UNLV is on the rise in the Mountain West, and the Rebels are looking to make a run for the College Football Playoff as a Group of Five candidate.
Boasting one of the flashiest offenses in the country that’s top 10 in scoring, the Rebels should be a name to watch as the season moves forward under head coach Barry Odom.
How did Barry Odom get to UNLV, and how has his staff helped him resurrect a perennial conference doormat into a must-watch unit? Let’s take a look at the UNLV Rebels’ coaching staff.
UNLV Rebels Coaching Staff
Head Coach, Barry Odom
Whether it’s riding bulls in the offseason or pulling the UNLV program into the Mountain West conversation, Odom is one of the most compelling college head coaches.
A former SEC head coach and well-known coordinator, Odom delivered a first year at UNLV that saw the program reach nine wins for the first time since 1984, a bowl game appearance, and earned him Mountain West Coach of the Year honors.
Odom began his football career as a linebacker at Missouri from 1996 to 1999, where he was a team captain as a senior. Following his time as a player, Odom began coaching at his high school alma mater, Ada High School, before moving on to Rock Bridge High School.
In 2003, Odom moved up to the college ranks at Missouri as a graduate assistant and remained at the program until 2012 in various roles. He moved from his recruiting position to safeties coach in 2009 and worked his way to a defensive coordinator position at Memphis in 2012.
After three years with the Tigers, Odom returned to Missouri as the defensive coordinator and, with Gary Pinkel’s retirement in 2015, was promoted to head coach. Odom was let go in 2019 after an up-and-down season that saw five straight wins followed by five straight losses.
Odom spent the next three years at Arkansas as the defensive coordinator before being hired as the head coach at UNLV. In his first season at the helm, the team earned a share of the conference regular-season title and played in the conference championship game for the first time ever. Odom and his staff also produced three All-Americans.
Offensive Coordinator, Brennan Marion
Known as the architect of the “Go-Go Offense,” Brennan Marion enters his second season as the offensive coordinator for the Rebels. He was named Mountain West Coordinator of the Year last season and was a nominee for the Broyles Award after helping the Rebels win nine games and finish 22nd in the country in scoring at 34.4 points per game.
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Marion was a record-setting receiver in college at Tulsa before entering the coaching profession. He had 2,356 yards on 82 receptions and 19 touchdowns for his career.
Prior to UNLV, Marion was the wide receivers coach at Texas in 2022 and held the same position at Pitt and Hawaii in 2021 and 2020, respectively. His first job as an offensive coordinator came in 2017 at Howard, and in 2019, he moved on to the same position at William & Mary.
Brennan spent four years coaching at the high school level before getting his start in college. He coaches quarterbacks in addition to his offensive coordinator duties.
Defensive Coordinator, Mike Scherer
Mike Scherer is one of the youngest defensive coordinators in the country. In his first year, UNLV tied for fourth in the country in interceptions with 17 and Scherer helped the team finish with a plus-eight turnover margin, good enough for 17th in the nation.
Scherer got his start in coaching after four years as a linebacker at Mizzou. He was an off-field assistant for the Tigers until 2021, when he took over as the linebackers coach at Arkansas.
Scherer followed Odom to UNLV in 2023, where he took over at his current position. Scherer also coaches linebackers for the Rebels.
Special Teams Coordinator, James Shibest
A two-time Special Teams Coordinator of the Year winner, James Shibest brings a lengthy resume to UNLV in his second season as a Rebel coach. He helped kicker Jose Pizano become a Lou Groza finalist and coached kick returner Jacob De Jesus to lead the country in total return yards.
Shibest came to UNLV from Virginia Tech, where he spent five seasons as the tight ends coach in addition to special teams coordinator. His career has included stops at Memphis, Ole Miss, and Arkansas as a special teams coordinator and tight ends or wide receivers coach.
Shibest was a standout wide receiver at Arkansas before entering the coaching ranks.
Offensive Line, Vance Vice
Another coach in his second year at UNLV, Vance Vice came to UNLV from Virginia Tech, where he spent six seasons as the offensive line coach. He helped Tiger Shanks earn first-team All-Mountain West honors in his first year at UNLV, the Rebels’ first offensive lineman to earn the honor since 2002.
Vice got his start in football as a defensive lineman at Oklahoma State before getting into coaching as a graduate assistant at Georgia. He coached the offensive line at Murray State, Illinois State, Utah State, ULM, Memphis, and Virginia Tech over his 20+ seasons as a coach.
Running Backs, Cornell Ford
Reuniting with Odom in 2023, Cornell Ford helped turn around the offense in a major way as running backs coach, with three backs rushing for at least 450 yards under his tutelage.
Freshman Jai’Den Thomas set a record for rushing touchdowns in both a single game and for the season, and the group finished with 39 rushing touchdowns on the year.
Ford has been coaching since 1991, with stops at Toledo and Missouri on his resume before moving out west to coach at UNLV. He has previously coached running backs, wide receivers, safeties, and cornerbacks, giving him a varied background in different positions.
Wide Receivers, Del Alexander
Del Alexander returned to UNLV after two previous stints with the Rebels just in time to coach Ricky White III to an All-American season. White set a school record with 1,483 yards receiving, and the team had 17 different players catch passes, showing impressive depth.
Alexander played collegiately at USC before becoming a football coach in 1998, when he started his first stint at UNLV as a wide receivers coach.
Alexander has spent time at Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Arizona State, Wisconsin, San Diego, and Oregon State, in addition to a year as an offensive assistant with the San Diego Chargers in 1999.
Tight Ends, Nate Longshore
A former standout collegiate quarterback, Nate Longshore was one of two holdovers from the previous staff at UNLV who joined Odom.
Longshore is entering his fourth season coaching tight ends, and he helped Kaleo Ballungay amass 18 receptions for 314 yards and two touchdowns as part of a potent UNLV offensive attack last year.
Longshore played at Cal prior to entering the coaching profession and spent four years at Santa Margarita High School before eventually moving on to UNLV as an offensive assistant. He also worked as a private quarterback trainer for several years and spent time as the Head of Football with Eon Sports, working with multiple NFL franchises.
Defensive Line, Ricky Logo
Ricky Logo arrived in 2023 and found success as the Rebels’ defensive line coach. He helped Jalen Dixon earn second-team All-Mountain West honors and had 10 different players register a sack during the 2023 season.
A native of Santa Ana, Calif., Logo played collegiately at North Carolina State as a nose tackle and began coaching in 1995 at UT-Chattanooga. His resume includes stops at Troy, Vanderbilt, Furman, Houston, Colorado State, Hawai’i, Washington State, and ULM.
Cornerbacks, Akeem Davis
A former collegiate cornerback at Memphis, Akeem Davis began coaching in 2017 as a graduate assistant at Southern Miss. He quickly rose up the ranks there, coaching cornerbacks in 2019 and running backs in 2020 before being named the defensive coordinator at Austin Peay in 2021. He left Peay to head to UNLV in 2022 and join up with Odom.
His first year at UNLV saw an all-conference performance by Cameron Oliver, who tied for sixth in the country with five interceptions. The Rebels tied for fourth in the nation with 17 interceptions, a credit to the work that Davis has done with his group.
Safeties, Nicco Fertitta
A first-year coach at the safety position, FNicco ertitta is a Las Vegas native who has been with the program since 2023 as a defensive analyst.
Prior to his stint at UNLV, Fertitta was a graduate assistant at LSU and coached defensive backs at prestigious Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas.
Fertitta played collegiately at Notre Dame, where he was a four-year letter winner under now-LSU head coach Brian Kelly.
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