The Rebels have been stuck on five wins since Oct. 26. Almost everybody believes it has been a fine season. Another way to look at it is that it has taken Bobby Hauck nearly four years to get the program to where Mike Sanford left it.
UNLV Football
After UNLV opened the basketball season with an exhibition loss to little Dixie State on Friday night, a fellow calling himself Mattyny posted one of the first messages below the Internet pictures, descriptions and accounts of the game.
Forty-four years ago, it was 1969. Bullets were flying in Southeast Asia. And Mark Larson said it was getting dark at Mackay Stadium up in Reno.
Before the season even started — it probably was a day or two after the Athlon college football preview magazine came out — football people who took a cursory glance at UNLV’s schedule said the Rebels could be 4-2 by now.
A few weeks ago, I was hiding out at the Central Michigan-UNLV football game at Sam Boyd Stadium — I figured that would be the last place the authorities would look — when Mark Wallington, the Rebels’ football information guy, said the UNLV marching band had formed a giant mustache down on the playing field.
At the start of his Monday news conference, Bobby Hauck, UNLV’s football coach with the 6-34 record — 7-34 now, after coming from three touchdowns down to beat Central Michigan on Saturday night — said he would answer questions only about the Chippewas.
Within hours of UNLV throwing away a game at Minnesota on opening night of the college football season, I received an offer for two free tickets, essentially, for the Rebels’ “marquee” game against Arizona Saturday night. This was remarkable on various fronts.
There have been 26 college football seasons since I first rolled across Hoover Dam. There have been three winning ones. It could be argued the Rebels’ run of futility over the past quarter-century is unsurpassed.
Last year at this time, Robert Jameson was one of the student equipment managers for the UNLV football team. Now, he’s one of their wide receivers. That’s a pretty cool story.
Harvey Hyde, the coach of the 1984 UNLV football team that will be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame on Friday night, used to be a bit of a pirate. In the colorful, “aye matey, arrrrgh ye comin’ along for the ride?” sense, not the pillaging and plundering sense, though the Rebels of his era certainly pillaged and plundered Cal State Fullerton and San Jose State and some of those other teams.
