GAME 5: Mountain West Opener

UNLV REBELS (3-1/0-0 Mountain West)
Vs.
HAWAI'I (2-3/0-0 Mountain West)

DATE: Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023
KICKOFF: 1:07 pm PT 
SITE: Allegiant Stadium (61,000/Artificial) Las Vegas
TV: SSSEN (Matt Neverett & Steve Cofield)
RADIO: ESPN 1100 AM & 100.9 FM (Russ Langer, Caleb Herring & Tony Cordasco)
ONLINE: Live Stats at www.unlvrebels.com
TICKETS: Call (702) 739-FANS or visit unlvtickets.com

SATURDAY'S PREVIEW...
For the first time ever, UNLV (3-1/0-0) opens its Mountain West schedule by hosting Hawai'i (2-3/0-0) Saturday afternoon for the annual Ninth Island Showdown sponsored by The California Hotel ... UNLV is 14-27 all-time in league lid-lifters after winning last year's at Utah State ... The broadcast will be shown on the islands by Spectrum Sports but also in Southern Nevada via the Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network (SSSEN), which can be viewed on Cox channel 125 or over the air at 5.2 ... Fans can also watch on their tablet or mobile device by downloading the Team1 Sports app (not available on desktop computers) ... The Rebels have won two straight games after downing UTEP 45-28 at Sun Bowl Stadium while the Rainbow Warriors defeated NMSU at home, 20-17 ... UNLV kicks off MW play after having won more than two non-conference games in a season for the first time since also going 3-1 in 2008 ... Barry Odom is the first UNLV head coach to win three of his first four games since Wayne Nunnely started 3-1 in 1986 ... UNLV has boasted the MW Freshman of the Week in back-to-back weeks (RB Jai'Den "Jet" Thomas this time after QB Jayden Maiava won last week) ... The Rebels scored during their first 15 trips inside the red zone this season before being intercepted in the third quarter at UTEP but still lead the MW and stand 14th in the nation with a success rate of 94.4% (17-of-18). 

REBELS vs. RAINBOW WARRIORS NOTES... 
This marks the earliest meeting of these rivals since a non-conference affair on Sept. 17, 2011 ... Hawai'i leads the overall series 19-13 but the Rebels have won 10 of the last 19 meetings, including the most recent game played in Las Vegas (27-13 in 2021) ... Amazingly, the home team has won this matchup in 12 of the last 14 years with only the UNLV 2016 win in Honolulu and the UH 2019 win in Las Vegas bucking the trend ... Six of the last 10 games have been decided by one score ... Among FBS teams, only UNR is as old a Rebel rival as Hawai'i -- both schools first played UNLV in 1969, which was just the second year of the Rebel program ... UNLV has three players who graduated from Aloha State high schools: QB Cameron Friel (Kailua HS), DB Rashod Tanner (Moanalua HS) and LB Blesyng Alualu-Tuiolemotu (Campbell HS) ... In addition, Honolulu native QB Jayden Maiava previously attended Kaimuki HS (2019) before ultimately graduating from Liberty HS in Henderson, NV ... UH head coach Timmy Chang faced UNLV twice as a record-setting QB for the Warriors, throwing for a combined 716 yards but losing both times to the Rebels (2000 and 2003).