Tony Sanchez is thankful Saturday for the depth his roster appears to feature in the backfield. In routing Jackson State by 50 points to open its season last week, UNLV had five backs gain at least 30 yards.
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Long after Jackson State had kicked off to UNLV in the college football season opener, football fans and other people still were sitting in traffic trying to access the parking lots at Sam Boyd Stadium after a fatal accident knocked out traffic signals.
You never argue with confidence wins defined by video game numbers. They’re part of the process, too, along with recruiting better players and building better facilities and instilling a better mindset when believing success is possible.
At halftime of Thursday’s UNLV college football season opener, four limber young men sporting the Jackson State colors strutted onto the field around the 50-yard line at Sam Boyd Stadium.
There is first another 12-game schedule to navigate, and UNLV is hardly an easy book in which to predict an ending. The Rebels will be deeper than last season because it’s impossible not to be.
This is about the haves and have-nots of college athletics, and which side everyone wants to be on before the landscape changes forever and those not included are shoved aside for good.
Tony Samuel is intent on making things much better for the Rebels up front defensively, he being the only change this season to the staff of second-year coach Tony Sanchez.
Keith Belton will have as much to say about how improved the Rebels are this season and beyond as anyone else, his responsibility to grow the physiques of boys into men and men into bigger men.
Months of whispers became public Thursday when UNLV president Len Jessup said the school has raised $5 million to $6 million toward building an on-campus football facility.
The financial impact on what a stadium would mean to UNLV was discussed at different points of Thursday’s gathering, but this remains a secondary and yet highly significant element: How big a part could a stadium play in securing the Rebels’ membership in a Power 5 conference?