UNLV & Matthew Sluka “Doncic” Lulled Kansas To Sleep With Terrible Clock Management, Leading To 1st Half-Ending TD

Matt Fitzgerald·
CULTURESPORTS
·
UNLV football Sluka
UNLV

Sometimes a headline or any collection of words or even pop culture analogies fail to describe what happens on the field of play in a sport. We’ve got ourselves a low-key tantalizing college football Friday matchup between Kansas and UNLV here.

I know how weird that sounds, because you’d be more liable to tune in if this duel was on the basketball court. But it kind of caters to that audience because Rebels quarterback Matthew Sluka has received the moniker “Sluka Doncic” presumably for his husky frame and ball-distributing prowess.

During the football equivalent of a fast break, though — the two-minute drill toward the end of the first half — Sluka’s UNLV squad was desperate to put some points on the board before the intermission. Despite having two timeouts with only 27 yards between them and the end zone, some sort of miscommunication or collective brain fart led the Rebels to squander their two stoppages. They let the clock roll forever and were in danger of coming away with nothing, staring a 17-6 halftime deficit straight in the face.

Then, of course, Sluka Doncic worked his magic, with a 27-yard touchdown pass to Jai’Den Thomas as the clock hit all zeros.

Circle back to the first sentence of this article real quick.

This wasn’t quite the basketball equivalent of poor shot selection, or when a QB makes an ill-advised throw, where in either case the coach gives the cliched response of, “Nononononono — YES!” And it doesn’t quite fit into the Dumb & Dumber “totally redeem yourself” bucket. Because I don’t know who to blame for the clock management fiasco. A big part of me feels like it ain’t all Sluka Doncic’s fault.

Sluka was clearly trying to get the play off. I don’t know what to make of it. Sounds like the coach is to blame.

I’m sure we’ll hear more after the game. Bottom line is, the Rebels are still alive thanks to Sluka’s heroics. This is a guy I’ve had my eye on since the start of the year when I looked at his stats. Turns out Sluka is a transfer from Holy Cross, where he threw for 46 TDs to only nine INTs over the past two seasons — and ran for another 2,477 yards and 20 TDs. Dude’s got wheels!!

This whole affiliation with Luka Doncic makes me happy. Sure helps make UNLV football more relevant. We’ll see if Sluka can boost the Rebels to 3-0 on the year and keep the momentum going the rest of the year. If not, at least he’ll have this bonkers sequence as a standout memory from the season, along with this ridiculous throw from a couple weeks ago.

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