UNLV coach Tony Sanchez announced his first recruiting class Wednesday, but he knows he must change a culture and win games. The best haul Sanchez landed during this recruiting season was the group of veteran assistant coaches standing at the back of the room.
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Ed Graney
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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
They have cast their disfigured net at the College Football Hall of Fame even wider, expanded their reasoning for induction even broader, devised cursory explanations for some who are now welcome to even greater lengths. Which makes the continuing exclusion of Randall Cunningham even more absurd.
The question everyone wanted answered went unanswered at UNLV’s press conference on Thursday afternoon. And that was disappointing.
What are people so worried about, that he might lose games? The Rebels have been experts at that for decades. Few programs nationally lose with the regularity of UNLV. Here’s a thought: What if Tony Sanchez wins?
Jim Fassel is the experience in this equation. The one whose credentials wouldn’t be scrutinized. His is a name that has been widely associated with the coaching job at UNLV, vacant since Bobby Hauck announced his resignation Friday.
Here’s the key part: No one is denying it.
Prediction: If there isn’t a fundamental change in assistance and vision, if facilities and salaries aren’t upgraded and academic support strengthened, you’re going to read this exact same column five years from now, minus a few name changes.
I would think fairness should matter to all athletic conferences across the country when it comes to membership and ensuring everyone within the framework has an equal opportunity at success. In this sense, the Mountain West and its TV contract for football has failed miserably for many schools, particularly UNLV.
Bob Davie gave the Lobos an identity. Which begs a question: Does UNLV have one, and if so, what in the world is it besides losing?
Kids are interested in uniforms and depth charts. Parents in academics. Neither really cares that the Rebels are 2-5 this season.
UNLV’s football team was presented an opportunity Friday night, a chance for the Rebels to end their four-game losing streak and enter their only off-week of the season on the sort of high that has been near impossible to discover this season. It took them all of 60 minutes and an additional series of plays, but they finally embraced such a moment.
There is this theory about preseason college football polls: That while they might be good for creating dialogue and definitely profitable for those magazines that release their own Top 25 rankings in August, they unfairly create a perception of which teams are best in a given year.
San Diego State proved superior in every way while beating the Rebels 34-17 in a Mountain West opener for both teams before 28,005, the latest example that UNLV simply isn’t good enough in most areas right now to have a chance at defeating anyone capable.
The Rebels need to solve what is a glaring weakness quickly, as in tonight at TDECU Stadium against Houston, or a 1-2 record will be 1-3 long before the final seconds elapse.
UNLV produced the greatest offensive quarter in school history and one that still has a solid place in the NCAA record book, in a game played 20 years ago this week between the Rebels and Idaho.
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