RJ columnist Ed Graney’s 5 favorite stories of 2025

Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter/columnist Ed Graney spent the year writing columns on local teams and issues. He also covered Dan Mullen’s first season as UNLV football coach, one that ended with 10 wins, a berth in the Mountain West championship game and an appearance in the Frisco Bowl.

Here are five of his favorite stories from 2025 with some context about what made each one memorable:

Barry Odom revived UNLV’s football program over a two-year period in 2023 and 2024. He convinced an entire city that the Rebels could indeed be more than competent at the sport, winning 20 games in his short time before departing for Purdue. Enter, then, Dan Mullen. The former Florida and Mississippi State coach was charged with continuing to build on the success Odom created. Here was a look at how those closest to Mullen view him and what his plans were to bring UNLV to even greater heights.

Pete Carroll has been a winning coach in college and the NFL. He won national championships at USC and a Super Bowl with the Seahawks. He knows of little else. But he also overestimated the talent his first Raiders team had from the outset of the 2025 season. Enough to say more than once how the Raiders would have a winning record. They didn’t. They didn’t come close.

Nobody knew immediately what Tom Brady’s role with the Raiders would be once he purchased a minority stake in the team. But the more and more on-field decisions were made, the more and more it appeared Brady had his hand in them. Which is fine if he’s all-in and involved on a daily basis. Which he hasn’t been. Brady must be more committed to his role for the Raiders to prosper and truly build a winning program.

In our series College Sports Chaos, this story looks at how the Mountain West and Pac-12 could have avoided lawsuits and other such wranglings had they come together as sensible entities and worked to strike a reasonable deal of perhaps merging the two conferences. But egos dominated the day, and for it, two weaker leagues emerged when it could have been the best Group of Five conference in America.

Summerlin South did Las Vegas proud by winning the U.S. championship at the Little League World Series. Like teams from Mountain Ridge and Henderson before them, Summerlin learned what an incredible moment participating in the event really is. Learned about the magic. The bright lights. The intense and wonderful scene it truly is. Here’s a look at what makes the Little League World Series so special and what Nevada teams experienced.

Contact Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.