By Jason Beauchamp · October 14, 2008 · 4:29 PM

Each week, UNLV junior linebacker Jason Beauchamp drops by to add an installment to his blog at lasvegassun.com/rebels - Judgement Days. This week, Jason talks about the team coming back off of its bye week at 3-3, facing a tough test against Air Force - A key game if UNLV still wants to fulfill its postseason dreams.

We still practiced a lot, and a lot of the second-string guys, special teams guys were out there working really hard. Not much changed.

We had Friday and Saturday off, which allowed some guys to go home and see their families. That's always a plus. But the bye week was really just the coaches' time for re-evaluating and made our whole team competitive, because everyone saw another chance to play more and to be a major contributor to the team.

I think that this bye week was really good just for guys' bodies to recover and a mental mindset as far as what we need to do in the second half. We're really lucky to have the bye week in the middle of the season, because usually that never happens. For us to get into the middle of the season and for us to have all these home games, the season's looking really good.

Halfway through the season, we didn't really end up exactly where we thought we'd be. We thought we'd be 4-2, and really thought we could be 5-1. But the reality of the situation is that we're 3-3, and there's a lot more football left to play. There's no reason we shouldn't make it to a bowl game, and there's no reason we shouldn't be a huge threat in the Mountain West. These next three games should be a huge test of that, especially playing Air Force here, since they're always fierce competitors, and then playing BYU next week.

Looking at Air Force ...

I guess it was kind of beneficial that we played Reno before playing Air Force, because now we understand how to play the option game, but you've got to be ready for anything with Air Force.

They use what they have to the best of their abilities. They have fast guys, they have a lot of athletic guys over there on offense. Even their offensive line is really fast and they like to do a lot of cut blocking, so you've got to be ready for that.

We've got to play these guys like we're playing the best team in the country, because if we don't, Air Force will take advantage of it and capitalize on us not playing to the best of our abilities.

It's a nice little rivalry we've got going. A couple of years ago, that was our last game of the year, and we played them with everything we had, played them with heart. They came back the next year and got us.

This is direct competition here. There's no such thing as losing now, in our minds. We have to win. That's the only thing there is to do, is to win.

Everyone watching, this is going to be a great game, and it's all about who wants it the most and from an offensive standpoint, I expect our offense to put up a lot of points. They've proven themselves in the last couple of games and really we've talked about it as a team. Sometimes even the team, we don't realize how good we could be. We have all the potential in the world, and we have so many tools and weapons right there that we can use that sometimes we don't even understand it, and take it for granted.

With more understanding, the better we're gonna get, and the better advantage we'll take of it.

Personally, expect a lot from me. I'll be doing the best I can do as a leader on the defense, and I guarantee if there's one thing I'm going to do it's leave it all on the field because I understand the importance of this game, and really that's what we're trying to get the whole team to do, is understand that our backs are up against the wall.

Signing off, this is No. 33, Jason Beauchamp.