By Jason Beauchamp · September 23, 2009 · 12:40 AM

First, taking a look back at our victory over Hawaii.

I think it was just more of a personal game, for coach Sanford, the team and the guys who have been here for '05, '06 and '07. Those guys saw it for themselves. They beat us by 40 points, disrespected us, throwing touchdowns with 30 seconds left, kind of like a slap in the face. So it was huge.

Also, it's gonna give us that confidence.

That game, it was a situation where Hawaii had had our number for years. Now we've overcome that. I'm not saying other games will come easy, but we're gonna get on a streak here. Beating good teams like that encourages us to reach our maximum potential.

As for our upcoming trip to face Wyoming, it's definitely a dangerous game if we don't go in there and handle business.

Being that we're expected to win, it's gonna be that much worse if we go in there and don't handle business. The whole thing is that we need to be able to win on the road and play this team like they're an Oregon State or a Hawaii, showing the same intensity. We've got to play the football we've been playing lately and keep things rolling.

But I don't think it'll be an issue. We have so many leaders, and this team is so different than any other team I've been around at UNLV.

The team is definitely more mature.

The reason we're more mature is that the guys in leadership roles pretty much become the rest of the team.

What I do, a lot of the d-linemen or linebackers do. It's a mentality thing. If I was cracking jokes all the time or decided to not show up to meetings, some of the younger guys would do the same. They'd think 'Hey, he's doing it, and he's doing great, so I'm gonna do it, too.'

If Ryan Wolfe decided that every once in a while that he'd say something disrespectful to a coach or somebody and get away with it, then the younger guys would do that as well.

If Omar Clayton was playing around in the hotel, as a starting quarterback, guys will look at it and say 'Wow, if he's doing that, I can do that, because he's a starting quarterback and he has so many things he should be doing that he's not doing. So they won't mind if I do that.'

So that's all it is. Guys in leadership roles are mature, and we're a lot more serious about winning than we've been in the past.

One change this week is my haircut, as I got rid of the hi-top fade look.

I had to, just because I felt like I needed a change. I felt like the flat top was the thing of camp. Don't get me wrong, I loved the haircut, because it was so different. But after I hurt my ankle and we lost to Oregon State, I said 'Something's not right.'

And I'm a superstitious guy.

I don't care about stats or any of that stuff. It doesn't matter. I came here for one thing, and that's to win. It's my senior year, and my goal is to send coach Sanford and all the younger guys on a roll, to continue winning and start a legacy here at UNLV. I felt like 'Man, I guess I need to get serious, and back to business.'

And that's the reason for the haircut.

As for the ankle, it's getting better. It's not back to 100 percent, but it's the best it's been since I hurt it.

Thanks again for tuning in.