UNLV football keeps stacking preseason signals that the program is no longer moving like a Mountain West afterthought.
Phil Steele, a longtime college football analyst and publisher of one of the sport’s most detailed preseason magazines, named 15 Rebels to his 2026 Preseason All-Mountain West teams, giving second-year coach Dan Mullen another national marker before a schedule packed with TV exposure and early spotlight games.
Preseason respect grows
UNLV enters 2026 after three straight bowl trips and three consecutive conference championship game appearances. Now, the Rebels carry one of the league’s most watched rosters into August.
Running back Jai’Den “Jet” Thomas led the group as a first-team pick. Thomas enters his senior season ranked eighth in UNLV history with 2,457 rushing yards and fifth with 31 rushing touchdowns.
Phil Steele also put senior offensive lineman Austin Boyd on the first team after Boyd moved to center this spring. Senior safety Jake Pope and cornerback Avery Helm, a transfer who previously played at Florida and TCU, joined Thomas and Boyd on the first team.
Transfers add to the profile
UNLV’s second-team group shows how quickly Mullen has reshaped the roster.
Quarterback Jackson Arnold, a transfer from Auburn, earned second-team recognition before playing a snap for the Rebels. Wide receiver Taeshaun Lyons joined him, along with offensive tackle Jackson Brown, a transfer from Pitt, and defensive lineman Lucas Conti.
That mix matters because UNLV wants to turn sustained winning into sustained roster depth. The Rebels are not just returning production. They are adding players who arrived with Power Four experience and expectations.
Depth shows up across teams
Phil Steele placed four more Rebels on the third team.
Tight end Keyan Burnett, a transfer from Arizona, joined defensive end Landen Thomas, linebacker Blesyng Alualu-Tuiolemotu and kicker Ramon Villela on that list.
Then the fourth team added more depth. Wide receiver Kayden “Big Play” McGee, defensive tackle Cohen Fuller and linebacker Cam Santee, a transfer from Holy Cross, rounded out UNLV’s selections.
As a result, UNLV landed players across offense, defense and special teams. The list includes a quarterback, running back, receivers, linemen, defensive backs, linebackers and a kicker.
TV schedule raises the stakes
The preseason attention arrives as UNLV prepares for one of its most visible schedules in program history.
The Rebels open the 2026 season Aug. 29 against Memphis at Allegiant Stadium in a Week Zero game on FOX. That will mark UNLV’s first regular-season appearance on FOX, after the program’s previous FOX appearances came in Mountain West championship games.
UNLV has at least 11 national TV appearances scheduled. CBS Sports Network will carry six games, The CW will carry three and ESPNU will carry the Sept. 12 road game at North Texas.
Also, UNLV’s Sept. 26 road game at Akron will air on an ESPN network, with the channel and kickoff time still to be announced.
The home schedule includes Memphis, Cal, North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, Wyoming and UNR. Meanwhile, the Rebels will visit Hawaii, North Texas, Akron, Air Force, New Mexico and San Jose State.
A bigger standard in 2026
UNLV has won 30 games over the past three seasons. Now, the Rebels will chase a fourth straight trip to the Mountain West Football Championship Game.
That is the new context around the program. Preseason honors are not the goal, but they show how much the outside view has changed.
The Rebels are no longer hoping to be noticed. Instead, they enter 2026 with national TV windows, Phil Steele preseason all-conference picks and the kind of roster expectations that follow a program trying to stay near the top.
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Dice City Sports editor Mark Hebert covers the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Raiders, Athletics, and UNLV baseball and softball. He has 24 years of journalism experience, is also a senior reporter at Exhibit City News, and previously covered the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. Follow him on X or connect on LinkedIn.
