For Rebels, one play can alter a culture

RENO — You will excuse Ryan McAleenan for not remembering his assignment, for basking in the glow of a rain-soaked celebration within a sea of red.

His broad smile told the story, his lapse of memory the result of immeasurable joy.

One play during a football game can change everything. A series. A game. A season. A culture. It unmercifully can snatch from one side the advantage of momentum and magically deliver to another a 19th-century Howitzer cannon and the moniker of state supremacy.

Perhaps this is what coaches mean about learning how to win, the way UNLV on Saturday night grabbed back the Fremont Cannon from UNR with a 23-17 victory before 29,551 at Mackay Stadium. Perhaps the journey to respectability really can begin with one snap of the ball and the action that follows it.

"In the past, those kinds of momentum swings have gone the other way, but tonight they went for the Rebels, and that's a big deal for our program moving forward," first-year UNLV coach Tony Sanchez said. "I always say winners find a way and so do losers. That's harsh, but it is who we have kind of been for a long time. We need to find a way to win games, and we made the play when we needed to."

One play.

One snap of the football and the action that follows it.

The leading characters were McAleenan, a junior middle linebacker; Jeremiah Valoaga, a senior defensive lineman for the Rebels; and Tyler Stewart, the junior quarterback for UNR.

It can change a series …

UNR, which offensively couldn't blow a Styrofoam cup off a kitchen table the first three quarters, had just gone 78 yards in nine plays to pull within 13-10 early in the fourth. It then forced a three-and-out from a UNLV team playing with its backup quarterback, so confetti flew across the UNR side of the field and rain fell onto a cannon that, for the moment, remained a dark shade of blue.

It was second-and-6 from the UNR 49 with less than nine minutes remaining when Stewart, the roar of momentum driving him and the Wolf Pack toward a possible go-ahead score, dropped back to pass …

Through the eyes of Valoaga: "My assignment was just to play the gap, but I read (Stewart's) eyes and made an option of reaching out with my left hand and tipping it."

It can change a game …

McAleenan signed with San Jose State out of high school, redshirted a season and then transferred to College of the Canyons located in Santa Clarita, Calif. A year later, he arrived at UNLV and played in all 13 games in 2014. He never had returned an interception for a touchdown at any level. He never had felt the euphoria of a pick-six.

Through the eyes of McAleenan: "I'm trying to remember the play call … I think I was supposed to check off the back and see if someone … I don't remember. I can't tell you. I just saw the ball tipped and broke on it. I bobbled it a little, caught it and took off. I saw (Stewart) running towards me, so I was just trying to get to the corner of the end zone as fast as I could. Get in the end zone and don't fall. That's about it."

It can change a season …

The official distance of the return was 52 yards, a score and ensuing extra point that gave UNLV a 20-10 lead it didn't relinquish.

The weeks ahead will bear out how much this victory means, but in a West Division of the Mountain West devoid of any terrific team, beginning league play with a road victory puts UNLV in a favorable position for now. How quickly starting quarterback Blake Decker recovers from a shoulder injury suffered late in the first half will go a long way in determining whether the Rebels contend of pretend in the West race.

It can change a culture …

Stay the course. It is the call to action for any sermon Sanchez delivers his team, and it's exactly what Valoaga and McAleenan did on that play. They didn't try to be something they aren't. They focused on the process of one snap.

UNLV hasn't been the team to make such a play in, well, forever. Not consistently. Not so dramatically. But if this is what it means to learn how to win, perhaps the simplicity of a tipped pass and interception return can act as a springboard for even more success and celebrations as the one witnessed outside the team's locker room Saturday night, a Fremont Cannon ready to be shipped south and lathered with a fresh coat of red paint come Monday.

"To come on the road with a team in transition and have our No. 1 quarterback go down and come away with a win speaks volumes about where we are going," Sanchez said. "For our seniors who worked so hard during a (coaching) transition, for our young guys who we need to believe in it, this is huge."

The rain fell, and a young man named Ryan McAleenan smiled broadly.

"The biggest play of my life so far," he said.

To think, he couldn't even remember his assignment.

The result of immeasurable joy.

One play can change everything.

It really can.

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.