Schedule makers do Rebels no favors

When UNLV opened the college football season Sept. 5 in a cornfield outside of Chicago, the Rebels covered the spread against Northern Illinois in a resounding fashion. They were driving toward more respectability — and perhaps even a touchdown and an attempt at a game-tying 2-point conversion — when Blake Decker threw a fourth-down pass to Devonte Boyd.

It was a nice pass, a pass that Boyd probably catches 98 times out of 100, because Boyd is pretty good.

(I was tempted to say he probably catches that pass 99 times out of 100, but I remember Keenan McCardell dropping a pass here, and McCardell was the best at catching passes the Rebels ever had — he went on to catch 883 in the NFL, for 11,373 yards.)

Boyd did not hang on to the catchable fourth-down pass from Decker.

The TV cameras panned to Tony Sanchez, UNLV's first-year coach, who was drawing up Xs and Os in high school at this time last year.

"He dropped it."

Those were the words Sanchez mouthed, and that's the beauty of TV cameras and a good director in the truck. They capture the emotion of the moment.

Only Sanchez wasn't that emotional when he mouthed those words. It was more of an observation. A matter of fact.

If the cameras panned to Sanchez during the pregame warmup before Saturday's game against No. 13 UCLA at Sam Boyd Stadium, they might have caught him mouthing three more words with a bit more angst.

"Who scheduled this?"

Usually when you see UCLA around here, it's a few days before the Las Vegas Bowl, which to Pac-12 representatives is considered a bit of a booby prize. Therefore, UCLA usually fires it coach in the years it plays in the Las Vegas Bowl.

In 2007, before the Bruins lost to Brigham Young, Karl Dorrell was fired.

In 2002, before the Bruins beat New Mexico, Bob Toledo was fired.

So when Jim Mora was not fired before Saturday's game, you sort of knew the Rebels might be in trouble.

UCLA won, 37-3.

The Rebels kept it mildly interesting for almost a half, despite losing quarterback Decker with an undisclosed injury on the final play of the first quarter.

It was only 17-0 at halftime, mostly because UCLA's talented freshman quarterback, Josh Rosen, played only so-so and insisted on throwing long passes the UNLV defensive backs insisted on covering.

There were 31,262 spectators on hand, the 12th-largest home crowd in UNLV history. Not all were wearing blue and gold. Tony Sanchez has succeeded in raising UNLV's profile, the way John Robinson briefly raised it 15 years ago.

People are curious about UNLV football again/for now. On Saturday night, many even got stuck in traffic.

There was a big-time atmosphere to it, but this is probably where Sanchez and company could have used a Bobby Hauck Special: a winnable game against Northern Arizona or Southern Utah. No, Hauck did not win those games, and that was embarrassing. But at least he had the good sense to schedule them when UNLV was in rebuilding mode.

The Rebels always were solid favorites in those games against the FCS directional schools that Hauck preferred. Against UCLA, UNLV was a 30½-point underdog.

The last time UNLV played a 13th-ranked team from the Pac-12, Mike Sanford guided the Rebels to an upset victory at Arizona State.

This time, it took UCLA 1:29 to score a touchdown.

After that, the Rebels buckled down some on defense, Decker got hurt and UCLA returned an intercepted pass for a TD.

It was mostly all Bruins in the second half. Had Snoop Dogg's son Cordell not quit the team during two-a-days, he probably would have seen a lot of playing time.

To paraphrase Dennis Green without the bluster and the swear words, the Bruins pretty much were who the Rebels thought they were. Especially when they started to mix in running plays and short passes with long passes.

I remember reading in a book of famous quotations — or maybe it was on the bathroom wall in a public park (for a good time, do not call on Jim Harbaugh in the Big House, the next task on Sanchez's difficult list) — that you will face your greatest opposition when you are closest to your biggest miracle.

Maybe that's why Jacksonville State almost knocked off Auburn on Saturday as a 40-point underdog.

Maybe that's why UNLV didn't stand much of a chance against UCLA. Especially after Decker got hurt, and after UCLA started mixing in the run with the pass.

There weren't any miracles hiding under the new Stardust hotel-inspired retro yard-line markers, or the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas signs in the end zones. The Rebels were just a rebuilding team that got manhandled by a much better one from a power conference.

Perhaps that is all that needs to be said at this point.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.