It won’t help UNLV’s new football coach beat Boise State, but first impressions can certainly work wonders in terms of how a community will support a program which has rarely succeeded.
UNLV
Young. No head coaching experience. And now in charge of trying to do something at UNLV that nobody has done consistently in 30 years. Welcome to the Marcus Arroyo Era.
Tony Sanchez did everything but win at UNLV, setting the program on a path for success more than anyone else who held his position. He defeated UNR on Saturday in his final game.
Landing a coach with supreme name recognition is exactly the path UNLV should travel in football, one that could ultimately affect all other sports in a positive manner.
Tony Sanchez, fired with one game remaining in his fifth season as Rebels football coach, leaves the program in much better shape than anyone who has held the job.
The public address announcer is as synonymous with UNLV as anything scarlet and gray, a significant part of the historic fabric that defines Rebels athletics.
The growing pains that are Kenyon Oblad as UNLV’s starting quarterback continued Saturday, as two second-half interceptions played a major role in a 21-7 loss to Hawaii.
The junior running back suffered a serious ankle injury in 2017, but now has produced two consecutive 100-yard games to begin the season.
One step forward is yet again three steps back, the latest example being a 43-17 blowout loss to Arkansas State before an announced gathering of 18,742 on Saturday night.
Numbers rarely lie and those of the junior quarterback Armani Rogers suggest bowl eligibility for the Rebels in 2019 will be directly linked to whether or not he has grown into a more accurate passer.
The Rebels need junior college star linebacker Vic Viramontes to translate his confidence off the field to a huddle.
The Rebels will have to prove history and the Mountain West preseason media poll wrong, a forecast that has UNLV finishing fifth in the six-team West Division.
Already, the new UNLV football complex has paid off with several commitments for the 2020 recruiting class, pledges from the sorts of players who likely would have never considered the Rebels if not for such dedication to an on-campus facility.
A potential site for a College Football Playoff championship game will soon host the NFL and UNLV football, along with a new-and-much-improved Las Vegas Bowl.
The UNLV team that will compete at the Spring Showcase at noon Saturday at Johann Memorial Field is better and deeper and more prepared than any others coach Tony Sanchez has offered.