Mullen says Rebels will be ready to make history

LAS VEGAS — When the word got out Saturday that the Mountain West was going to decide its football championship game participants with a conglomeration of computer metrics, I was pretty sure UNLV was going to get in.And once the Rebels handled Nevada with relative ease at Mackay Stadium, 42-17, my premonition got stronger. But I also thought Dan Mullen’s team was going to get a rematch with New Mexico.Instead, it will be Boise State on Friday night in what figures to be a chilly Albertsons Stadium.I won’t lie. I didn’t think the Broncos or San Diego State were getting in. The conspiracy theorist in me believed there’s no way commissioner Gloria Nevarez would allow two teams that are leaving her conference to compete for the title.But I guess computers don’t deal in conspiracy theories and Boise was in, San Diego State was out, and so was New Mexico, which had beaten UNLV head-to-head and, like the Rebels, are remaining put in the Mountain West going forward.So here we are. UNLV has had a tremendous season under Mullen, who appears to be staying put after a slew of schools filled coaching vacancies over the weekend. The Rebels will bring a 10-2 record into Friday’s title game and will hope the third time will be the charm after losing to Boise State each of the last two years’ championship tilt.And that’s where the focus needs to be for the Rebels. What’s done is done. Let New Mexico complain all it wants. San Diego State can move on as well and get ready to play football in the Pac-12 or whatever number it’s going to refer to itself as. The last conference football championship victory happened on Maryland Parkway back in 1984 when UNLV was in the Big West so this is a pretty big deal for the program.Can they do it?“Winning a championship would mean a lot to this group,” Mullen said at his weekly news conference Monday at the Fertitta Football Complex. “We have 70 new guys and we came together with the goal of winning a championship.”I like his chances. The offense continues to put up points under the direction of Anthony Colandrea. Jet Thomas’ balky hamstring appears to be a thing of the past as he rushed for 103 yards and four touchdowns in just 11 carries against Reno. The line continues to block well for Colandrea and the running backs and the receivers are making plays and hanging on to the ball.They’ll have to do it in inclement weather as the forecast calls for rain and temperatures in the low-to-mid-40s. But if you truly consider yourself to be a championship team, you overcome the elements.There’s plenty of revenge motivation working for the Rebels as well. I don’t know if Boise’s in their heads at this point but when you get another crack at a team that has beaten you 10 straight times going back to 1977, you want to take full advantage of the opportunity.“This a whole new crew and Year One,” Mullen said, apparently not too concerned about history other than October 18 when the Broncos handled his team 56-31. “I don’t have to worry about energy and motivation this week.”There’s another cause for optimism from the UNLV side of things. They’re a vastly different team from when they met Boise State the last time. The defense has improved over the last month, allowing an average of less than 15.7 points over its last four games, all wins.The main thing is we’re communicating,” linebacker Marsel McDuffie said of his unit’s 180-degree turnaround. Mullen said time together has made the defense better.“We put this defense in in the spring,” he said. The guys have been playing in the system longer so they’re more familiar with what we want.”Now they still do some dumb things from time to time, like going offsides eight times on Saturday. But that’s correctable and I’ll chalk that up to being too jacked up in a rivalry game. But they are much better and Paul Guenther deserves a bulk of the credit for getting his guys to make plays, get stops when they need to and play for each other.“Everyone has to be locked in and ready when the ball is snapped,” McDuffie said.Mullen’s plan not to overwork Thomas early in the season appears to have paid off as well. Yes, he was dealing with the hammy, but it didn’t stop him from running through and around the Wolf Pack. As long as he’s healthy and good to go Friday, he should be seeing a lot of action  in the MW title game. And it’ll be up to the Boise defense to try and stop him, or, at least, slow him down.“It’s worked because we have talented guys and we didn’t have to overuse Jet,” Mullen said of how he handled Thomas this year. “It’s a balance of what we do. Guys are ready for to take advantage of their opportunities when their number is called. That’s really hard to do but they’ve been ready.”The Broncos are going to be playing their starting quarterback Maddux Madsen as he is ready to go according to coach Spencer Danielson. Madsen got hurt a month ago but Max Cuttforth was effective, or at least effective enough to move the ball consistently and find the end zone.The oddsmakers think UNLV has a chance. They installed Boise State as 3.5-point favorites when the matchup was announced Sunday, which is interesting given where the game is being played and the recent history between the two teams.So will I be surprised if the Rebels find a way to prevail on the Smurf Turf of Boise in what will be the final Mountain West football championship game as we’ve known it? Considering that it wasn’t long ago they were on the outside looking in as being a participant in this game, nothing would shock me.