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
Three hours, 37 minutes. That’s how far it is from the Cotton Bowl to North Shore High in Houston, from where some key UNLV football players will compete in the program’s first bowl game since 2000 on Wednesday to where they played for a prep program led by one of the winningest coaches in Texas history.
In the depths of failure, Jim Livengood still believed.
It was, more than anything, a defense of folly.
You don’t accept a postseason game in 2013 to make money. You don’t agree to play North Texas in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Jan. 1 with the idea your athletic department’s bottom line is going to realize a sudden influx of cash.
How to define a great day for UNLV football: That some 13 years after the school qualified for its last postseason game, the Rebels on Sunday accepted an invitation to play North Texas in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on New Year’s Day.
This much we know: That improving enough this football season to become bowl eligible, Bobby Hauck and his UNLV team accomplished what Jim Livengood demanded, what Neal Smatresk expected, what Tina Kunzer-Murphy felt necessary to prove tangible progress.
It never will, and shouldn’t, reach the level of intensity that is UNLV-UNR each fall, but perhaps by borrowing a page from their basketball programs, UNLV and San Diego State football also can discover a happy medium of disgust that only a true rivalry can offer.
Now that it’s official and Bobby Hauck will return for a fifth season and beyond as football coach at UNLV, it seems a good time to evaluate significant parts of his tenure.
The Rebels are bowl eligible for the first time since 2000, and Bobby Hauck is soon to be granted a contract extension, once the I’s are dotted and T’s crossed and president Neal Smatresk finds a few minutes to sign off on the deal while dusting off his boots for a similar position at North Texas.
On Thursday night, the Rebels relied on a senior running back who has given every ounce of himself to the program as one who would lead them into such foreign territory as a possible postseason game.
Of all the goals UNLV might have scribbled on the board before this season, a major one still is attainable and as much as anything would offer tangible proof of those positive steps the Rebels have made during Coach Bobby Hauck’s fourth season.
If a mirror is in the football coaching offices at UNLV, and I have to believe there is given the egos of men who choose such a profession, those paid to instruct the Rebels should spend this day looking into it.
Coach Bobby Hauck and those within UNLV athletics hope that recent success on the field can turn what at times has been a contentious relationship with students into a positive one.
The crowd spread across the pavement near the Student Union and onto adjacent stairwells Monday, hundreds gathered to celebrate a rivalry victory in football and the promise of what still might transpire for UNLV in the coming weeks.
It represents more today for the UNLV football program than a replica of a 19th century Howitzer, more than a 550-pound trophy ever could, more than its $10,000 value.
