Reno week is here …

Jason Beauchamp

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 | 2:55 p.m.

For me, personally, I feel that this game against Reno is about pride.

It's about leaving the underclassmen with sort of a path to follow. A lot of this game correlates with the entire season. I'm not gonna say that if we win or lose, we're a different team, but if we win this game, it'll help us a lot with momentum going into the rest of the season.

It's bigger than the whole Fremont Cannon thing. It's about proving to ourselves how much work that we put in, and all the blood, sweat and tears. Because that's what this game comes down to.

It's a fight to the finish, and the history goes back far past myself and when we got here. When we first got here in 2005, we had the Cannon, and I remember seeing it and not knowing the meaning of it. I didn't understand what it meant, and now looking back on it, it was like 'I wish I would have paid more attention to it.' Because we haven't had it for awhile now.

It's a legacy thing. That's the whole thing. My whole thing is this program looking great. A footstep to success in the future. This game means a lot to me. We'll do a good job trying to get everyone to buy into that, let all the underclassmen understand what it means.

This is similar to the Hawaii game in the fact that we were playing for respect.

I've already said that UNLV and the guys on this team are guys who are not superstars or anything like that, but we go out and work hard. This team is about facing adversity. When someone says we can't do something, that's when we make it a big point to go out and get something done. It's when we've just had enough. That's what Hawaii was, and that's what I think this will be. It'll be the same feeling. We have guys who have close connections to Reno. They're in our back yard, we're sharing with them. We have a lot of close ties.

My biggest memory of this rivalry is just of it being a true rivalry, in general. It's a game of who's the king of Nevada, who's running Nevada. That's the biggest thing that stands out to me, just how far we take it. That rivalry consists of so many things, and is bigger than this football team, and it's the talk of both towns. It's a real rivalry.

I personally feel that when you play Reno, all records are thrown out the window. None of that matters. They're not going to play Missouri the same way they're going to play UNLV. We're not gonna play Wyoming the same way we're gonna play Reno. It has nothing to do with playing up for a game. It's something that you're going to leave your heart out on the field for. What it comes down to is who will be able to control it, play with that passion, not make mistakes and not forget your assignments.

From a defensive standpoint, they're a really good offense, probably one of the best offenses we've gone against, and probably the best quarterback we've gone against, just as far as his versatility. They know how to set up one-on-ones against d-ends, free safeties. They spread the field well and play well into Colin Kaepernick's abilities and skills. They play right into it.

Even though they're 0-3, they have the potential to go out, beat a bunch of teams and go to a bowl game again like they've done in the past. The same goes for us. The record goes out the door, and this game is about building momentum for the rest of the season.

I'm looking forward to it.