UNLV Rebels vs Washington State Cougars Football Preview

This Saturday, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Rebels will be playing in Pullman, Washington, far removed from the national spotlight. When the Rebels take on the Washington State Cougars, few national college football scribes will be paying attention. Most pundits will be glued to the South Carolina-Georgia game in Athens and the Alabama-Penn State game in Happy Valley. Nevertheless, for a game between two schools whose football programs lie in disrepair, this is a pretty important moment as far as the 2011 season is concerned. The year might be young, but the hour grows late for the Rebels and the Cougars.

Yes, this clash between the Mountain West and the Pac-12 will not draw top billing, but it will point the way forward for the winner. One doesn’t quite know what to expect in this game, but it can confidently and surely be said that this is a major proving ground for both teams.

Let’s start with the homestanding Cougars. Sure it was a win, but that 64-21 victory in week one was expected for Washington State as it hosted lowly Idaho State on Saturday. What wasn’t expected was that an ailing Jeff Tuel, the Cougars’ starting quarterback, would play only one series due to illness and leave the field with a broken collarbone. His backup, Marshall Lobbestael, filled in quite nicely, going 14-of-19 for 230 yards and two touchdowns. However, against a Big Sky cellar dweller, anything else would have been markedly disconcerting. With a hungry UNLV team arriving in Pullman, the test will be at least a little more challenging than what Pocatello’s Bengals can give. It’s difficult to tell what we know about the Cougars after such a game.

UNLV didn’t have tons of success in its lopsided 51-17 loss to Wisconsin. However, Caleb Herring did show poise at quarterback, completing 67 percent of his passes while throwing two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also helped institute the debut of a pistol rushing package for UNLV that brought some success to the Rebels’ rushing game. If UNLV can build on that, this could be a much more competitive game than last week. One area concern for Washington State is that while it only allowed 23 rushing yards to Idaho State, it also allowed 430 passing yards. If this was due to anything other than inattention due to the score (i.e., laziness in the course of a blowout victory), the Rebels could have opportunity to build upon the offensive successes of last week.

This has all the makings of a shootout, but the key questions are these: Is Idaho State that bad? Is Wisconsin that good? Did Wazzu play a deceptively easy opponent? Did UNLV put up a better fight against Wisconsin than one might first appreciate? The opponents these two teams played in week one – Wazzu a cupcake, UNLV a heavyweight – make this week-two tilt so hard to predict.

It also makes it so important for these teams to find a quality win in week two; otherwise, their seasons are sure to take a downward trajectory.

> Find a great selection of UNLV Rebels apparel & merchandise online as well as the MWC Football Scoreboard!

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer