Rebels lack energy at end of emotional week for city
Sanchez: No excuse, team must be better at focusing attention
Three takeaways from UNLV’S 41-10 loss to No. 19 San Diego State on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium:
The emotions of the week played at least a small part.
How could it not? The shooting Oct. 1 that claimed 58 lives and injured nearly 500 people threw the entire valley into mourning.
Coach Tony Sanchez wouldn’t use the tragedy as an excuse, and he shouldn’t, but acknowledged the players were “flat in the second half.” Of course they were.
“I told the team tonight I just didn’t see a lot of emotion,” Sanchez said. “I didn’t see a lot of energy. There are a lot of people dealing with a lot of stuff, and you’ve got to be mature about it, and you’ve got to move on. We’re not going to be about excuses here. You’ve got to go play a football game, and you’ve got to be better than we were tonight.”
The key for UNLV now is how it responds moving forward. The Rebels’ trip to Air Force on Saturday will be telling.
San Diego State won the game up front.
Which is how the Aztecs win games. They use their offensive line and stout running game to control the clock and wear down opposing defensive fronts. And they use their aggressive defensive front to hit opposing offensive lines with all kinds of looks.
UNLV quarterback Armani Rogers was under constant pressure. He was sacked three times and hurried often in competing 12 of 27 passes for 177 yards. Running back Lexington Thomas rushed for just 54 yards on 14 carries.
“The amount of looks that San Diego State gives is a lot,” UNLV offensive left tackle Kyle Saxelid said. “You definitely have to get the film and prepare for (more) than most teams, but we had a good game plan going into this game. We just need to execute.”
The good news for the Rebels is they still have a quality offensive line, and they won’t face as tough a defensive front again this season.
Aztecs coach Rocky Long has provided the blueprint.
It’s easy to get impatient when a coach reaches his third season and the program isn’t quite where most fans want it. This is not to say Sanchez is for certain going to change UNLV’S program, but he has a plan and he’s sticking to it, and he will need time to see whether it’s successful.
Sometimes steps are incremental, and Sanchez has won nine games in twoplus seasons. The two previous Rebels coaches didn’t win that many until their fourth seasons.
What Long has done at San Diego
State shows what a plan and patience can mean, though he didn’t take over the dumpster fire that Sanchez inherited.
Long’s record in his first four years as head coach: 8-5, 9-4, 8-5, 7-6. He then went 11-3 each of the next two seasons and now has the Aztecs 6-0. The fact they became bowl eligible with this victory barely got noticed.
“Coach Sanchez has done a great job ■
At Seattle, freshman tight end Hunter Bryant had nine catches for 121 yards and a touchdown, Jake Browning threw for two scores and ran for another, and the Huskies (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12) cruised past the Golden Bears (3-3, 0-3). Washington held California to 46 total yards in the first half and the Bears finished with just 93 total yards thanks to losing 41 yards on the final play of the game when a field goal attempt was mishandled by California.
■ At Salt Lake City, Bryce Love ran for 152 yards and a touchdown and the Cardinal (4-2, 3-1 Pac-12) handed the Utes (4-1, 1-1) their first loss of the season. Utah bottled up the nation’s leading rusher for most of the night, but Stanford faithfully continued to give its star the ball. On his 18th touch with 12:02 remaining, the speedster made two defenders miss in the hole and ran away for a 68-yard TD.
■ At Reno, Ty Gangi accounted for five touchdowns,
Kelton Moore became the first UNR player to rush for over 200 yards in a game since 2012 and the Wolfpack (1-5, 1-1 Mountain West) beat the Warriors (2-4, 0-3) for their first win of the season — and the first career win for coach Jay Norvell. Moore had 19 carries for 216 yards — the first 100-yard rusher for UNR this season — and added five receptions for 46 yards and a touchdown. Gangi passed for 278 yards and four scores and had a 17-yard TD run. of building this program, and I imagine they’re just going to keep getting better and better,” Long said. “You know, that’s not good for the rest of us, but I see that coming because a couple of years ago, it wouldn’t have been a competitive game, and now it was a competitive game almost until the very end.”
Two years ago, the Aztecs won 52-14. This time, the final score indicated a rout, but San Diego State slowly pulled away as an emotional week caught up to the Rebels.
Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.