UNLV-SDSU notebook: What went wrong on defense?

By Ryan Greene

Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008 | 2:10 a.m.

SAN DIEGO -- While the night as a whole was tough for some of the UNLV football players to put into words, what San Diego State quarterback Ryan Lindley did to the Rebels' defense wasn't as tough to put into words.

The Aztecs' ever-improving freshman completed 35 of the 50 passes he attempted for 387 yards. That's an average of 11.6 yards per completion. Nothing too spectacular, but it was brutally efficient.

"We have to give it to those guys, they were just ready for our Cover 2 package," junior linebacker Jason Beauchamp said. "Their offensive coordinator did a great job of really unerstanding it and then finding the weaknesses. Every defense, you kind of have to give something to get something. That's why you saw a lot of those two-step drops and quick hits. We tried to change some things, but I guess it was just too late."

Nine of those 35 completions were to Lindley's running backs, while sophomore wideout Vincent Brown did his damage mostly by catching short passes and running after the grab. He finished with eight catches for 119 yards.

"We tried to show more fake the blitz and then pop out, but the thing was they had better angles on us, playing with their receivers, you saw the quick hits in the seam," Beauchamp continued. "When we were faking the blitz and having ends and linebackers drop, we couldn't get to it. Those guys are skill guys for a reason. They're big targets, too. Those receivers, (DeMarco) Sampson and a lot of those guys, they're big targets. The QB's a big guy, too. Two-step drop, you can't really do anything about that. The only thing I would have done different was play the receivers press, because the two-step drop was too much, too often to be able to stop it."

The 387 yards for Lindley were the most any quarterback had thrown for all season on the Rebels, and the only time UNLV had allowed 300-plus yards through the air. The next-closest total was 294, put up by Colorado State's Billy Farris in a 41-28 Rebels loss in Fort Collins on Oct. 4.

Bittersweet achievements

Ryan Wolfe will enter his senior season in 2009 able to pad another school record he now has in his possession.

He entered the season finale one catch behind Casey Flair's school-record mark of 199 career receptions. Flair had three catches Saturday night, giving him 202 to finish his UNLV career with. Wolfe caught a team-high 11 balls for 144 yards, giving him 209 career catches.

Wolfe finished the year with 88 catches, which ties a school single-season record also held by Randy Gatewood, who did so in 1994. Wolfe also became the first Rebels receiver since Gatewood that year to record a 1,000-yard season. His 144 yards put him at 1,040 for 2008.

As for Flair, he caught a pass in his school-record 47th straight game, having done so in each game of his Rebels career.

What in the world happened to Summers

Saturday's game had all the makings of a perfect stage for Frank Summers to play his final regular season game at UNLV on. A year ago, he totaled 186 yards on 27 carries against the Aztecs in a loss in Las Vegas.

This year, with SDSU entering the game boasting the nation's worst run defense -- statistically speaking -- the senior was bound to get his fair share of touches. He got two on the game's opening drive, picking up 6 yards.

That was it.

After nursing a strained hip flexor all week, he went to the locker room with a right knee injury. When he came back out, he was limping, wearing his jersey, sweatpants and no pads.

"I was getting up, someone got pushed into it, and it bent in," Summers said.

He finished the season with 183 carries for 740 yards and eight touchdowns. He caught 13 passes for another 150 yards and two scores.

A familiar situation

It was just two years ago that the Rebels, 1-10 entering the season's final week just as SDSU did Saturday, played the role of spoiler. That was when Air Force came to town needing to win to keep its hopes for bowl eligibility alive, just like UNLV did on this trip out west.

The Rebels won that game, 42-39, and can now wish that they'd rekindled the magic.

"It meant everything to us and just the seniors and the coaches, just to honor them with one game," Beauchamp said, reflecting on the 2006 finale. "(The Aztecs) were in the same predicament, and they showed heart tonight and they came out with a win."

Tough to describe

Mike Sanford took multiple questions outside the Rebels locker room Saturday night in the depths of Qualcomm Stadium, describing the feeling as best as he could.

"Embarrassment is not the right word," he said. "I'm very disappointed, very upset. That's the whole problem with this whole thing. Everybody outside our program kept telling us how good they were, and the media kept telling us how easy this game was gonna be, and they're a good football team. They're one of the best passing attacks we went against this year. They're a way better football team than their record, they have better players than their record. You can say what you want to say, but I'm not gonna say I'm embarassed."

Sanford couldn't confirm nor deny whether what had been said about his team and San Diego State's underachieving squad through the media leading up to Saturday's game got into his players' heads.

"Looking at the end result, and the way they played, you could maybe deduct that, but that's very hard for me to say," he added.

Who Sanford felt especially bad for was his senior class, which won its home finale but had to end its time at UNLV in a more somber manner than they had hoped.

"I feel terrible," he said. "They led us to much better than that game tonight. I'm very disappointed for them. I love them and I think that they're a huge positive foundation for the future of this program. What we talked to our underclassmen about was realize where we were, what we had a chance to do and what we didn't take advantage of and don't let this happen again. Remember what this feels like. Your offseason needs to be getting yourself ready to never let this happen again."

'Equipment malfunction'?

Of course, hindsight is 20-20, but one of the more head-scratching moments of the night helped set the tone early on.

With UNLV leading 7-0 midway through the first quarter, Lindley flipped a lateral pass/option pitch to Atiyyah Henderson at the Rebels' 10-yard line. The ball was bobbled and recovered by UNLV defensive end Thor Pili.

It was initially ruled an incomplete pass, but Sanford challenged the call, claiming it had not been a forward pass and should have resulted in the Rebels gaining possession.

The review took several minutes, at the end of which the refs claimed over the public address system that there was an "equipment malfunction," and the ruling on the field would stand.

Huh?

"Nobdody said anything about that," Sanford said of the explanation he was given. "What they said was an official ruled the option pitch was a forward pass, and because of that it was unreviewable. They didn't give me any explanation for that. All I know is it was a backwards lateral, and it was a fumble."

The Aztecs scored the game-tying touchdown two plays later on a 6-yard pass from Lindley to DeMarco Sampson from 6 yards out.

This and that

The game was played in front of an announced crowd of 17,846 ... C.J. Cox's lost fumble late in the third quarter was the first time a UNLV back had done so in 441 carries, dating back to last September ... Mike Clausen's two late fourth quarter interceptions were the first two turnovers of his UNLV career ... The Rebels have now lost 19 straight Mountain West Conference games away from Sam Boyd Stadium. Their last road triumph in league play came on Oct. 8, 2004, at BYU ... San Diego State coach Chuck Long is now 9-27 in three seasons leading the Aztecs, but is 3-0 against UNLV.