Marion’s offense proved complementary, with Marion’s unit breaking a school record with six games with at least 40 points. 

The new rising star is quarterback Matthew Sluka, a transfer from FCS Holy Cross who didn’t arrive on campus until the second week of June but won the starting job in August. His game-winning drive against Kansas is delightful: eight rushes for 56 yards, kept the chains moving, and burned 9:22 off the clock.

Luka’s heart-pounding runs and scrambles spoke to the hard-nosed approach Odom preaches.

“He hasn’t been perfect and he’s gotten a lot better from Game 1 to Game 3,” Odom said. “He’s just getting started on what he’s going to become. He wants the ball, he thrives for those moments, and he’s got a great internal fortitude on trying to produce, to help his team win. He’s got a factor that won’t show up when you go and do an in-school or in-home visit. He’s got some characteristics when the lights come on that he’s going to go make a play.”

UNLV’s big moment on national television was juxtaposed with the Pac-12’s plans to add four schools from the Mountain West (Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State) by July 1, 2026, with the piquing Rebels noticeably not among them.

The MWC is on the hunt for more members, with administrators aiming for at least three more schools to reach nine football members, sources told CBS Sports. UNLV’s growing profile makes it a candidate for the new-look Pac-12, and it has received interest from the AAC as the next round of conference realignment spins. 

Recent success in one program doesn’t speak to the health of an entire athletics department and university, but the Kansas win certainly helped those short-term visions, too.

“When people ask me about realignment, I tell them, if we’re not taking care of home, none of the realignment matters, because realignment involves a lot more than just one thing — it involves a lot more than just winning,” UNLV athletics director Erick Harper said. “It involves a lot of the other pieces, from community support to campus support to winning, obviously, but also the market with which we’re in.

“[Houston and Kansas] gave us a bigger profile that says ‘They’re for real, and they’ve made the investment in football in a city that is thriving as the sports and entertainment capital of the world.’ That bodes well for us as an institution across the board.”

A package deal with UNLV and Nevada in the next realignment stage is also not a given, sources told CBS Sports. A member of the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Board of Regents told The San Diego Union-Tribune “there is nothing structurally that ties them together.”

“There’s always interest,” Harper said. “You have to have an interest in elevating your department. If it elevates your department, we have to have a conversation. If it doesn’t elevate our department and our institution, we have to evaluate.”

Odom doesn’t bother himself with it. He stresses over a month-long run that is about to includes chances against Boise State, Fresno State, Oregon State and Syracuse, three of which are at home. 

“We’ve earned some respect,” Odom said, “but I also believe we’re scratching the surface on what this place can be.”

That doesn’t mean Odom is avoiding the possibilities in the future. The College Football Playoff is a routine conversation, making it a clear goal for the season. 

“I’m not philosophically so much different than I was at [Missouri],” said Odom, who coached the Tigers from 2016-19, “but I’m a lot better at seeing the big picture on what we really need to do.” 

UNLV signed 48 high school players in Odom’s first two classes, including eight from the Las Vegas area in 2024. The Rebels’ transfer class in 2024 was tops in the Mountain West, per 247Sports. Running back Kylin James, who scored the winning touchdown against Kansas, transferred from FCS Central Arkansas. Linebacker Jackson Woodard, who once played for Odom at Arkansas, picked off Jalon Daniels and took the Jayhawks’ offense off the field in critical third-down moments. 

“We’ve been very, very select and direct in the transfer world,” Odom said. “We’ve hit on guys that we knew before through prior relationships or we’ve actually seen with our own eyes.”

Odom has chops as a defensive mind, dating back to his days at Missouri even before his promotion to coach. In 2015, the Tigers finished top-10 in total defense for the first time since the NCAA started recording defensive stats in 1978. He flipped Memphis‘ defense overnight, taking over a unit that ranked 117th into the fifth-best scoring defense in the country in 2014.  

A 6-6 finish to 2019 was Odom’s last at Missouri, but he landed on his feet a few days later at Arkansas,. In 2021, the Razorbacks recorded their best defensive season in seven years. 

“It was devastating getting fired at Mizzou,” Odom said. “Just like life, I’m a heck of a lot better coach today than I was in 2016, 2019 and even last year at this time. You learn from your experiences, you make changes, you look in the mirror and make a heavy self-evaluation. You hire the right people, support them, build them up and put your stamp on the program and the foundation.”

When UNLV fired Marcus Arroyo after a three-year stint that included a winless record in 2020, Harper searched for a “flat-out ball coach, a guy that just kind of lives and breathes football.” 

Odom was that guy. “When his picture comes up (on Google), it’s a guy with a T-shirt, a whistle, shorts and a hat,” Harper said. “To me, that just exemplifies a flat-out ball coach.”

The Rebels won nine games in 2023; more will be needed if the College Football Playoff is the goal. 

“We don’t necessarily live in a world of guarantees,” Harper said. “I live in Vegas. We’re a gambling city, and sometimes you have to be on the come. But when you weigh the pros and cons and what’s best for your institution, there’s opportunity in a city full of risk-takers. The lights over there on the strip aren’t on because they’re giving away money every single day, but they sure do a nice job of enticing people to come over there and bet on the come.”