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UNLV Opens The 2024 College Football Season At Houston Against The Coogs Saturday

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Kicking off its 57th season of football, UNLV (0-0) opens on the road for the first time since 2020 with a trip to Houston (0-0).

The game will be the first of four this year to be televised by FS1. The Rebels received votes in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll for the first time since 2001. This marks the second straight game against a Big 12 Conference opponent as UNLV closed last season vs. Kansas in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix. UNLV opens a season outside of the Pacific Time Zone for the first time since traveling to Northern Illinois in 2015.

The Rebs' last win in a road season debut came at Utah State in 2007. UNLV is 26-30 all-time in season-openers and 5-20 when they happen on the road. Barry Odom can become the first UNLV head coach to win his first two season-openers at the school since Tony Knap in 1976-77. UNLV returns two All-Americans for the first time in its history -- WR Ricky White III and KR/PR Jacob De Jesus. Both are preseason All-America again from multiple outlets.

The Rebels are coming off a season where they tied for their first Mountain West regular-season championship and played in a bowl game for the first time since the 2013 campaign. UNLV in 2023 reached the nine-win mark for only the sixth time in history and first time since finishing 10-1 in 1984 when Randall Cunningham lined up at QB. The '23 Rebs shattered program records for 40+point games for both consecutive outings (four) and in a season (six) while scoring at least 24 points in 10 straight games for the first time ever. UNLV won at least four road games for only the third time in school history (2023, 1984 and 1979).

REBELS vs. COUGARS NOTES...
Houston won all three previous meetings of these schools on the football field. The Cougars will return the game in Las Vegas on Sept. 9, 2028. Amazingly, UH's Willie Fritz is the first of 10 head coaches that UNLV will face this fall who were not leading their teams a year ago.

On the Rebels' 2024 slate, only Kansas and Hawai'i have returning head coaches. UNLV is 3-10 all-time vs. teams that were members of what is now the Big 12 Conference at the time of the game. UH is one of 10 schools from the state of Texas that UNLV has faced in football (TCU, UTEP, SMU, UTSA, North Texas, Rice, Baylor, West Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M).

No less than 10 current Rebels graduated from Texas high schools, which is the most for any state other than California (31). The last UNLV win in the Lone Star State came just last year at UTEP. This marks UNLV's first season-opener at a Big 12 team since going to Baylor in 1988. This is the second time UNLV and UH opened the season against each other, joining the 1989 lid-lifter played in Las Vegas.