UNLV — Mountain West
HC
Dan Mullen · Allegiant Stadium · Las Vegas, NV · 65,000 cap
PPA off / def
0.30 / 0.21
2025
Class rank
#63
class of 2026
Returning PPA
15%
returning production
2026 schedule
2025 results (10–4)
Statistical comps — 2025 UNLV's closest analogs
Nearest neighbors by z-scored success rate, explosiveness, run rate & havoc (offense + defense), 2015–25.
2025 leaders
Transfer portal — 2026 (16 in / 15 out)
Origins
Cunningham punted and played quarterback here before a sixteen-year NFL career. The 2023 and 2024 teams reached the conference title game, the first sustained success in the program's life.
Founded 1957 · Began as the southern branch of Nevada, in a Las Vegas of 50,000 · first football 1968 · defined by Randall Cunningham
All-time record
All-time
223–345–3
1970–2025
Win %
39.3%
55 seasons played
Winning seasons
14
25% of seasons
By level: D-II 3–6 (1970–1977) · FBS 220–339–3 (1978–2025)
| Best seasons | W | L | Conference |
|---|
| 1984 | 11 | 2 | PCAA |
| 2024 | 11 | 3 | Mountain West |
| 2025 | 10 | 4 | Mountain West |
| 1979 | 9 | 1 | FBS Independents |
| 2023 | 9 | 5 | Mountain West |
Season records from CollegeFootballData, which is why the span starts at 1970 — that is where its coverage of this program begins, not necessarily the first year it fielded a team.
Play-calling tendencies (2025 · garbage time excluded)
| Situation | Plays | Run % | Success % | Nat'l | Avg yds | Expl % |
|---|
| 1st down | 395 | 53% |
48% | 29 of 136 | 7.3 | 16% |
| 2nd down | 275 | 49% |
46% | 28 of 136 | 6.9 | 16% |
| 3rd & short (≤3) | 42 | 74% |
62% | — | 4.0 | 10% |
| 3rd & medium (4–7) | 48 | 25% |
50% | — | 6.8 | 17% |
| 3rd & long (8+) | 64 | 25% |
31% | — | 6.8 | 16% |
| 4th down | 19 | 42% |
63% | — | 5.9 | 11% |
165 drives · 41% ended in points · 7.0 plays and 46.6 yards per drive · 1.63 PPA per drive
Success: 50% of yardage needed on 1st, 70% on 2nd, 100% on 3rd/4th. Explosive: 12+ yd rush / 16+ yd pass. National rank is shown only for 1st and 2nd down, where every team has 100+ plays; the later buckets average 18-43 and a rank there would be noise.
League leaderboard →Most valuable plays (by PPA, 2025)
| Wk | Opp | Play | Yds | PPA |
|---|
| 13 | Hawai'i |
(13:48) Shotgun #10 A.Colandrea pass complete deep left to #8 T.Lyons caught at UNLV48, fo… |
72 | 6.73 |
| 7 | Air Force |
Anthony Colandrea pass complete to Daejon Reynolds for 86 yds for a TD (Two-Point Conversi… |
86 | 6.66 |
| 11 | Colorado State |
(12:33) Shotgun #10 A.Colandrea pass complete deep right to #0 T.Omeire caught at CSU40, f… |
68 | 6.12 |
| 1 | Idaho State |
Jai'Den Thomas 70 Yd Run (Ramon Villela Kick) |
70 | 5.69 |
| 7 | Air Force |
Jai'Den Thomas run for 51 yds for a TD (Ramon Villela KICK) |
51 | 5.27 |
| 12 | Utah State |
(08:08) Shotgun #10 A.Colandrea pass complete short middle to #20 J.Glover caught at UNLV3… |
66 | 4.77 |
| 11 | Colorado State |
(13:02) Shotgun #9 J.Thomas rush left for 57 yards gain to the CSU00 TOUCHDOWN, clock 12:5… |
57 | 4.47 |
| 11 | Colorado State |
End of 4th quarter. |
83 | 4.23 |