UNLV seniors bid adieu to football team, UNR rivalry

UNLV seniors David Greene and Troy Hawthorne helped the Rebels to the Heart of Dallas Bowl in the 2013 season, but they said beating rival UNR trumps that.

“Beating Reno is always a career highlight,” Hawthorne said.

Greene and Hawthorne are part of a senior class that will try to help UNLV (4-7, 3-4 Mountain West) top the Wolf Pack (4-7, 2-5) for the third time in four years at 1 p.m. Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium in the 42nd Battle for the Fremont Cannon.

The squad’s 16 departing players — who will be honored on the field before the game on Senior Day — won’t close out their career in a bowl game, as they’d hoped, but going out with their first home win over UNR since 2004 might be even sweeter.

“This is really our bowl game,” Greene said. “It would mean the most because these guys cannot stand us and we can’t stand them. We’re just going to duke it out.”

The road team has won the last four meetings, with three decided by six points or less. In 2013, the Rebels beat the Wolf Pack 27-22 at Reno’s Mackay Stadium under coach Bobby Hauck to snap their series-worst eight-game losing streak. Last season, UNLV held off UNR 23-17 to reclaim the cannon as Tony Sanchez became the first Rebels coach since Jeff Horton in 1994 to win his rivalry debut.

“It’s a big deal when they’ve had that thing for nine of 11 years,” Sanchez said. “They kind of got used to having that as part of their furniture. It’s great to have it here and paint it red and build a culture around fighting for it.”

Hawthorne said seeing college football’s heaviest (545 pounds) and most expensive rivalry trophy (cost $10,000 to build in 1970) in UNLV’s locker room for the past year has given him motivation and a sense of pride.

“You walk in the locker room and see that cannon, you want to do everything you can to keep it there,” he said. “And that’s what we’re going to do.”

Ryan McAleenan made the key play in last season’s win when he returned an interception 52 yards for a touchdown to put UNLV ahead 20-10 with 8:27 remaining. It was the individual highlight of his career, but the Rebels senior linebacker said a victory Saturday would be better.

“This will be the marquee win of my career,” he said. “I’ve seen where this program’s come. We’ve really turned a page and are in a new era. To be able to leave it with a big win on Senior Night and be able to come back and see my name on a plaque on a wall in front of Rebel Park would be awesome.”

Senior center Will Kreitler, who was introduced to the rivalry last season after transferring from Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College, hopes to recapture the feeling he had in last year’s win over the Wolf Pack.

“When Ryan got the pick six, that was probably the happiest moment of my life right there. It was such a relief,” Kreitler said. “This is the biggest game of my life. The crowd’s going to be going crazy. Everything is heightened for this game. It’s a great rivalry.

“Even though we don’t get to go to a bowl game, this is the bowl game.”

UNR, 0-5 on the road this season, will finish with five wins or less and won’t play in a bowl game this season for only the second time in the last 12 years.

“The crazy thing about this rivalry, postseason or no postseason, great year or bad year, I don’t think it makes a difference,” Sanchez said. “It’s tacked up on our walls: Beat Reno. It’s a big deal. Throw the records out the window. You better be ready to go because both teams are going to be ready to fight.”

Sanchez said he reminded his seniors they’ll remember this game for the rest of their lives.

“This is one of the last times in any of the seniors’ lives they’ll ever be in the limelight,” he said. “When you’re young and arrogant, you don’t think about that stuff. You’re on ESPN3, so you’re going to have hundreds of thousands of people watching and you’re going to be playing in front of 30,000. The rest of your life, when you go to work, there’s not going to be all those people cheering you on.

“To be a college football player, sitting in that locker room holding your buddy’s hand, with guys that you bled with, guys you laughed with, and that last opportunity to walk out and be a Rebel and fight for a win, that’s a special deal.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.