Preview and Pick for Runnin' Rebels at Aztecs

The UNLV Runnin' Rebels finally had enough of local "legend" Tony Sanchez and will be moving forward with a new coach that has already done some nifty recruiting. The San Diego State Aztecs hope that they can still be gnarly on defense - and they should be - with new coach Brady Hoke, who was elevated from defensive coordinator.

These two Mountain West teams will tangle on Saturday. The game will take place at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, CA, with a 10:30 PM ET kickoff.

UNLV REBELS at SAN DIEGO STATE AZTECS, 10:30 PM ET

BetOnline College Football Odds: San Diego State -14 (-115), Total 50

UNLV felt as if hiring Tony Sanchez as head coach would help them dominate on the local recruiting scene, considering he had run a dominant high school program in the area. But he didn't work out, leaving a lot of disappointed people in his wake. You can't help but believe there has been an upgrade with the hiring of Marcus Arroyo, who had been the offensive coordinator at Oregon, working with people like current L.A. Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert.

Arroyo reportedly has already made strides on the recruiting front; in fact, many have touted their incoming class as the best in the Mountain West Conference. The general consensus was that UNLV had more talent than Sanchez was able to get out of them, even if that sounds kind of indelicate.

With sophomore Kanyon Oblad at quarterback, the offense would have more continuity. As a frosh he threw for 18 touchdowns. But this appears to be one of those situations where Arroyo has declared the position the subject of a competition. This includes Justin Rogers, a TCU transfer who is looked upon as the eventual #1 guy, and Max Gillaim, who has had a number of starts for the program.

Whoever winds up taking most of the snaps will be someone who probably didn't get enough snaps with the first unit in the new system.

And there might be a further complication for the Rebels. The three top returning receivers - Randall Grimes, Brandon Pressley, and Mekhi Stevenson - may be left out of this game because of positive COVID-19 tests. That would leave the QB's severely handicapped.

These tests also may take out defensive starters Greg Francis and Farrell Hester, since they did not appear on the depth chart released by Arroyo. Now think about this - UNLV was returning only four starters to a stop unit that didn't stop anyone, and in fact gave up 442 yards a game and surrendered 5.1 yards a rush attempt to opponents last year.

When UNLV has the ball, BetOnline patrons can expect that the Rebels will , for now, lean heavily upon their top offensive asset. And that would be Charles Williams, the senior running back who is coming off a season where he averaged almost six yards a carry enroute to 1257 yards.

San Diego State would seem to be pretty well equipped to deal with Williams.

Last year Clemson forced opponents into a three-and-out situation 46.6% of the time, and that led the nation. SDSU was next at 46.5%. That's how good the stop unit was. And Hoke, who handled that defense under Rocky Long last season, assumes the head job, and obviously he has previous experience, most notably at Michigan. The 3-3-5 alignment that Long made famous won't change, and the Aztecs have seven starters returning there. This defensive line was #1 in the nation in Adjusted Line Yards, meaning that by at least one metric they were the toughest to run on.

SDSU allowed 75 yards a game on the ground in 2019. UNLV had 121 against them in a 20-17 loss a year ago. That translated to less than four yards a carry. The Aztecs, however, are not going to run and hide form many opponents (110th in total offense last season). And QB Carson Baker has his own learning curve to go through.

I foresee more of an offensive slog than an offensive explosion here. So it's UNDER the total on this one.

BetOnline brings you the best in college football action, and that includes special props that will help you enjoy all the action........ Check out Odds Booster, where you can get greatly enhanced payouts on pre-selected parlays - every day of the week......... And remember that they take a number of cryptocurrencies for the purpose of opening an account. This includes Bitcoin!