Jackson Woodard followed coach Barry Odom from Arkansas to Las Vegas, and the junior has responded with a team-leading 104 tackles for the 9-3 Rebels.
Ed Graney
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 remain relevant on several fronts in talks about Power Five expansion after Colorado left the Pac-12 to go back to the Big 12.
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.
Tony Sanchez concluded his third season as coach Saturday, when the Rebels lost to a historically bad UNR side 23-16 and with it a chance to become bowl eligible and reclaim ownership of the Fremont Cannon.
This is no Iowa cornfield, and the only farming I have done lately is to roll a broken lawn mower out to the curb for a garage sale, but if you close your eyes and imagine what more than $1 billion might deliver Las Vegas in terms of a domed stadium, you just might see all that Ray Kinsella built and more.
It was at this time last year in a ballroom at the Phoenix Convention Center when Roger Goodell was posed a familiar question at his annual state of the league address at the Super Bowl: Did the commissioner think Las Vegas could sustain an NFL team?
Prediction: If there isn’t a fundamental change in assistance and vision, if facilities and salaries aren’t upgraded and academic support strengthened, you’re going to read this exact same column five years from now, minus a few name changes.
The Rebels are excited about opportunities and not worried about obstacles as they open the season against heavily favored Arizona. That’s an important change for Bobby Hauck’s team.
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.
Mike Sanford has come here, a place discovered when Brigham Young sent Mormon settlers to survey the site of a fort near the banks of a river, a town 82 miles north of Salt Lake City that lies near the slopes of the northernmost branch of the Wasatch Range, to continue a journey.
