UNLV picked last in preseason football poll

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Wade Vandervort

A view of the lobby is shown here during a tour of the new Fertitta Football Complex at UNLV, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019.

Tue, Jul 21, 2020 (12:30 p.m.)

If the Mountain West preseason football poll proves prescient, UNLV’s first season under new head coach Marcus Arroyo will be a disaster.

The MWC released the results of its poll on Tuesday, revealing that the league’s voting media picked UNLV to finish last in the West Division.

UNLV went 4-8 in 2019, including a 2-6 record in conference play. That left the team in a three-way tie for the West basement and was bad enough to get former coach Tony Sanchez fired, but expectations may be even lower for the team this season.

As expected, Boise State was picked to win the Mountain Division and San Diego State was picked to win the West Division. Boise State received 20 of 21 first-place votes, with Wyoming receiving the lone stray vote in the Mountain Division. San Diego State got 19 votes, with UNR scooping up the other two.

Hawaii (74 points) is projected to finish third in the West, followed by Fresno State (73 points) and San Jose State (43 points). UNLV received just 29 points.

The UNLV offense has big question marks at the quarterback position, as senior Armani Rogers transferred and sophomore Kenyon Oblad was up and down in 2019. Incoming transfer Justin Rogers was once a highly-touted high-school recruit, but he has battled injuries and has yet to prove himself at the college level. There’s also a chance the NCAA could rule against Justin Rogers’ waiver request for immediate eligibility and force him to sit out a redshirt year.

UNLV’s schedule is currently in flux. The Pac-12 went to a conference-only slate due to the COVID-19 outbreak, leaving UNLV without home opponents for Week 1 (Cal) and Week 3 (Arizona State).

The school has not announced a start date for training camp.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

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