P.-UNLV

Monday, Oct. 2, 2006 | 7:36 a.m.

Call it an opportunity lost.

Playing in front of the largest crowd to watch a UNLV football game at Sam Boyd Stadium in which Wisconsin wasn't involved, the Rebels had a perfect opportunity to make some new fans Saturday night - not to mention even their record at 2-2 on the season.

Instead, the Rebels never could get their offense untracked, committed four turnovers and suffered a humbling 31-3 defeat at the hands of intrastate rival UNR. Many in the crowd of 37,179 - those who were wearing UNLV red, anyway - began their departure a minute into the third quarter when Wolf Pack running back Brandon Fragger scored on a 66-yard run on the second play of the half to put UNR ahead 24-0.

Only the hardiest of UNLV fans - and the several thousand UNR faithful that made the trek from Reno - were on hand as the game degenerated into a benches-clearing brawl with 1:49 left following the Rebels' fourth turnover of the game.

"I'm very, very frustrated," Rebels head coach Mike Sanford said. "We loved having the crowd. I thought the people were awesome; they wore their red out there and it was great. It was just very disappointing to perform like we did."

UNR won the battle for the Fremont Cannon for the second consecutive year and UNLV fell to 1-3 on the season, but Sanford has not lost hope.

"We're a much better football team than we showed (Saturday night)," he said. "I believe that with all my heart. We just didn't execute we didn't catch the ball, we didn't run the ball like we should have and we didn't block like we should have."