3 takeaways from UNLV football’s wild win against Cal

In a game that had a little bit of everything on Saturday, UNLV’s football team outlasted Cal 39-31 at Allegiant Stadium.

And, man, this had some crazy back-and-forth action.

The Rebels lost all of a 17-point halftime lead before rallying in the fourth quarter to close out the nonconference portion of their schedule.

“Obviously, a tremendous win by our guys,” Rebels coach Dan Mullen said. “Showed a tremendous amount of toughness as a football team. So many ups and downs for both sides of battling.

“The grit it showed for our guys to come from behind and get it done. We have a ton of guys banged up. They had guys banged up. Huge win. Huge job by our guys to finish that game off and get to the win against a Power 4 opponent from the ACC. We’ll take that.”

UNLV is now 7-2 in its past nine games against power conference teams dating to 2023.

“Hey,” Mullen said, “that’s pretty good.”

Here are three takeaways from the victory:

1. Explosive plays

Mullen talks about them frequently. How important they are to a bottom line of winning. Each team had their share on Saturday, and those from UNLV led to the win.

The Rebels couldn’t have asked for a better day from quarterback Jackson Arnold, who would throw for 158 yards and three scores while rushing for 110 and two more.

Think about it: He hit wide receiver Kayden McGee with a 70-yard score, ran for a 55-yard touchdown and threw a 36-yard scoring pass to Taz Reddicks.

“Those were huge,” Mullen said. “Cal is a team that has a great secondary and plays a lot of man coverage. You have your one-on-one matchups. Jackson did an amazing job of understanding when it’s man-to-man.”

UNLV tried for another big play with a double-pass, but tight end Matt Byrnes had his attempt intercepted in the end zone.

“It was third down, and we had it in the red zone,” Mullen said. “We were going to be aggressive in that game. They’re a very good defense. You saw them. Their safeties were flying up to the line of scrimmage every play. We thought, ‘Let’s hit them with a double pass over the top.’ They did a good job reading the play and seeing the play.”

2. Crazy special teams

Fake punts. Blocked punts. Kickoff returns for touchdowns nullified by penalty. Onside kicks.

Yeah. This one had everything.

“We did a couple good things on special teams and some really bad things on special teams.” Mullen said. “We said they were going to surprise (coming out of halftime) with an onside kick and had everybody lined up right and they executed that perfectly to (recover it).

“Then we fumble on a kickoff return and give them two extra possessions. I think we shanked two punts to give them short fields. Things you can’t do. But we had a (successful) fake punt. So many ebbs and flows. I’ll be really interested in watching (the film) of the special teams.”

UNLV’s fake punt came at its own 39 with five minutes left in the first half and saw Matt Choules rumble 12 yards for the first down.

The Rebels then eventually cashed in the play with a field goal that pushed their lead to 17-7 with 1:45 remaining before intermission.

3. Injured Cal quarterback

Much was made beforehand about Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and his place as a potential future first-round NFL draft pick.

But his day ended early when Sagapolutele hit his head on the turf while being tackled in the final minute of the second quarter.

He appeared woozy when getting up and trainers finally arrived when a teammate motioned for Sagapolutele to leave the field.

“Jaron was medically cleared, but I personally wasn’t comfortable with the way he came off the field literally wobbling,” Cal coach Tosh Lupoi said. “So I made the decision to go with (backup) Jackson (Brousseau) and not jeopardize Jaron’s health. His health, his life and his career are much more important than the game.

“I made that decision. I’m not going to put anyone in harm’s way.”

Sagapolutele completed 19 of 27 for 195 yards with a 91-yard scoring pass before getting injured.