And In That Corner … Can the injured UNLV Rebels give Notre Dame another challenge?

A few weeks ago, Notre Dame fans would have seen little competitive intrigue in the Irish (3-3) hosting UNLV (4-3). While the perennial Mountain West cellar dwellers started off the season unexpectedly strong, their truer selves have shown through the last few weeks. Notre Dame should have little issue against UNLV (2:30 ET; Peacock), but last week’s Irish dud against Stanford underscored how little can be presumed in a season of tumult like this one.

To get a better idea of what threat the Rebels may pose, let’s chat with Steve Cofield of ESPN Las Vegas and the UNLV All Access Podcast …

Oh, but first, a reminder you will hear all week: UNLV vs. Notre Dame is available exclusively via Peacock, NBC’s streaming app.

DF: Notre Dame has looked rather rough at home this season, but it is not like UNLV has inspired much excitement the last couple weeks. I’ll get to the quarterback wonderings in a moment, but broad strokes, what changed from the Rebels’ 4-1 start and its last two blowout losses? When it was about to face New Mexico (three games ago), I tried to find the last time UNLV had been favored in three straight games against FBS opponents, and my databases did not go back far enough. The season started out with such Rebels promise …

SC: The jump up in competition has been a big part of it. San Jose Staté and Air Force are much better than the four teams the Rebels defeated. And this skid has coincided with the injury to quarterback Doug Brumfield. Brumfield was a Top 15 PFF-rated passer going into the SJSU game. For some reason, the backups seem to be a tick behind from a speed and urgency standpoint.

Certainly, some of the drop-off has been quarterback Doug Brumfield’s concussion at San Jose State. What are his chances