Rebels beat Cal in battle of big plays

LAS VEGAS — If you like big plays with your football, Allegiant Stadium was the place to be Saturday.

UNLV and California played “Can you top this?” with both teams trading big plays all afternoon. Touchdown passes. Interceptions. Blocked punts. Fake punts. Long runs. Boring it wasn’t.

And after taking close to four hours to decide the outcome, it was the Rebels who managed to get the win, 39-31 to improve to 3-2 as they get back into the Mountain West portion of the schedule next Saturday against North Dakota State, which is proving to be handling the hike from the FCS ranks with no problem. The Bison lead the conference and are 5-0 overall.

“A huge win by our guys,” Rebels coach Dan Mullen said. “It shows where the program is right now.”

Rebels quarterback Jackson Arnold, who is looking a lot more comfortable running Mullen’s offense, was in the mix of a number of big plays, good and bad. He connected with Kayden McGee on a 70-yard touchdown hookup that tied the game 7-7 after the UNLV defense had surrendered a 91-yard TD pass play earlier in the opening quarter. Arnold scored on a 55-yard run in the second quarter after he was part of a failed flea flicker which saw tight end Matt Byrnes try and chuck it into the end zone only to have it picked off.

The Rebels had an INT of their own courtesy of Quandarius Keyes, who grabbed Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele’s ill-advised pass at the Rebels 25 and return it to the Cal 28. That came following Cal blocking Matt Choules’ punt at the UNLV 34.

Choules atoned for the miscue by faking a punt and running for a first down. It ultimately led to a Ramon Villela field goal from 31 yards out.

And less than a minute before halftime, Arnold had another TD hookup, this one for 36 yards to Taz Reddicks who ran a great route, beat the secondary and hauled in the on-target throw to give UNLV a 24-7 lead.

See? No shortage of excitement.

And it didn’t stop with the start of the second half. Cal recovered an onside kick, drove to the UNLV 22 only to be stopped on 4th-and-2.

Jackson Brousseau, who came in at QB late in the second quarter when Sagapolutele was injured after being sacked, found Carson Perry-Smith on a wheel route and a 53-yard touchdown which cut it to 24-15. Then the Rebels fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the Golden Bears recovered and tacked on three more to close the gap even further, 24-18.

Strangely, Jet Thomas, arguably the most exciting player on the field, didn’t have a huge impact on the game. The UNLV senior running back was an obvious target of the Cal defense which did its level best to keep him in check. He was limited to just 47 yards rushing on 16 carries and only two receptions for two yards.

But in doing so, that gave Arnold more opportunities to do damage and that’s precisely what he did. He threw for 177 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 110 and two TDs. No fumbles. No interceptions. A couple of throws he’d probably like back and a couple that were dropped on him. But it looks like he’s found his comfort level running this offense of Mullen’s and Corey Dennis’.

“I think I’m more comfortable with the offense,” Arnold said. “We’ve worked hard since the spring and I’m able to run things.”

Mullen said of Arnold: “We know when to take the shots downfield. How do you use the offense to create the big plays? I think that’s where Jackson has grown.”

It’s why Mullen brought Arnold to Las Vegas. He knows how to develop quarterbacks and get them to operate efficiently. And after a bit of a rough start, Arnold has made steady improvement and is playing more instinctively.

But more challenges await the Rebels. North Dakota State is the real deal. Then it’s a road game at Air Force, which is never easy. So things can still go sideways for UNLV in October.

Still, the Rebels found a way to come out on top Saturday. The defense did give up a couple of big plays. But it also produced stops on fourth down on three different occasions. The special teams may have struggled, but in the end, when Cal was trying to execute a second successful insides kick, UNLV came up with the football.

And on a day where its best offensive player was held in check, UNLv still managed to generate 350 yards in total offense thanks to its quarterback who looks more and more like the leader he was brought in to be.