First-year UNLV coach Sanchez won’t accept moral victories

DEKALB, Ill. — This is what winners say: That moral victories are for the birds. That while it might be something you can build on — going on the road as a three-touchdown underdog and driving in a one-score game with under three minutes remaining — you can't in any way accept such a conclusion.

Tony Sanchez has won forever.

He's not about to let UNLV football embrace any sort of status quo.

The Rebels opened the Sanchez Era on Saturday night by pushing heavily favored Northern Illinois to the end, ultimately falling 38-30 before 15,455 fans at Huskie Stadium.

After his first game as a college head coach since making the jump from Bishop Gorman High, Sanchez looked a bit like one might when a fist is about to meet a wall.

And that viewpoint, more than anything, just might be the catalyst for him turning around UNLV's program.

People around the Rebels have settled for losing far too long.

He apparently won't, at least not without a fight.

"We don't want our kids devastated or hanging their heads in the sand for the next week as we prepare for UCLA," Sanchez said of his team's home opener on Sept. 12. "But at the same time, we want them to know we had a chance to win here and we have to fix some things and get better. Part of the reason I thought we had a puncher's chance — I honestly thought we had a better chance than that — was because I looked at the personnel and I looked at our guys. I liked their commitment. I like their toughness. I think we have some skill. We're developing. We're not a bad football team."

But it is an extremely thin and young one in spots, which is why UNLV couldn't hold onto a 17-10 halftime lead and eventually bowed to a good but not great Northern Illinois side.

The Rebels played nine true freshmen. That's a good thing when you consider so many first-year players gained the experience of competing in a road environment against an opponent that had won 57 games the previous five seasons. It's a bad thing for the same reason.

If the Rebels are playing this many freshmen in a season-opener three years from now, Sanchez hasn't built the type of successful program he is assured can exist at UNLV. But this is the reality of today, and the Rebels still managed to compete well into the fourth quarter before their fate was sealed.

I'm not sure when a UNLV defense was as physical against the run as this one proved over the first 30 minutes, limiting the Huskies to 66 yards on the ground. Last season, Northern Illinois rushed for 331 against the Rebels.

UNLV actually had consecutive fourth-and-short stops in the first half.

That has to be a school record.

It just has to be.

But the humid night would crawl forward and the Rebels would wear down, allowing 554 total yards, with 185 coming on the ground.

Fact: They were strong in the beginning defensively and got gashed in the end.

They had Northern Illinois tugging on their pants in the first half, and were the ones tugging in the second.

"Coach Sanchez had his guys playing extremely hard and well," Northern Illinois coach Rod Carey said. "They had us on the ropes. Listen, if you come out of that thing with a win, we'll take it every time. I don't care about their record from last year or whatever, that's a good football team. They play hard and fast and have some new schemes with new coaches."

UNLV was good enough offensively to total 493 yards — including 319 through the air from senior quarterback Blake Decker — and yet not consistent enough in the red zone to maintain its lead. It couldn't get enough pressure from its defensive front to hold up on the back end, and was burned for 360 passing yards for it.

They are fixable things and they aren't, at least in the present. Some of it will involve simple tweaks to the scheme and better execution from those running plays; other things will involve recruiting better players.

But what the UNLV effort said — and it was strong and evident from the opening kickoff to the final play — is that there might be games across a challenging schedule that are suddenly more in play than many believed a few days ago. Specifically, some Mountain West games.

The play-calling from offensive coordinator Barney Cotton was creative and aggressive and timely. The defense under Kent Baer had enough moments to make you believe it will more than compete against comparable talent.

The Rebels played hard enough to win.

They just didn't, is all.

They were good enough to play with the Huskies, just not good enough to finish them off.

"This one stings," Decker said. "Honestly, we felt like we had a great chance. ... There are some positives to take away, but there is a winner and a loser in college football and when you're not on the winning end of it, it's obviously frustrating."

No moral victories.

It's as much a part of the building process as anything.

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 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney.