UNLV rode a first-year coach to 10 wins and a Mountain West title game appearance in 2025. North Texas went 11-2 and reached its first-ever conference championship. Neither team looks anything like it did last fall.
Bush’s Picks
UNLVUNT
UNLVUNT
OverUnder
Best BetUNLV
UNLV enters with more continuity where it counts, a coaching staff already a year into its system and a defense that added pieces instead of hemorrhaging them. North Texas is starting over at quarterback and everywhere else after losing its best players in the coaching change, which is a lot to ask of a team this early in the season. Back the Rebels here.
UNLV
+10-4 breakout debut season under Dan Mullen
+Added former five-star QB Jackson Arnold
+Beat every nonconference opponent in 2025
−Lost starting QB Colandrea to the Nebraska portal
−Arnold never locked down a job at Oklahoma or Auburn
−Lost defensive starter Andrew Powdrell to West Virginia
North Texas
+Won 11 games, first-ever title game trip in 2025
+New coach Neal Brown has head-coaching track record
+Still projected as competitive despite the exodus
−Zero returning starters, one of two FBS teams
−Lost conference Offensive Player and Rookie of the Year
−Unsettled three-way quarterback competition entering fall
The stakes are modest for a mid-September nonconference game, but this one is loaded with subplots, because both programs are trying to answer a quarterback question that says everything about where they're headed. UNLV handed the job to Jackson Arnold, the former five-star recruit who bounced from Oklahoma to Auburn without ever locking down a starting gig, replacing Anthony Colandrea, who left for Nebraska. North Texas is still sorting out a three-man competition between holdover Chris Jimerson Jr., UCF transfer Tayven Jackson and East Carolina transfer Chaston Ditta, with Jackson viewed as the favorite entering camp.
Whoever wins that battle for the Mean Green inherits an offense gutted by the coaching change. American Conference Offensive Player of the Year Drew Mestemaker and Rookie of the Year Caleb Hawkins both followed Eric Morris to Oklahoma State after he left for the Big 12 job in late November. North Texas is one of only two FBS programs, along with Iowa State, returning zero starters, an extreme number for new coach Neal Brown to inherit while trying to keep last season's momentum from evaporating.
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UNT North Texas
UNLV isn't rebuilding from scratch, but it isn't standing pat either. Dan Mullen turned over big chunks of a roster that started 6-0 and beat every nonconference opponent it played last year, and he's doing it again on both sides of the ball, betting that continuity in the building matters more than continuity on the depth chart.
The defensive additions are the clearest sign UNLV is still adding pieces rather than starting over. Avery Helm arrives from TCU and Kyron Chambers from SMU to help offset the loss of starter Andrew Powdrell to West Virginia, and they'll line up next to linebacker Cam Santee, who racked up 163 tackles, six sacks and seven forced fumbles over the past two seasons.
UNLV Rebels
Sep 5?@ Hawai'i—
Aug 29?vs Memphis—
North Texas Mean Green
Sep 5?@ Indiana—
Recent form.
Neal Brown has been a head coach before, at Troy and West Virginia, so North Texas didn't hire a stranger to the job's pressures. But rebuilding a roster with zero returning starters is a different kind of test than anything he faced at his last two stops, and it's fair to wonder how much the Mean Green can look like the team that nearly won a conference title in December.
UNLV Rebels
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
North Texas Mean Green
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Both rosters will look different by the time this one kicks off in Denton, which makes it as much a program checkup as a game. UNLV is trying to prove 2025 wasn't a one-year mirage built on an unusually clean roster. North Texas is trying to prove last season's breakthrough belongs to the program and not just the coach who left.
