Dan Mullen Wants 60,000 in Allegiant Stadium as UNLV Hosts Undefeated North Dakota State for Homecoming

LAS VEGAS — Dan Mullen didn’t come to Monday’s press conference just to talk about North Dakota State. He came with a request for the whole city: show up, bring everybody you know, and help turn Saturday’s Homecoming game into the kind of afternoon that makes a visiting fan base go quiet. With the undefeated Bison expected to travel in force and conference positioning already on the line, the UNLV head coach wants Rebel fans to “double down” and fill Allegiant Stadium — a target the Review-Journal framed around 60,000.

01The Challenge: Double Down

The message at the center of Monday’s UNLV-NDSU Week press conference was aimed past the locker room and straight at Las Vegas. Mullen challenged Rebel fans to fill Allegiant Stadium on Saturday, arguing that Saturday’s atmosphere against Cal — UNLV’s 39-31 win in front of a lively home crowd — should be the floor, not the ceiling. With Homecoming on campus, conference positioning already at stake, and North Dakota State expected to bring a significant traveling crowd, the coach wants the building packed with scarlet and gray.

The “double down” framing matters because of who’s coming. The Bison are one of college football’s most famous traveling fan bases, and Fargo-to-Vegas is exactly the kind of trip a 5-0 team’s faithful will make. Mullen’s ask is simple: don’t let the visitors own the building on Homecoming.

It’s also a statement about where UNLV football thinks it belongs. The Rebels, winners of 30 games over the previous three seasons and three straight Mountain West championship game appearances, are chasing a fourth straight trip to the league title game. Days like Saturday — a nationally televised (The CW) home date against a fellow unbeaten-in-conference team — are the proof-of-concept moments for a program trying to set attendance records at Allegiant Stadium, something Mullen talked about when this year’s schedule was unveiled.

02The Opponent: One of the Best on the Schedule

Mullen was blunt about the visitor. He called North Dakota State one of the best teams UNLV will face this season and said he “does not see an obvious weakness.” The details he gave were specific: one of the top defenses in the country, one of the most efficient offenses in the Mountain West, and a roster built largely through players who developed inside the program rather than through a complete portal rebuild.

The Bison, the Mountain West’s newest member, have backed up the respect. They sit 5-0, and their most recent outing — a shutout of Wyoming in which the Cowboys managed 162 yards and no points — is the kind of result that travels. Per the Mountain West and UNLV’s own game notes, Saturday is a meeting of two teams unbeaten in conference play, with the winner taking an early upper hand in the league race.

The betting market has noticed, too. As picksandparlays.net’s Kim Smith wrote on Oct. 4, the early market opened with North Dakota State favored by 3.5 points on the road at Allegiant Stadium — “an unusual but revealing number,” as the site put it, and a reflection of how much respect the Bison’s physical, possession-oriented style commands. For context on our broader weekend coverage, see our Week 6 picks and our Friday-to-Saturday college football guide.

Style-wise, the scouting report writes itself: the Bison want to lean on the run, control possession, and make UNLV execute in limited opportunities. If North Dakota State gets the lead, its defense — fresh off blanking Wyoming — is built to sit on it. The Rebels’ best path is the opposite: make the Bison chase the game and take them out of their patient approach.

03The Rebels’ Road to 3-2

UNLV didn’t arrive at Homecoming week on a straight line. The Rebels opened the season Aug. 29 with a 27-21 home loss to Memphis, steadied with a 21-6 win at Hawai’i on Sept. 5, then absorbed a bruising 44-6 loss at North Texas on Sept. 12 in which the offense turned it over four times and Mullen later counted 27 missed tackles. The rebound started with a 38-10 win at Akron on Sept. 26 and continued Saturday with the 39-31 win over Cal — the program’s first Power Four victory of the season and, per Mountain West power rankings, arguably the best win any conference team owns this year.

Our full account of Saturday’s win is here: Jackson Arnold’s five touchdowns carry UNLV past Cal 39-31. The cliff-notes version: the Rebels built a 24-7 halftime lead, watched Cal rally to a 25-24 fourth-quarter edge, and then closed it out behind their quarterback’s legs and arm.

Mullen’s Monday review of the Cal game was more forgiving of his defense than the 31 points allowed might suggest. He thought the unit played considerably better than the final score indicated, noting that Cal received extra possessions and short fields because of special-teams mistakes — the phase he said needs the most cleaning up before Saturday. It’s a fair read: Cal outgained UNLV 464-345, but much of that damage came after the Bears started drives in favorable field position.

04Arnold’s Week

The headliner of the week, beyond the Homecoming buildup, is Jackson Arnold. The senior quarterback was named the Mountain West’s Offensive Player of the Week on Monday after accounting for all five UNLV touchdowns in the Cal win — three through the air, two on the ground — plus a two-point conversion. Per UNLV’s athletics site, Arnold completed 11 of 22 passes for 177 yards without an interception and rushed 15 times for 110 yards, becoming the first Rebel quarterback since 2024 to crack 100 rushing yards in a game. It’s the program’s first offensive weekly honor since Anthony Colandrea earned it four times during the 2025 season.

Mullen spent part of the press conference on what’s changed in his quarterback: comfort reading defenses, recognizing when opponents sell out to stop running back Jai’Den Thomas, and knowing when the matchup gives him the green light to push the ball vertically. The 70-yard touchdown strike to Kayden “Big Play” McGee and the 55-yard touchdown run are the receipts.

The number that matters most going forward: Arnold has thrown eight touchdown passes without an interception through five games, and his five rushing touchdowns lead the team. Against a North Dakota State defense that just suffocated Wyoming, UNLV will need every bit of that dual-threat efficiency — and it wouldn’t hurt if the offensive line gives him the kind of time that lets the vertical game breathe.

05The Sidebar That Stole the Presser

Then came the question that had nothing to do with Saturday — and everything to do with the future of the sport. Asked about potential College Football Playoff expansion, Mullen went well past “add more teams.” His idea: rebuild college football around eight- or nine-team divisions, a 16-team playoff, and even promotion and relegation between levels.

It’s a fun thought experiment from a coach whose team is living the realignment era in real time — UNLV just welcomed the Mountain West’s newest members, including Saturday’s opponent and Northern Illinois on Halloween. Whether or not Mullen’s vision ever leaves a press conference room, it tells you something about how coaches inside the sport are thinking about its structure: the current model, in his view, doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Back on planet Saturday: UNLV vs. North Dakota State, Homecoming, 4 p.m. PT on The CW, with two conference-unbeaten teams and a building the head coach wants packed to the rafters. The Bison are favored on the road. The Rebels are home, hot, and hearing their coach’s challenge loud and clear. Single-game tickets for the 2026 home schedule are available through unlvtickets.com or (702) 739-FANS, per UNLV athletics.

For more on the Rebels’ season, our continuing coverage is on the Sports hub and in News — and our full Week 6 slate is in the Friday-to-Saturday guide.