GAME TWO: Conference Opener

(#RV/RV) UNLV REBELS (0-1/0-0 Mountain West)
At
Hawai'i (0-1/0-0 Mountain West)

DATE: Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026

KICKOFF: 7:10 pm PT 

SITE: Ching Athletics Complex (15,194/Artificial) Honolulu

TV: The CW (Chris Fisher, Cody Kessler & Marshall Newhouse)

RADIO: ESPN 1100 AM & 100.9 FM (Matt Neverett, Caleb Herring & Steve Cofield)

SATURDAY'S PREVIEW...
UNLV (0-1) opens its 27th season of Mountain West play by traveling to Hawai'i (0-1) for the annual Ninth Island Showdown sponsored by The California Hotel ... Not counting the Covid season, this is the earliest MW opener for UNLV since playing at UNM on S. 5, 2005 ... The Rebels, who have the 10th-most victories in the nation over the last two years, look to continue their record run after having played in the MW Championship Game and appeared in a bowl game for an unprecedented three consecutive seasons ... UNLV is just 17-27 in conference openers but has won four straight ... Including the recent release, UNLV has now received at least one vote in either the AP or Coaches' poll in 35 of the last 37 polls ... Since falling 35-7 at eventual national champion Michigan in the second game of 2023, UNLV has scored at least 20 points in each of its last 35 regular-season games. That's by far the longest active such streak in the FBS ... The Rebels returned 32 lettermen (12 O/19 D/1 ST) and seven starters (3 O/3 D/1 PK). That comes just one year after returning only 17 lettermen and the fewest number of starters in the country in 2025 with just TWO ... Including this week's fist of three appearances on The CW, UNLV will have at least 11 games shown on national TV this fall -- a program record.

REBELS vs. RAINBOW WARRIORS NOTES... 
Hawai'i leads the overall series 19-16 but the Rebels have won 13 of the last 22 meetings, including the last three ... The home team has won this matchup in 14 of the last 17 years with only UNLV's 2016 and '24 wins in Honolulu and UH's 2019 win in Las Vegas bucking the trend ... Seven of the last 13 games have been decided by one score ... This marks the earliest meeting ever between the Rebels and Warriors, taking place 10 days earlier than the 2007 clash ... 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 two players who graduated from Aloha State high schools: LBs Blesyng Alualu-Tuiolemotu (Campbell HS) and Kamuela Ka'aihue (Roosevelt HS) ... Two 2025 Rebels are now suiting up for Hawai'i: DBs Kela Moore and Kodi DeCambra ... UH HC 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) ... UNLV DL coach Ricky Logo was an assistant coaching the same position at UH from 2018-19.