THE ELEVATOR

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

Who's headed toward the penthouse on the local sports scene - and who's getting the shaft.

GOING UP

Wayne Nunnely

With 10 years under his belt as defensive line coach in San Diego, the former UNLV head coach is now the fifth-longest tenured assistant in the Chargers' long history. This week he's worrying about containing Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the NFL playoffs, which, in the grand scheme of all things pigskin, seems a lot more important than getting the Rebels ready to play Utah State or Pacific.

Ronn Bailey

After four of 15 stages the local off-road racing enthusiast is running 86th among the 96 cars still rolling in the grueling Dakar Rally, the mother of all endurance races. So far, only one driver has been killed. But it's only Wednesday.

Ryan Wolfe

The UNLV wide receiver was named to the Scripps Freshman All-America Team after leading the Mountain West Conference in receiving yards with 911 on 55 receptions. He also threw an 18-yard touchdown pass, making him the Rebels' most effective passer.

GOING DOWN

Rick Barry

I always admired Rick Barry as a player and can appreciate a guy for telling it like (he thinks) it is. But 98 percent of the basketball Hall-of-Famer's comments as a TV analyst during Saturday's UNLV-Air Force game were negative. Hey, Rick, these are college kids in a midmajor conference. Sometimes, they forget to block out.

UNLV's 3-point shooting percentage

That said, the Rebels were pretty awful (1-for-18) beyond the arc at Air Force. I think I like the inside part of Lon Kruger's inside-outside game plan much better.

Las Vegas All-American Classic

GAME CANCELED! screamed the headline on the Internet home page, almost as if calling off the college football all-star game five minutes before kickoff was a good thing, warranting bold punctuation. In reality, the game was canceled because of lack of funding 10 days before kickoff. But I'm sure that didn't make all those guys from Baylor and Indiana who had been working out over the holidays to impress the pro scouts feel any better.