The national glare on college football is its usual powerful November self, what with more BCS updates than holiday sales and those in South Bend buying out the town’s supply of toilet paper to wrap around Charlie Weis’ house and trees and car and anything else connected with the besieged and yet handsomely compensated Notre Dame coach.
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
SAN DIEGO
It will come Saturday evening at San Diego State, the most significant football game UNLV will have played in eight years. But regardless if the Rebels win or lose against the lowly Aztecs, whether they become bowl eligible or finish two games under .500, Mike Sanford’s future as head coach should be even more solidified come Sunday morning.
It is in their hands now for the first time in what seems an eternity. Eight years, really. But what a long, painful, frustrating eight it must have been for those who follow UNLV football. Think of the world’s incessant wait for Tom Cruise to take up scientology full time and try ruling the universe in anonymity. That long.
He has made this walk before while thinking of her and will do so again.
They begin to occur in a college football coaching’s staff third season and increase in the fourth. Measuring games. Those weeks when it is determined where your program stands in relation to the best in its conference. Those weeks when you discover how far you have come and how far you must travel to be considered valid.
PROVO, Utah — On paper, it’s France against Russia. Or Britain. Or Italy (both times). It’s Bennett against John Matrix. It’s the Easy-Bake Oven against Wolfgang Puck.
Excuse any typos in the following because it is October and UNLV football has yet to be eliminated from bowl consideration and that kind of radical occurrence might tend to play tricks when hunting and pecking for ways to comprehend it all.
The latest UNLV football loss to UNR is over, which means Wolf Pack coach Chris Ault is somewhere dancing on a couch wearing a lampshade and the Rebels now can just have nightmares about tackling Frankie Albert rather than looking pathetic trying to do so.
The telephone rang a few Saturday evenings ago, and Glenn Carano answered. A cowboy was calling, his old wide receiver Mike Haverty.
Mike Sanford’s reaction following his football team’s upset of Arizona State on Saturday night is precisely why the celebration rule that cast a dark cloud over the Brigham Young-Washington game a week earlier needs to be shredded like unnecessary documents.
SALT LAKE CITY — When trying to surface from the ocean floor, you can’t expect a clean and swift journey. Things will be choppy in places. Nothing comes easy for those at the bottom.
OK, I admit it. I went too far last season. I allowed myself to get caught up in the promise of UNLV football, or at least the promise of improved play and more wins that coach Mike Sanford continues to, well, promise.
1
2
3
4
5
Visiting DC from Vegas? Southwest wants to take you closer to the sights
Off-Strip hotel guest injured by fallen window
Raiders QB changes number as nod to Carr: ‘It felt disrespectful’
$70M indoor sports, family entertainment complex proposed for Henderson
IRS may raise jackpot withholding level to $5,800