Syracuse Orange V. UNLV Rebels Prediction and Preview (10/4)

Syracuse (3-1, 1-1 ACC) heads on its first road trip of the season to face UNLV on Friday night.

Opponent: UNLV Rebels

Date and time: Friday, October 4th, 9:00 p.m

Location: Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada

TV: FS1

While #25 UNLV has been the talk of the college football world lately for off-field reasons, they made a statement last week under new starting quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams, manhandling Fresno State 59-14 on the field. Williams passed for 182 yards and three touchdowns while adding 119 yards and another score on the ground against the Bulldogs, posing a dual-threat similar to Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels.

Williams is supported by a committee of running backs (five players between 13 and 28 carries on the season) and is supported by a primary receiving threat in Ricky White III, who has 20 catches for 253 yards and five scores, nearly half of which ( 10 receptions for 127 yards and two scores) in the Fresno State game.

It wasn’t just the offense that powered up last week, as the Rebels’ defense held Fresno State to under a yard per rush attempt while racking up four sacks and four interceptions.

Their special teams also contributed greatly, returning a blocked punt for a touchdown and adding a kickoff return touchdown. UNLV appears to be in full swing with some preliminary discussions about the College Football Playoff, making this road trip a clear step forward from what Syracuse has seen up to this point in the season.

Perhaps even more concerning from last week’s performance is that UNLV is averaging 6.04 yards per rush on removed sacks. The SU defense has allowed 5.22 yards per carry this season while also having difficulty stopping quarterbacks on the ground, allowing 67 yards on six carries to Georgia Tech’s Haynes King and 53 yards on 12 rush attempts Daniels submitted.

The job for Kyle McCord and his offensive linemates is to balance out this UNLV ground game against the host defense, which has recorded 13 sacks and nine interceptions, the latter ranking second nationally. Syracuse ranks third in the NCAAF in passing yards per game. So how the offense handles this challenge should go a long way toward determining whether they can pull off the upset.

However, the Rebels looked motivated last week, welcoming an orange team that travels across three time zones in a short week for a late kickoff time. This all proves to be a little too much for SU to handle a long flight home to central New York as UNLV takes over that flight, 34-28.

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