Ed Graney is a sports columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, covering a variety of topics and the Las Vegas sports scene.
egraney@reviewjournal.com … @edgraney on Twitter. 702-383-4618
The Rebels on Saturday night began what they hope will be a wave of momentum heading into next football season in the most memorable and impressive of ways, rallying from a 23-point deficit to defeat UNR 34-29 before an announced gathering of 19,921 at Sam Boyd Stadium.
One of the main problems with UNLV athletics, perhaps the central one, is the fact it either doesn’t realize or accept its place in today’s world of collegiate athletics.
Here’s the part often lost in the suggestion that UNLV would be better off without major college football: Such a move wouldn’t come without serious consequences.
The talk of losing out is over, and the uncertainty of Tony Sanchez’s job status unquestionably should be paused, after the Rebels rallied to defeat 23-point favorite San Diego State 27-24 on Saturday night.
Lorenzo Fertitta doubles down on support for Sanchez receiving a fifth season and time in the football complex that will bear the family name.
UNLV dropped its fifth straight Saturday, this a 50-37 decision to San Jose State, after which a majority of the announced gathering of 16,165 were able to cheer victory for the first time in 2018.
Thoughts of regaining its footing and possibly again creating a legitimate path to bowl eligibility were pretty much crushed Friday night when UNLV fell to Air Force 41-35 at Sam Boyd Stadium.
Losing starting quarterback Armani Rogers indefinitely this week to a toe injury is hardly a desired reality, but this is the sort of moment coach Tony Sanchez has prepared for through recruiting.
If you were to put pen to paper and describe the hopes and dreams of those at UNLV when it comes to building football at a Group of Five institution, it would likely resemble more of the Red Wolves than you might imagine from a place so far away and dissimilar.
UNLV amassed 414 yards rushing in drilling Texas-El Paso 52-24 on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium.
In 1968, an offense that included nine freshmen, a sophomore and a senior quarterback with a bad ankle ran the snot out of a play called 20-trap-pass, and so was born a program.
That the Rebels dropped a 43-21 decision to the Trojans on Saturday isn’t nearly the most important chapter early in Tony Sanchez’s fourth year as UNLV coach.
Saturday marks just the second time UNLV football will meet Southern California, the first being a 1997 game in which Jon Denton and the Rebels had a chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter before falling.
Cristian Garcia reached his current position through hard work and faith and defying odds, along the way stepping in to prevent a 19-year-old woman from a possible sexual assault.
Sanchez had a choice about how to assemble from scratch — there is no such thing thing as rebuilding a program with one winning season since 2001 — and wisely picked the correct but yet often painstakingly slow option.
