Ladies, gentlemen and Rebels of all ages, welcome back to the show. Vegas Monroe-Kalani here, your host, your hype machine and your humble usher, writing from a dressing room mirror lined with light bulbs. Yes, I named myself after the town. No, I will not be taking questions about that.
This week, the Rebels go dark. An open date on Saturday, Oct. 24. No game, no stage, no curtain. The cast rests, the crew resets, and I get exactly one Saturday to steam my sequined jacket.
So let's do the review of the last show, a thriller in Colorado Springs that ended in the wrong key, and then let's talk about opening night, Halloween edition: Northern Illinois at Allegiant Stadium.
Part 1: Air Force 41, UNLV 31
On Oct. 17 at Falcon Stadium, Air Force beat UNLV 41-31. And for three acts, darling, we were the headliner.
Act One was a quick change. Air Force kicked a 37-yard field goal late in the first quarter. Then, eight seconds into the second quarter, Jackson Arnold hit Kayden McGee for a 60-yard touchdown. Seven-three, Rebels. Air Force answered with Evan Medders' 24-yard run, and Jai'Den Thomas punched in from the 3 to put UNLV back on top 14-10.
Then came the showstopper. Air Force kicked a 34-yard field goal with 49 seconds left in the half to cut it to 14-13, and on the last play of the half, Ethan Schwartz drilled a 60-yard field goal. Sixty yards! At the buzzer! I stood on my seat. I may have dropped my opera glasses. UNLV led 17-13 at intermission.
In Act Three, Rocco Conti ran 6 yards to give Air Force a 20-17 lead, and Arnold found McGee again from 8 yards out with 1:41 left in the third. That made it 24-20 Rebels.
And then the fourth act, which I'd like to rewrite. Medders ran 32 yards for a touchdown six seconds into the quarter, then scored from the 1, and Owen Allen added a 2-yard run with 3:53 left. Arnold ran in from the 3 with 38 seconds left to make it 41-31.
The reviews, as printed in the box score: Arnold completed 21 of 33 passes for 246 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He also ran for 78 yards and a touchdown. McGee caught five passes for 99 yards and two touchdowns. UNLV converted 9 of 13 third downs, which is a standing ovation in any theater.
Now the honest critic's note. Air Force ran 62 times for 430 yards, 6.9 a carry. Medders ran for 152 yards and three touchdowns, and Conti added 103. The Falcons had the ball for 35:13. Per the AP, Air Force hasn't fumbled once all season, 431 plays. You can't steal a scene from a cast that never drops a prop.
So the Rebels are 4-3 and 2-1 in the Mountain West. The season so far: a 27-21 loss to Memphis, a 21-6 win at Hawai'i, a 44-6 loss at North Texas, a 38-10 win at Akron, a 39-31 win over California and a 13-7 win over North Dakota State before the trip to Air Force.
That North Dakota State game deserves a curtain call of its own. Andre Porter opened the scoring on Oct. 10 with a 23-yard interception return, Ramon Villela added field goals of 29 and 24 yards, and Mumu Bin-Wahad intercepted two passes. Three interceptions in all. The Bison have the second-ranked defense in FBS in yards allowed, and the Rebels' defense still outscored their offense.
Part 2: Next Up, Northern Illinois at UNLV
After the open week, Northern Illinois comes to Allegiant Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 31, at 10:30 p.m. Eastern. That's 7:30 p.m. here. Halloween night under the lights, which is basically the most Las Vegas sentence ever written. Come in costume, Rebels. I'm going as a 60-yard field goal.
The Headliners
Arnold has completed 108 of 182 passes for 1,386 yards, 10 touchdowns and two interceptions, per ESPN. Ten to two! That's a leading man who knows his blocking. Thomas leads the team with 543 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 112 carries. McGee has 16 catches for 330 yards and four touchdowns, 20.6 yards a catch.
As a team, UNLV scores 24.1 points per game and gains 370.6 yards, with 171.3 on the ground. The defense allows 23.7 points per game.
The Visitors
Northern Illinois is 0-6 and 0-2 in the Mountain West entering its home game against Hawai'i this Saturday. The Huskies score 14.2 points per game and gain 307.7 yards. They allow 35.7 points and 228.5 rushing yards per game.
Taron Dickens has thrown for 1,193 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions. Telly Johnson Jr. leads them with 439 rushing yards and four touchdowns. And DeAree Rogers has 49 catches for 422 yards, so the Huskies like to throw it short and often.
The honest preview: Northern Illinois allows 228.5 rushing yards per game. The Rebels have Thomas and a quarterback who ran for 78 yards last week. I'm not saying the script writes itself. I'm saying I've already printed the programs.
The Series
CollegeFootballData.com lists five previous meetings, and Northern Illinois has won all five. Five-oh! Well, every long-running show eventually gets a new ending. Let's write it on Halloween.
Town Report: Las Vegas vs. DeKalb
Las Vegas. Las Vegas had 641,903 people at the 2020 census, per Wikipedia, and the metro area has about 2.4 million. The name is Spanish for "the meadows," after the green lowlands near the springs. It was settled in 1905, and by the end of the 20th century it was the most populous North American city founded within that century. It bills itself as the Entertainment Capital of the World. I take that title personally.
We have the Smith Center for the Performing Arts and the Neon Museum, where the old signs go to retire with dignity. We sit on the floor of the Mojave Desert, surrounded by mountains, and we're among the sunniest and driest places in North America, with about 4.2 inches of rain a year.
And Allegiant Stadium? It opened in 2020 in Paradise, just southwest of the city, and UNLV shares it with the Raiders. It has a translucent roof, an 85-foot memorial torch for Al Davis that was reported in 2019 to be the largest 3D-printed object in the world, and the nickname "the Death Star." It hosted Super Bowl LVIII in 2024 and will host the College Football Playoff national championship game in 2027. That's not a stadium. That's a set.
DeKalb. DeKalb, Ill., is a pleasant college town of 40,290 at the 2020 census, about 65 miles west of Chicago. Per Wikipedia, its claim to fame is barbed wire. Joseph Glidden of DeKalb patented double-strand barbed wire in 1874.
Darling. Our town built a city of lights and shows. Their town perfected the fence. We put up marquees. They put up "Keep Out." I'm sure it's a lovely fence. But nobody has ever bought a ticket to watch one.
DeKalb also played a leading role in commercial hybrid corn and throws a Corn Fest every August. Corn Fest! In Las Vegas, we'd add a light show, a live band and a fog machine, and we'd call it Corn Fest: The Experience.
The Rewrite
Here's my note to the cast during intermission. Rest the legs. Watch the tape of that fourth quarter in Colorado Springs, and then put it in a drawer. The Rebels have four wins, a 60-yard kicker, a quarterback with 10 touchdowns and two interceptions, and a home show on Halloween night against a team that hasn't won yet.
The stage is set, the lights are hot, and I'll be in section whatever-they-let-me-into, in costume, screaming. See you on the 31st, Rebels. Break a leg. Figuratively, please.