Fans’ anger over UNLV’s overtime loss to Idaho is progress

The preseason chat with players went like this: There is a large portion of the community that is excited about us winning three games last season … and that’s a major problem.

“We have to change that perception,” Tony Sanchez said. “We need people to be disappointed in that.”

Sanchez doesn’t manage just flooring and cabinetry. His responsibilities don’t begin and end with paint schemes. He’s in charge of the entire project that is building UNLV’s football program into something resembling a competitive side, which means day-to-day oversight and supervising every last detail.

Which means losing to the likes of Idaho no longer should be accepted.

There is no silver lining to Mighty Vandals 33, Lowly Rebels 30 in overtime, a result on Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium that defined a feeling all too familiar with how the program has been viewed locally for decades. Simply, that people expect such losses to occur and have been decidedly indifferent in their response.

Not this time.

Progress can be defined countless ways, and this includes how many reacted across social media to the Rebels falling as a two-touchdown favorite at home to a team destined for the Football Championship Subdivision level.

Instead of disinterest, there was disdain.

Instead of amusement, there was anger.

Jokes became jeers.

“For a long time, everywhere in this community, it was just accepted that (UNLV) won two games, won two games, had a good year, then won two games again,” Sanchez said. “I’m not being critical of the last five years. It has been that way for 10, 12, 25 years. It became one of those things where everyone became OK with (losing).

“Now, all of a sudden, we created a different expectation level, where when you lose a game (like Idaho), people say, ‘You need to be better than that.’ External pressure is not a bad thing.”

The bowl game many believed was obtainable in this, Sanchez’s second year as coach, became a much tougher goal to realize with the setback to Idaho. The Rebels are 1-3, have lost starting quarterback Johnny Stanton for a minimum of three to four weeks with a knee injury and are far too benevolent defensively in allowing averages of 33 points and 407 yards.

But nothing can raise one’s confidence like the arrival of Mountain West play, where awful to dead-flat average opponents come to get healthy during the nonconference portion of a schedule and struggling league members can quickly right themselves.

UNLV opens conference play against Fresno State at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium, where redshirt freshman quarterback Dalton Sneed will make his first college start and the Rebels are favored by nine points.

How they react to the Idaho loss could determine the way things play out against the Bulldogs, meaning will UNLV players respond to a miserable defeat differently or in the same permissive nature of past teams?

How much does failure really gnaw at this current group?

“If you were around here Sunday, you would have felt that (upset) vibe from the players,” senior fullback Marc Philippi said. “It wasn’t a fun time walking around here after that loss.

“We need to figure out the actions that will allow us to play better this week. Anyone can say they are mad and frustrated, but the only way to fix that is practice well and watch film and do the little things and actually go out and do it and not just say it. It comes down to each person, each player, doing his job.”

They play hard enough. They just don’t execute all that well. They’re young in numerous spots, and yet that explanation for losing has a shelf life that will quickly expire. Nobody wants to hear it, because if players are on the field, it’s assumed they’re capable of performing.

Heart isn’t an issue. Acceptance is. Until the Rebels start acting like losing to Idaho is the worst thing in the world by playing at a level that suggests such moments are a thing of the past, improvement will remain a slow, plodding, almost indiscernible process.

At some point, the most exciting news around this team needs to be more than what uniform it plans on wearing in its next game, a message sent loud and clear and in a direct manner by many fans after the Idaho debacle.

“We’re not quitters,” Sanchez said. “At the end of the day, all the motivational talks I can do and all the cool things we do and the uniforms, it comes down to intensity, to focus, to being a mature football player. There is no lack of will. We’ve shown we’re fighters.

“No one said this job was going to be easy. It would have been great to come in here and think by year two everything would be rolling. But we’ll get it done. I’m positive about that. We just have to stay the course and do our thing.”

Instead of offering a level of tolerance about Idaho, fans were ticked off.

Strangely enough, that’s progress.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney