Hawaii win gives UNLV confidence entering Colorado State game

Forget about UNLV’s football team finally winning a game in which it trailed in the fourth quarter. The Rebels’ 41-38 comeback victory over Hawaii early Sunday was their first win in a game they trailed at any point under second-year coach Tony Sanchez.

UNLV has now led or been within a touchdown in the fourth quarter of 14 of 19 games under Sanchez, but only had a handful of wins to show for it before erasing a 38-31 fourth-quarter deficit in Oahu.

“If you continue to give yourself a chance, you’re going to find a way to win some games, and that’s what we did,” Sanchez said. “I was proud of how hard they fought. They get down toward the end of the game, and they finish it out.

“It’s not one of those almosts again. It’s ‘Wow, we did it.’ So there’s a whole sense of energy when you come back in the building Sunday night.”

The Rebels (3-4, 2-1 Mountain West) matched last season’s win total with the victory. They can eclipse it and reach the .500 mark in Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. game against Colorado State (3-4, 1-2) at Sam Boyd Stadium. UNLV is a 2-point favorite in a game that will be televised by ROOT SPORTS.

“This program for so long couldn’t get over that two-win hump. Now that we’re at three wins, we all have a sense of belief in the locker room that we can go out and reach our goals,” senior safety Troy Hawthorne said. “I think this can be a benchmark game for us. We’re all just excited.”

Winning only one more game this season would be an accomplishment in itself for a program that was stuck on two wins in eight of the 11 seasons before Sanchez took over.

“If we can go ahead and grab another one, it’s the first time we’ve shown consistent progress two years in a row since the John Robinson era,” Sanchez said. “That’s a long time.”

Indeed, four wins would give UNLV a better record in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2003, when Robinson guided the Rebels to a 6-6 mark after they finished 5-7 in 2002 and 4-7 in 2001.

While another win would show tangible improvement under Sanchez, UNLV has its sights set on going to a bowl game. To become eligible, the Rebels need to win three of their remaining five games: at home vs. Colorado State, Wyoming and UNR, and on the road at San Jose State and Boise State.

“There’s a lot of wins out there for us. It’s not going to be easy, but I think we can pluck some of those away,” Sanchez said. “I think we’re going to find ourselves in the fourth quarter a couple more times. I just think that’s kind of the nature of our conference and where we’re at. I don’t think there’s any big discrepancy between any team.

“We’re going to have to find a way to continue to pull things out at the end.”

The Rams, who staged stirring comebacks in each of the past two weeks, have dominated the series with UNLV, winning 15 of the past 18 meetings, but have lost the past two matchups in Las Vegas.

As was the case for the Rebels in their wins over Hawaii and Fresno State, they enter with a significant edge in the running game, which could open up the passing game for Dalton Sneed, who threw for 279 yards and two touchdowns against the Rainbow Warriors. UNLV features the nation’s 17th-ranked rushing offense, with 247.7 yards per game, and Colorado State has the No. 90 run defense (191.6 ypg). Rams quarterback Nick Stevens fired four touchdown passes in last season’s 49-35 win over the Rebels.

“I think it’s a game that’ll be very similar to the first three quarters of the Fresno game and very similar to this Hawaii game,” Sanchez said. “I think both teams will be challenged to put the ball in the air to make differences. We were able to run the ball against Hawaii, but our ability to throw the ball down the field made a big difference to the run game. We’re going to have to do that again.

“I think it’s a pretty evenly matched game.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.