Allegiant Stadium already vital recruiting tool for UNLV
Legacy senior wide receiver and Las Vegas native Aaron Holloway is excited for many reasons about his commitment to UNLV’s 2021 recruiting class. But what excites him the most, he says, “is to be playing in that beautiful stadium that we have going on there.”
That would be Allegiant Stadium, home of the Raiders and the new home of the Rebels.
UNLV hasn’t yet played a game at the pristine, $1.9 billion facility, and now won’t until spring at the earliest. But the football program is already reaping its rewards in recruiting. In fact, Rebels head coach Marcus Arroyo — in just a couple of months on the job — has assembled the Mountain West’s second-ranked 2020 recruiting class.
UNLV’s 2021 recruiting class was ranked No. 1 in the Mountain West by 247Sports at the beginning of August.
“(Prospects and recruits) have been really responsive to what we’re doing, and (Allegiant Stadium) is a piece of it, a huge piece of it,” Arroyo said. “We have really lofty goals, and it’s the nicest stadium that there is in the world, in our opinion, for football.”
UNLV had played at Sam Boyd Stadium since 1971 and was slated to play there one final time Sept. 5 against Louisiana Tech. But the game was canceled in wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and the Rebels can finally bid the archaic complex adieu.
Allegiant Stadium and the Fertitta Football Complex give the Rebels some of the finest facilities in the country. Arroyo is looking forward to producing a team worthy of such an investment.
That is, when the Rebels can finally get on the field. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Mountain West has indefinitely postponed all fall sports. Arroyo visited the stadium with his coaches this summer. He said he hopes the team can see it sometime in August as well.
“We’re trying to just build a place where we can uphold that standard,” Arroyo said. “It’s been amazing. … It’s a setting that is once in a lifetime. A setting that’s really, really rare. It’s an amazing facility that’s yours. You’ve got your own locker room. Your own field in a place that’s in a really, really booming, momentous place. It’s awesome.”
Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.
