First game of the year against an opponent we are heavily favored against? I'd defer. There could be a few hiccups early on, so if the first half doesn't go as we want, I'd like the coaching staff to be able to say, "welcome back to college football gentlemen, now that we got that out of our system, let's go score on our first drive."
Conversely, if I'm UNLV, I think I'm a big enough underdog that I don't expect to be able to rattle Minnesota by simply scoring first, so I defer, and that way if they are able to go into the half with the lead, they like their chances with a lead and possession, and then they hope we start to panic.