UNLV Football: Can Rebels overcome tough schedule to show improvement?

After a winless campaign in 2020, can second-year head coach Marcus Arroyo show that UNLV Football is on the right track as a program?

After an 0-6 season in 2020, UNLV football head coach Marcus Arroyo went on to sign one of the top recruiting classes in the Mountain West and bring in four power five transfers to help out the roster.

UNLV has always struggled to have sustained success as a program, but the Rebels have shown the ability to be able to recruit some local talent, which Las Vegas has plenty of. If Arroyo can sustain this recruiting momentum, the Rebels could be on the rise as a program. The number one thing that can help recruiting efforts however is winning, and that is not something that UNLV Football did at all last season or any time recently.

After serving as the offensive coordinator at Oregon, Arroyo came to UNLV as a proven recruiter and hoped to jumpstart the program. Some of the top talent in the country comes out of Las Vegas and while it is not realistic to think that some of the five-star talent will ever come to UNLV, I think that they could do a better job locally and thus make the program better.

Besides recruiting, UNLV should focus on finding impact transfers through the transfer portal. Finding the right guys at any position will help develop younger players and UNLV is the right kind of school that can become the premier destination for transfers.

UNLV has only made two bowl games since 2008, but they have been close before. The Rebels have tried to make out-of-the-box coaching hires and other things to try and jumpstart this program. Hiring Arroyo seemed like a good move because of his recruiting prowess, but he has been questioned as a play-caller and a player development coach. Only time will tell whether this will work out, but there are positive signs around the program.

Here’s a look ahead to 2021, starting with the offense.