UNLV hires Urban Meyer’s son-in-law as offensive coordinator

UNLV football coach Dan Mullen continues to assemble his staff, two weeks after replacing Barry Odom.

In his latest move, Mullen is hiring Corey Dennis as the Rebels’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on a two-year deal, a source confirmed to the Review-Journal on Friday.

Dennis was the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach this season at Tulsa, where he was calling plays by the end of the season. He’s also had assistant coaching stints at Utah and Ohio State.

The 32-year-old Dennis, who played at Georgia Tech, is the son-in-law of former college football and NFL coach Urban Meyer. Meyer’s coaching tree includes Mullen, who worked under him at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida.

Dennis was an intern under Meyer at Ohio State in 2015. He was named the Buckeyes’ quarterbacks coach in 2020 by current head coach Ryan Day.

In his four seasons in that role, Dennis helped develop Ohio State quarterbacks, including current NFL players C.J. Stroud and Justin Fields.

Dennis’ next project will be quarterback Anthony Colandrea, who announced last week he was transferring to UNLV from Virginia.

Dennis will have big shoes to fill. He replaces Brennan Marion, the innovator of the Go-Go offense who helped UNLV to 19 wins in the past two seasons.

UNLV will announce Dennis’ hiring next week, a source said. The Rebels also are expected to announce the hiring of Zach Arnett as defensive coordinator. Arnett, a former Mississippi State head coach, was an analyst at Ole Miss this season.

A number of coaches from Odom’s staff are expected to be retained. Odom left UNLV to take over at Purdue.

Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.