This ‘Vegas Vic’ not waving ‘howdy’
SWAGGER is an important part of culture, and it’s more than just a costume and nickname. UNLV football needs Vic Viramontes to translate his confidence off the field to a huddle.
He needs to “cowboy up” when the ball is snapped, and then the Rebels need a whole lot more guys like him.
Losing breeds apathy, which breeds acceptance, which leads to things like two winning seasons in 20 years. So you can either sulk in a basin of historical
failure or exhibit the desire and determination to climb out and change things.
Viramontes seems to prefer the latter.
He made news last December when, upon pledging his commitment to become the highest-rated defensive player ever to sign with the Rebels, he tweeted a photo of himself dressed as the “Vegas Vic” cowboy.
It was a significant touch for a program that has been starving for such attitude, a 10-gallon hat’s worth of brazen which, in the case of UNLV, was long overdue.
I mean, someone other than the head coach needs to act like they expect to win out there.
“You need it,” Tony Sanchez said. “You need some piss and vinegar. You have to be a guy ready to throw down, because at the end of the day, I don’t care how much you train or how much they change the rules, this is still a physical game that comes down to toughness.
“Having a guy like Vic helps the whole team.”
Seeing the game through different lenses is also a valued trait, and so it goes that Viramontes before landing on the defensive side was a quarterback who committed to California out of high school.
He redshirted at Berkeley in 2016, threw for 27 touchdowns and ran for 22 more as a transfer at Riverside City College the following year, signed with the University of Minnesota, but then instead returned to Riverside and made such a successful switch to linebacker that he earned first-team All-america honors.
They came at him early and late — Texas, Oregon, Louisiana State, Southern California, Baylor, Mississippi, Texas Christian, Missouri, Nebraska — and most if not all believed the last place Viramontes would sign was a non-power Five school whose reputation for defense was terribly consistent over the decades.