UNLV on no pleasure trip to Hawaii

Hawaii has been anything but paradise for UNLV’s football team.

The Rebels not only have made a habit of losing there, but losing badly.

So UNLV coach Bobby Hauck is changing the approach.

In years past, going back to when Mike Sanford coached the team, the Rebels left two days before the game to get better acclimated after the six-hour commercial flight. They also stayed on the remote North Shore that is an hour from Aloha Stadium.

This time, UNLV will leave Friday on a chartered flight for Saturday’s 8 p.m. PST game and will stay in the tourist-heavy Waikiki Beach that is only a half-hour from the stadium.

The idea is to decrease down time by getting rid of the extra day and treating this game like other trips that are more in and out.

“I don’t want to make more of it than it is, but any time we do anything, we try to research it to try to give us the best chance of winning the game,” Hauck said Monday. “The way we were approaching the trip over there just flat wasn’t productive and wasn’t working for us.”

UNLV has proved it can stay in Waikiki and win. The last time the Rebels booked hotel rooms there, they won 34-32 in the 2000 season finale to become bowl eligible. The Rebels went on to beat Arkansas 31-14 in the Las Vegas Bowl 19 days later.

That trip occurred under coach John Robinson, but then Sanford and Hauck preferred to put the team out in the more low-key North Shore.

The results weren’t favorable.

UNLV lost 42-13 in 2006 under Sanford and 59-21 in 2010 and 48-10 in 2012 under Hauck.

Coaches are always concerned about distractions, but Hauck figured the benefits of the move to Waikiki outnumbered the negatives. And he does coach a team that calls Las Vegas home, so it’s not like the Rebels aren’t around potential distractions on a regular basis.

“I think you’re always concerned about (distractions), but we’ve got a pretty mature team,” Hauck said. “I think our guys will be locked in. We don’t have a lot of time, so there shouldn’t be any of that.”

Oddsmakers expect a closer game this weekend but with a familiar outcome. The Rebels are 9½-point underdogs.

Both teams have defended their home turf, with UNLV winning the past three meetings in Las Vegas and five of the previous six.

This is the Rebels’ second biggest rivalry, trailing only UNR. Six Hawaiians play for UNLV, which has made the islands a key recruiting ground. The ones making the trip will have to deal with the distractions of seeing family and friends.

They also have business to handle.

“You want to play hard and represent not only your family, but the football team that you’re on,” wide receiver Maika Mataele said.

■ NOTES — Junior Nick Sherry, who had dropped to third-team quarterback behind Blake Decker and Jared Lebowitz, has quit the team. Hauck said Sherry “didn’t like being beat out by Lebowitz.” ... Hauck said it could go to game day before a decision is made on whether Decker starts. “He’s been fighting through a lot of things — shoulder, hip, elbow, sore neck, all that stuff,” Hauck said. “I don’t know exactly how fast he’s going to come back.” ... Saturday’s game will be streamed online at unlvrebels.com and produced by Hawaii’s Oceanic TWC. ... UNLV’s season finale Nov. 29 against UNR at Sam Boyd Stadium will be at 7:30 p.m. and televised on ESPNU.

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.