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Rebels picked last in media’s Mountain West preseason poll

The Mountain West’s annual preseason football poll was released Tuesday morning, and the league’s media don’t think too highly of UNLV.

The Rebels were predicted to finish last in the conference’s West Division, tallying a mere 29 points — 14 fewer than fifth-place San Jose State. San Diego State (125 points) was picked to win the division, garnering 19 of the 21 first-place votes. UNR (100 points) received the other two and was picked to finish second. Reigning division champion Hawaii (74 points) and Fresno State (73 points) round out the top four.

In the Mountain Division, defending conference champion Boise State received 20 of the 21 first-place votes for a total of 125 points. Wyoming received the other first-place vote to finish with 90 points.

Air Force (86 points), Utah State (60 points), Colorado State (59 points) and New Mexico (21 points) follow.

The Rebels finished 4-8 in 2019, including 2-6 in league play for a last-place finish in the West Division. Tony Sanchez was fired as head coach after the season, and former Oregon offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo was hired to replace him.

Arroyo in only a few months constructed the conference’s No. 2 recruiting class, per 247 sports. But he inherits a team that finished the 2019 season ninth in the 12-team conference in scoring offense (24.2 points per game) and 11th in scoring defense (33.0).

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.

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