"Jet" Thomas and Greg Burrell....

[TimothyC3]

I like certain aspects of the Go-Go offense. But I don't feel the OC is taking advantage of some of UNLV's strengths with it's offensive line and at running back with Jet and Burrell. UNLV should play more smash mouth football in my opinion. The O-line is good and they showed it late at Hawaii with both Jet and Burrell. who averaged 6.5 and 8.5 yds per carry respectively for 160 yds. Both need more touches and straight up smash mouth football. Also, Burrell runs HARD IMO.

 

[j. spilotro]

I like certain aspects of the Go-Go offense. But I don't feel the OC is taking advantage of some of UNLV's strengths with it's offensive line and at running back with Jet and Burrell. UNLV should play more smash mouth football in my opinion. The O-line is good and they showed it late at Hawaii with both Jet and Burrell. who averaged 6.5 and 8.5 yds per carry respectively for 160 yds. Both need more touches and straight up smash mouth football. Also, Burrell runs HARD IMO.

That’s why I thought last year had more flow. Davis, Jet and Lester could all go for 100 in any game. Not a drop off, just different looks. And we used it and used it and used it. We converted third downs well.

It helped that the field was spread (or at least utilized) for the passing game. We just seemed smoother, more willing to use multiple options, mix it up …. And that was with a QB that didn’t run well as opposed to this year.

It’s a little confusing this year, because we have the tools, probably better overall tools than last year. It’s like we get stuck in first gear on drives.

 

[Rebel1986]

That’s why I thought last year had more flow. Davis, Jet and Lester could all go for 100 in any game. Not a drop off, just different looks. And we used it and used it and used it. We converted third downs well.

It helped that the field was spread (or at least utilized) for the passing game. We just seemed smoother, more willing to use multiple options, mix it up …. And that was with a QB that didn’t run well as opposed to this year.

It’s a little confusing this year, because we have the tools, probably better overall tools than last year. It’s like we get stuck in first gear on drives.

It does sometimes feel like they age grinding the gears!

 

[1Tripoda]

I like certain aspects of the Go-Go offense. But I don't feel the OC is taking advantage of some of UNLV's strengths with it's offensive line and at running back with Jet and Burrell. UNLV should play more smash mouth football in my opinion. The O-line is good and they showed it late at Hawaii with both Jet and Burrell. who averaged 6.5 and 8.5 yds per carry respectively for 160 yds. Both need more touches and straight up smash mouth football. Also, Burrell runs HARD IMO.

And use the TE's. Use the RBs and the TEs and Ricky White will be wide open. Feels like the White's camp is pressuring the OC to runs everything through RWIII. Just looks that that but I am not sure about it.

 

[Rebel1986]

And use the TE's. Use the RBs and the TEs and Ricky White will be wide open. Feels like the White's camp is pressuring the OC to runs everything through RWIII. Just looks that that but I am not sure about it.

No way I would believe that. Ricky White is willing to play on special teams, which tells me he will do anything to win, and that isn't the type of player who would allow the overall team to be hurt to his personal benefit!

 

[LVRebel2000]

No way I would believe that. Ricky White is willing to play on special teams, which tells me he will do anything to win, and that isn't the type of player who would allow the overall team to be hurt to his personal benefit!

I don't want to think that far ahead yet, but man, he's gonna be a tough one to replace next season. He does everything on offense and special teams at such a high level

 

[1Tripoda]

I don't want to think that far ahead yet, but man, he's gonna be a tough one to replace next season. He does everything on offense and special teams at such a high level

You not going to find one player to replace RWIII anywhere. Casey Cain will be back. There are a lot of players waiting behind RWIII at the WR position.

 

[1Tripoda]

No way I would believe that. Ricky White is willing to play on special teams, which tells me he will do anything to win, and that isn't the type of player who would allow the overall team to be hurt to his personal benefit!

Remember, UNLV was 3-0 with Sluka when someone stated that RWIII is "infuriated" or "Levid" or something like that. Again, I am just guessing...I dont have anything concrete.

 

[unlove]

That’s why I thought last year had more flow. Davis, Jet and Lester could all go for 100 in any game. Not a drop off, just different looks. And we used it and used it and used it. We converted third downs well.

It helped that the field was spread (or at least utilized) for the passing game. We just seemed smoother, more willing to use multiple options, mix it up …. And that was with a QB that didn’t run well as opposed to this year.

It’s a little confusing this year, because we have the tools, probably better overall tools than last year. It’s like we get stuck in first gear on drives.

QB doesn’t pass as well as Maiava who could complete a 3rd & 6+ much more confidently than Hajj (or Fluka). Puts a ton of pressure on Hajj to make plays with his feet if our 1st & 2nd downs don’t get us with a 3rd & 4 or less so we can run it.

 

[Bullmastiff 1]

I like certain aspects of the Go-Go offense. But I don't feel the OC is taking advantage of some of UNLV's strengths with it's offensive line and at running back with Jet and Burrell. UNLV should play more smash mouth football in my opinion. The O-line is good and they showed it late at Hawaii with both Jet and Burrell. who averaged 6.5 and 8.5 yds per carry respectively for 160 yds. Both need more touches and straight up smash mouth football. Also, Burrell runs HARD IMO.

Punch people right in the mouth with a power run game like the Good Lord intended.

 

[j. spilotro]

Remember, UNLV was 3-0 with Sluka when someone stated that RWIII is "infuriated" or "Levid" or something like that. Again, I am just guessing...I dont have anything concrete.

Hajj still throws a better ball. More catchable. Recievers like that.

Not crazy about Hajj’s reads and progression(s). I do think not having Jacob hurts, he sometimes is used as that check down that will get you positive yardage.

Sluka threw the best ball of the season. The game 1 TD to Jacob. But his arm overall, eh.

Both QB’s have run on the mind.

Like Hajj better with the option though.

 

[TheMatrix31]

Question…. Would this team be undefeated right now with jayden maiava as our QB? Trust me I believe Hajj has done a good enough job at putting this team in position to score points he’s def a better runner, but to me I think Jayden’s arm talent would have us sitting where Boise is.

 

[Rebel1986]

Question…. Would this team be undefeated right now with jayden maiava as our QB? Trust me I believe Hajj has done a good enough job at putting this team in position to score points he’s def a better runner, but to me I think Jayden’s arm talent would have us sitting where Boise is.

No way to know! On the other side of things, USC may not even qualify for a bowl game this season.

 

[Bullmastiff 1]

Question…. Would this team be undefeated right now with jayden maiava as our QB? Trust me I believe Hajj has done a good enough job at putting this team in position to score points he’s def a better runner, but to me I think Jayden’s arm talent would have us sitting where Boise is.

Interesting question.


I don't think so to be honest. I think we'd be about the same.

There are plays Hajj (And Sluka) could make with their legs that Maiava couldn't. Flipside, Maiava could make more plays/throws with his arm.

Hajj's TD - INT ratio better than Maiava. As good as Maiava was for us, and I'm taking nothing away from him, he put the ball in danger a lot last year. And more as the season went on vs better opponents.

I'm mean Rebs are 8 points away from being undefeated. You play those games we lost (Syracuse and BSU) 10 more times I think Rebs could go 5-5, the teams are that closely matched. I don't think Maiava changes our fortunes much either way.

 

[j. spilotro]

Question…. Would this team be undefeated right now with jayden maiava as our QB? Trust me I believe Hajj has done a good enough job at putting this team in position to score points he’s def a better runner, but to me I think Jayden’s arm talent would have us sitting where Boise is.

Tough question. I don’t think so though.

I thought he was really good for a freshman, but he did have a bit of a tendency to make poor plays and poor times of games. It’s really hard to say though.

 

[Couev]

Davis, Jet and Lester could all go for 100 in any game.

I think this is a bit of romanticizing the run game last year. We had 4 80 yard rushing games by RBs last year, Jet x1, VD x 2, and Lester x 1. VD and Jet did it in one game against UTEP (100 for Jet, 97 for VD), and Lester's was facilitated by a 66 yard house call against UNR and we only had 1 100 yard rushing games last season total. Our QB high rushing total was 49 yards by DougieB against Bryant. This year we've had 9 80 yard plus games, 4 by RBs (Jet x 2, Burrell x 1, Kylin x 1) and we've had a total of 8 100 yard games with a QB low rushing total of 59 yards of Sluka vs Houston and 4 100 yard games by RBs. We averaged 4.5 ypc last season on a 55/45 Run/Pass split, this season we're averaging 5.7 YPC on a 66/33 Run/Pass split. Last year we averaged about 174 rushing yards per game, and this year we're averaging 249.

The playcalling is totally different when you have a run first quarterback running the RPO and triple option as part of the offense. With Maiava you were running the mesh point on the option as really a delay hand off rather than a true option. We bemoaned (well at least I did) that Maiava didn't run the option well at all and there were times where the read option hurt the offense because it was one dimensional. Having a running option quarterback means that there will be more rushes but probably fewer overall touches to be spread amongst the RBs, but by every metric they're performing better this year than last.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though. Marion has struggled in the red zone this year mightily, but part of that is secondary to having to playcall to Hajj and Sluka's strengths. I also think that Hajj has struggled in traditional 5-7 step drop passing packages. Our passing distribution is MUCH worse this year, fewer passes caught by WRs not named RWIII, RBs, and TEs and as good as we've beein in improving our rushing metrics, some of our passing metrics are worse (%, total yards per game) but the Y/A, AY/A, INT%, Y/C are all better under Hajj than they were under Maiava.

 

[bcvegaspt2]

I don't want to think that far ahead yet, but man, he's gonna be a tough one to replace next season. He does everything on offense and special teams at such a high level

We may find this out sooner than later if we don't make the playoffs.
Would he sit out a regular bowl to prepare for the draft? Normally I hate this move, but I could justify it in his case and not hate him for it. Like you said, selfish players don't play on ST's. He's leading the nations in blocked punts. Meaning, he has more individually than any team does. The only team that beats his 4? UNLV with 5 total.

 

[Boston Rebel 2]

Question…. Would this team be undefeated right now with jayden maiava as our QB? Trust me I believe Hajj has done a good enough job at putting this team in position to score points he’s def a better runner, but to me I think Jayden’s arm talent would have us sitting where Boise is.

Personally I think so...his picks and near picks last year can be attributed to him being a freshman (at least partially). Hajj clearly a better runner but Maiva significantly better with progressions and better accuracy. I can't imagine we decided to build the offense around not throwing to the middle of the field and reducing the TE's role in the offense, I have to think much of that is attributed to how Hajj sees the field. We'll never know of course but that is my guess.

 

[Couev]

Personally I think so...his picks and near picks last year can be attributed to him being a freshman (at least partially). Hajj clearly a better runner but Maiva significantly better with progressions and better accuracy. I can't imagine we decided to build the offense around not throwing to the middle of the field and reducing the TE's role in the offense, I have to think much of that is attributed to how Hajj sees the field. We'll never know of course but that is my guess.

I think this is pretty fair evaluation. Hajj struggles to get off his first read and tends to panic too early in the pocket. He's pretty solid on RPO and regular option reads, but he puts way too much mustard on the short throws and lacks more short throw accuracy than Maiava. You can't put that much mustard on the 3 yard route tree and not put the ball in the right place. Too many handcuff balls, and too many balls that limit run after catch.

Throwing the ball over the middle requires touch and layering as well as read progression and if we're being honest I think Maiava does all three of those things better. Maiava also has a lot more of a gunslinger's mentality which lets him force throws that he should have. His INT rate was double Hajj's and given that we threw the ball a lot more last year those turnovers show up more apparently.

The offense would be so different with Maiava there it's hard to say if it would be better or just different. Our total yardage from game is about 10 yards total better this year than last year, and while our red zone offense is more than 12% worse, we're also scoring almost 6 more points a game and are the 7th ranked scoring offense in college football despite that red zone drop off (last year we were 22). Our margin of victory this year is 16 ppg which is a 10 point increase over last year's.

 

[Boston Rebel 2]

I think this is pretty fair evaluation. Hajj struggles to get off his first read and tends to panic too early in the pocket. He's pretty solid on RPO and regular option reads, but he puts way too much mustard on the short throws and lacks more short throw accuracy than Maiava. You can't put that much mustard on the 3 yard route tree and not put the ball in the right place. Too many handcuff balls, and too many balls that limit run after catch.

Throwing the ball over the middle requires touch and layering as well as read progression and if we're being honest I think Maiava does all three of those things better. Maiava also has a lot more of a gunslinger's mentality which lets him force throws that he should have. His INT rate was double Hajj's and given that we threw the ball a lot more last year those turnovers show up more apparently.

The offense would be so different with Maiava there it's hard to say if it would be better or just different. Our total yardage from game is about 10 yards total better this year than last year, and while our red zone offense is more than 12% worse, we're also scoring almost 6 more points a game and are the 7th ranked scoring offense in college football despite that red zone drop off (last year we were 22). Our margin of victory this year is 16 ppg which is a 10 point increase over last year's.

So that scoring offense increase takes away special teams? I am surprised because last year we seemed to have a higher scoring offense. But I agree Maiava has more the Brett Favre mentality for better or worse. But I think his INT's would be down this year because freshman QB's almost always improve in throwing picks their sophomore years. Hajj bails WAY too quick on some plays. I posted this elsewhere but to the point it sometimes looks like a designed play like a delayed draw, but delayed too long. So I can only guess he looked to his first read it wasn't there and he took off.

 

[InZoneU]

Question…. Would this team be undefeated right now with jayden maiava as our QB? Trust me I believe Hajj has done a good enough job at putting this team in position to score points he’s def a better runner, but to me I think Jayden’s arm talent would have us sitting where Boise is.

No

 

[InZoneU]

So that scoring offense increase takes away special teams? I am surprised because last year we seemed to have a higher scoring offense. But I agree Maiava has more the Brett Favre mentality for better or worse. But I think his INT's would be down this year because freshman QB's almost always improve in throwing picks their sophomore years. Hajj bails WAY too quick on some plays. I posted this elsewhere but to the point it sometimes looks like a designed play like a delayed draw, but delayed too long. So I can only guess he looked to his first read it wasn't there and he took off.

He doesn't have time to look past the first option bc the OL can't pass protect or Marion can't call the right pass protection or they can't execute whatever is called.

He's running for his life on almost every snap. Even my 80 year old mom I watched the last game with saw this. As soon as Hajj get's the snap he's got 2-3 guys right in his grill ffs

 

[j. spilotro]

So that scoring offense increase takes away special teams? I am surprised because last year we seemed to have a higher scoring offense. But I agree Maiava has more the Brett Favre mentality for better or worse. But I think his INT's would be down this year because freshman QB's almost always improve in throwing picks their sophomore years. Hajj bails WAY too quick on some plays. I posted this elsewhere but to the point it sometimes looks like a designed play like a delayed draw, but delayed too long. So I can only guess he looked to his first read it wasn't there and he took off.

You have that Utah Tech and Fresno State romping that really skewed things.

 

[WarthogRebel]

I don't want to think that far ahead yet, but man, he's gonna be a tough one to replace next season. He does everything on offense and special teams at such a high level

I think it'll be tough to get the quality we have. But I also think there are really good receivers all over the country who for whatever reason are underused. They will be salivating at the chance to come and have the opportunity RW had.

 

[Boston Rebel 2]

He doesn't have time to look past the first option bc the OL can't pass protect or Marion can't call the right pass protection or they can't execute whatever is called.

He's running for his life on almost every snap. Even my 80 year old mom I watched the last game with saw this. As soon as Hajj get's the snap he's got 2-3 guys right in his grill ffs

This is generally true but there were also several plays where the protection did hold and he still bailed on the play after the first (very quick) read. So is he skittish because of the line now? I don't know, but a few times he bailed even without pressure.

 

[LVRebel2000]

I think it'll be tough to get the quality we have. But I also think there are really good receivers all over the country who for whatever reason are underused. They will be salivating at the chance to come and have the opportunity RW had.

I would agree with that. Although I can imagine Marion jumping to another job after this season, so it will be interesting to see what we get assuming that occurs. I'm really hoping that Odom sticks around as I'm sure there will be suitors for him.

 

[dcut03]

Our offensive line is a bit overrated.

Our running game has been somewhat artificially jacked up with QB scrambles. Sure many of those runs are option plays and should count for runs, but many are not.

We haven't been good at lining up and running in a traditional sense, we weren't that good last year. We do a lot of Zone read stuff, which takes a savvy RB to see the holes before they develop, so that is part of the issue as well.

We sealed the game last week against a good run defensive team. But their defense was suffering quite a bit of injuiries and I think depth could be an issue as well. Boise did the same thing in their game. Ran it better in the 4th to seal the game.

Our triple option isn't as effective as say the military academies because the dive portion isn't that effective. If we could run the ball better in a traditional sense between the tackles, it would open our offense up quite a bit.

As for reads, I am pretty sure I have heard it said that the QB has mostly just 1 read. So Hajj bailing is by design it seems. I don't like it, as I would like to sit in the pocket a little longer ( sometimes he actually does have time). We have a 5th year QB and a good TE, a really good slot WR, and I think a decent wide out opposite of Ricky. It would be nice to have more than one throwing option by design if we can make that work.

 

[Couev]

So that scoring offense increase takes away special teams?

Total PPG always includes special teams and defensive points scored. A lot of people don't delve any deeper than that because it gets really tricky to extricate things like field position and situational scoreboard play calling--but luckily, I'm just a big enough nerd with just enough free time to pull that out and give you the offensive only PPG

Year	Total Points	Defensive Pts	Spec. Teams	Offense Pts	Total Games	Offense Only PPG
2023	482	12	134	336	14	24
2024	358	6	124	228	9	25.33

But I think his INT's would be down this year because freshman QB's almost always improve in throwing picks their sophomore years.

I think that's true enough of the time that there's not much use in trying to argue it with outliers, but he'd have to cut his INT rate in half to get to where Hajj is at, and it's very rare that a QB does that.

I posted this elsewhere but to the point it sometimes looks like a designed play like a delayed draw, but delayed too long. So I can only guess he looked to his first read it wasn't there and he took off.

Some of that is RPO with a QB run, but a decent amount of it is a combination of his presnap read being taken away through disguise and him panicking when the pocket collapses a bit. There several times when he's been boned by S'ua blowing a block, but a lot of times he feels the pocket moving and decides to run, especially laterally, when he doesn't need to do so. There's no question Maiava got through more reads faster.

 

[Boston Rebel 2]

Total PPG always includes special teams and defensive points scored. A lot of people don't delve any deeper than that because it gets really tricky to extricate things like field position and situational scoreboard play calling--but luckily, I'm just a big enough nerd with just enough free time to pull that out and give you the offensive only PPG

Year	Total Points	Defensive Pts	Spec. Teams	Offense Pts	Total Games	Offense Only PPG
2023	482	12	134	336	14	24
2024	358	6	124	228	9	25.33

I think that's true enough of the time that there's not much use in trying to argue it with outliers, but he'd have to cut his INT rate in half to get to where Hajj is at, and it's very rare that a QB does that.



Some of that is RPO with a QB run, but a decent amount of it is a combination of his presnap read being taken away through disguise and him panicking when the pocket collapses a bit. There several times when he's been boned by S'ua blowing a block, but a lot of times he feels the pocket moving and decides to run, especially laterally, when he doesn't need to do so. There's no question Maiava got through more reads faster.

Thanks! So it is slightly higher.

I don't think he would have cut his picks to the same level as Hajj but to a more tolerable level given his increased passing prowess.