It's been a while since the UNLV Rebels got into a bowl game. To be exact, we're talking about New Year's Day of 2014, when they played in something called the Heart of Dallas Bowl. And you'd have to go all the way back to 2000 to find their last victory in bowl competition.

So it might stand to reason that they would be pretty excited to be involved in the postseason, as they will take on the Kansas Jayhawks in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, which will kick off at 9 PM ET at Chase Field in Phoenix, where the Arizona Diamondbacks hosted some World Series games.

One guy who's been around for a lot of bowl games in his life but not one yet with the UNLV program is head coach Barry Odom, who brought this team to the Mountain West title game. Odom was a varsity player with Missouri, and spent four years coaching the Tigers, during which time he took them to the Texas Bowl and the Liberty Bowl. This year he achieved his highest one-year win total with the Rebels.

The story of the Kansas coach, Lance Leipold, is a bit different. There may not have been a greater legend in Division III coaching than him. Leipold guided Wisconsin-Whitewater to six national titles in seven years, leaving there with a record of 109-6. That's not a typo.

From there he resurrected the program at the University of Buffalo, going to three bowl games. After finishing 25th in the nation in 2020, he went to Kansas, and is now in his second bowl game there.

The Guaranteed Rate Bowl was formerly known as the Insight Bowl, and Odom played in that game (which was held in Tucson) while a linebacker at Missouri.

In the college football betting odds that have been posted on this game by the people at BetOnline, Kansas is the favorite:

Kansas Jayhawks -8 (-104)
UNLV Rebels +8 (-116)

Over 65 Points -105
Under 65 Points -115

Things did not end well for UNLV. They lost 37-31 to San Jose State in the final regular season game, and then were shellacked 44-20 by Boise State in the Mountain West championship game. Both of those games were held at Allegiant Stadium.

Leipold started out prepration for this bowl game up one starting quarterback, but down one offensive coordinator. Jason Bean, a sixth-year senior, has been declared available for this game after the Jayhawks endured some horrible injury attrition at the position.

However, the coordinator of the attack, Andy Kotelnicki, was hired away by Penn State, to be replaced by Jeff Grimes, formerly of Baylor and BYU. Such is the nature of college football, for all of you folks who complain about players going into the transfer portal.

And speaking of the transfer portal, there may have been some speculation that UNLV quarterback Jayden Maiava might head there after the season came to a conclusion. Maiava, only a freshman, completed just under 63% of his passes with 14 touchdowns and 8.8 yards per attempt. But he says he's returning."We're going to run it back," he told reporters. The same goes for junior wideout Ricky White, who caught 81 passes for 1386 yards, which ranked fourth in the nation.

Both of these guys love the concepts of the "Go-Go Offense," the brainchild of coordinator Brennan Marion, and it's a credit to Odom for seeking out new ideas. The Rebels can also run all over the polace with a committee of backs. The problem with UNLV is that they can't stop anybody. That's a biugger headache considering the talents of Bean, a North Texas transfer who is averaging almost ten yards a pass attempt, and Devin Neal, a horse of a back who's over 1200 yards.

Kansas will let its opponents run too (4.5 ypc allowed), so what we an envision is a festival of explosive offensive plays that lead us toward the OVER in what should be an exciting Guaranteed Rate Bowl contest.

Let BetOnline take you right through the four-team playoff with great college football betting options, including Prop Builder. And remember that you can join up easily, by using your credit card or any number of crypto options, including Bitcoin!