Alex Orji didn’t win the starting quarterback job for UNLV, but he helped the team win its season opener on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Orji, who transferred after three seasons at Michigan, scored the game-winning touchdown on an 11-yard run with 8:51 left in the fourth quarter against Idaho State. The extra point made it 38-31, which held as the final.
Orji finished with 34 yards and six carries. He completed all three of his pass attempts for 37 yards, a good sign given his struggles as a passer at Michigan. Virginia transfer Anthony Colandrea started for UNLV and completed 15 of 21 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown. He ran 13 times for 93 yards.
Orji’s score came on a fourth-and-1 play in which he took a shotgun snap and looked to throw. After setting up to pass, he instead broke the pocket to the left and headed toward the goal. Wearing jersey No. 1, the 6-foot-3, 240-pounder hurdled one defender inside the 5 as he got pushed from behind by another, landing in the end zone feet first.
Though Colandrea took the first offensive snap for UNLV, Orji played the next snap and completed three passes on the opening drive before fumbling — after a nine-yard run — midway through the first quarter. Colandrea got the bulk of the snaps the rest of the way.
Orji found himself in a preseason battle for the starting job for the second straight year. As a redshirt sophomore last season, he lost a competition with Davis Warren. Warren’s struggles led Michigan to turn to Orji in the second half of the third game. Orji started the next three but never found a rhythm and was benched during Michigan’s at Washington on Oct. 5. He finished the season having completed 25 of 47 passes for just 150 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions, while running for 269 yards and a touchdown.
On Saturday, UNLV trailed Idaho State, an FCS program, 31-24 in the fourth quarter and got out-gained in total yards 555 to 532. But the Rebels intercepted four passes, including one shortly after Orji’s go-ahead score, to win head coach Dan Mullen’s UNLV debut.
The Rebels hit the road for their next game, Friday at Sam Houston.
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