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twitterRON KANTOWSKI:
Sea change on TV screens
Friday, Oct. 31, 2008 | 2 a.m.
The Incoherent Ramblings of Ron and John
Ron and John discuss the life and times of the various football leagues in Las Vegas.
Statistics
Sun coverage
Blogs
- Kantowski: Now and Then
- UNLV sports blog about Rebels athletics
- Judgment Days: Commentary from UNLV linebacker Jason Beauchamp
- Shark Bytes: Legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian shares his thoughts
Podcast
This season
- Week 1: Utah State, W 27-17
- Week 2: Utah, L 42-21
- Week 3: ASU, W 23-20 OT
- Week 4: ISU, W 34-31 OT
- Week 5: UNR, L 49-27
- Week 6: CSU, L 41-28
- Week 7: Bye
- Week 8: Air Force, L 29-28
- Week 9: BYU, L 42-35
Next game
- Opponent: TCU
- Date: Saturday, 5 p.m.
- Where: Sam Boyd Stadium
When the Sun evolved from a traditional beat-oriented newspaper into one that analyzes trends and issues, long trips to Laramie in the dead of winter — i.e., early October — to chronicle the missteps of the UNLV football team were no longer required.
You could still follow the Rebels on TV, however.
Or so I thought the first time I ventured down to my neighborhood Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Wyoming game on TV.
“We don’t get that channel,” I was told.
Thanks, Mountain West presidents.
Actually, they did get it. They just had to go to the backroom three times to span the globe for the proper coordinates. I told the bartender that if he just put the Rebel game on the little TV in the corner, nobody would mind, because there were 46 TVs in the place tuned to other games.
So he did, and some guy who had been watching Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt on that little TV nearly went Bakersfield ape. I thought he was going to tear the place apart, wing from wing — like those chimps in California that didn’t get birthday cake at the wildlife reserve.
This season I tried to watch the Arizona State game at another sports bar.
“We don’t get that channel,” I was told.
“Yes, you do,” I said. “You’ve just got to go in the back and span the globe, or at least change the source from cable to satellite — or vice versa.”
So he did. Blank screen. He was right. Maybe they get Fox Sports AZ at the Tumble Inn in Kingman. They don’t get it at the Tom Foolery Pub on Boulder Highway.
Undeterred, I called a buddy and asked if he wanted to watch Saturday’s Rebels-BYU game at Wild Wings.
They don’t get that channel, he said. He said maybe we should watch the first half at home. By then, the game would be decided. Then by halftime, we’d be ready for some boneless wings slathered in spicy garlic sauce.
Only the game wasn’t decided by halftime. The Rebels and Cougars were trading touchdowns as if they were AIG shares or those little lapel pins in the Olympic Village.
That was surprise No. 1. Surprise No. 2 is that when we got to Wild Wings, they had the UNLV-BYU game on the big screen — with the volume turned up.
People in the bar weren’t complaining. In fact, they were watching. And cheering — for the Rebels, I might add. At least about eight of ’em, anyway.
A bunch of ’em were watching Texas beat Oklahoma State on one of the big screens with the sound turned down.
Another bunch was watching the Texas fan wearing the form-fitting Longhorns jersey who was seated at the end of the bar.
NASCAR, for once, was relegated to the big screen with the yellow tint, a burned-out lamp in the projector having infected the entire starting field with a serious case of jaundice.
Nobody was watching golf. Not even on the little TV in the corner where they show the results of the previous night’s trivia contest and Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt.
The Rebels didn’t win but they came close, which, regardless of what coach Mike Sanford says, counts for something — especially considering the last time UNLV went up to Provo it got preached to and converted to the tune of 52-7.
Almost all of the Rebels’ games are close now. They’ve got a young quarterback who doesn’t make silly mistakes and they are so proficient in the red zone that Old Spice should award them a lifetime supply of that after-shave that makes you smell like a sailor and your old man.
The Rebels don’t have a defense, however. If they did, some of those games wouldn’t have been close. They’d have won more than a few.
So now they’re 3-5, with a tough game against TCU here Saturday. Maybe they can sneak 12 or 13 men onto the field when the Horned Frogs have the ball and keep it close again.
Maybe they won’t.
But I am fairly confident that around 5 o’clock on Saturday they’ll be showing the game on the big screen at Buffalo Wild Wings with the sound turned up, and that a lot of people seated at the bar will be watching and listening — even with Texas and Texas Tech playing at the same time.
Maybe the Longhorns fan with the form-fitting jersey will watch Colt McCoy from home this week.
Even if the Rebels don’t become bowl-eligible, they have succeeded, at least to this point, at turning abject apathy for the program into a passing interest — especially when Phillip Payne runs a fade pattern. That’s unusual around here. That can even be the start of something.
These Rebels are showing the light doesn’t always emanate from the end of a tunnel. Sometimes it comes from the end of a projector where people gather to watch football on big screens with the sound turned up.
Read Ron Kantowski’s blog Now and Then.
Discussion: 8 comments so far…
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Next Basketball Game
Nov. 25, 7:00 p.m. (PST)
- UNLV: Schedule & Stats | Roster
- Holy Cross: Schedule & Stats | Roster
- Location: Thomas & Mack Center
- NCAA: Odds | Schedule | Stats
Next Football Game
Nov. 28, 6:00 p.m. (PST)
- UNLV: Schedule & Stats | Roster
- San Diego State: Schedule & Stats | Roster
- Location: Sam Boyd Stadium
- Tickets: UNLV Tickets
- NCAA: Odds | Schedule | Stats
Never can get enough UNLV analysis and chatter? Then this is the stop for you. Join the Sun sports staff in The Rebel Room for your fix.
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Watch what the attendance looks like at Sam Boyd Stadium for UNLV's final THREE home games of the year (TCU, New Mexico and Wyoming). If they have over 10,000 in attendance for any of those game it will be a shocker (and no I am not talking about Mike Hamrick's funny math for official attendance numbers).
Mike Sanford has lost 11 Mountain West Conference games in a row, soon to be 12.
Mike Sanford is 3-25 overall vs. MWC opponents in his four years on the job.
Sanford is 8-34 overall vs. FBS (I-A) schools in his four years on the job.
Here are some other coaches records who have been or are about to be fired:
Joe Glenn (Wyoming):28-38 overall (6 years)
Greg Robinson (Syracuse): 8-34 overall (4 years)
Tyrone Willingham (Washington): 11-32 (4 years)
Chuck Long (SDSU): 8-24 (3 years)
Brent Guy (Utah State): 7-34 (4 years)
Mike Sanford (UNLV): 8-34 overall (4 years)
That is a list of horrible coaches. Mike Sanford with his 11 Conference losses in a row is probably the worst of the bunch.
Mike Sanford has only beaten ONE TEAM with a winning record in his four years on the job. Sanford has beaten only ONE TEAM that had a winning record in 42 games. He must be fired.
Take pictures of the empty stadium the next three weeks and tell me that Sanford is building excitement for the program afterwards. Do your homework. Watch attendance for the final three games and report on all of Sanford's progress. 11 Conference Losses in a ROW!!!
OK, bandwagon Rebel fan (that's you, Sufferin), just who out there IS going to turn UNLV football around?
Seems like YOU have all the answers...
Now is a good time as any to ignore Sufferin'. What with excitement starting to build... even in defeat, which is much to sufferin's chagrin. Good article Ron, it's good to know that people are getting interested in more than basketball no matter what the miserable anti-UNLV faithful say and think.
GO REBELS!!!!!
TGinVegas: I would hire Dirk Koetter as the replacement for Mike Sanford. Koetter is the guy that originally built Boise State Football. Koetter is also the guy that built Arizona State into the Top 10 Football program that you saw in 2007 under Dennis Erickson. ASU has since fallen off now that Erickson is getting his system in place but those players that Koetter recruited are the ones that Erickson won with in 2007.
Dirk Koetter would be able to come into UNLV and win immediately NEXT YEAR. UNLV will go to a bowl game next year if Koetter is our coach. If Sanford is our coach next year we will be lucky to win 3 games.
Sanford must be fired.
11 MWC losses in a row! 3-25 overall Conference record. Any coach in any sport at UNLV would be fired with this type of record, Sanford is no different. The attendance at the Final Three home games will show how much excitement this city has for UNLV Football. You won't see over 10,000 out there for any of the final three games.
To Fast, TG and the Angry One-Man Mob:
Just a quick take. With basketball driving the wagon here, all we need from football is a team that is interesting to watch and competitive that maybe can sneak into a bowl game every three or four years.
A team like might even support itself during harsh economic times.
While I am sure that Mike Sanford would -- and has -- set his goals much higher, it would appear, based on the team's progress this season (at least on offense) that the Rebels aren't all that far away from becoming one of those.
But I'd still like to see him recruit a couple of JUCO defensive backs who can run and tackle ...
Hey Ron:
Winners Win! Losers always have excuse for why they couldn't win. Winners Win!
Mike Sanford will always have an excuse because he is a LOSER. He lost last year, he lost this year and he would lose next year and the year after that with a different excuse every time.
People that make excuses for losers are also losers!
I seem to recall the same things being said (probably by you, Sufferin) about Lon Kruger shortly after he was hired. It took him a while, but he got it going! Turning around a losing football program, espcially one that was left with almost no quality players, is a much more difficult task. Sanford is heading in the right direction.
TGinVegas: I am still saying the same things about Lon Kruger. I have not changed my tune on him or the Rebel Basketball program. Just because all of the rest of you are buying into the nonsense that is being sold about UNLV Basketball being back, that doesn't mean that I am being fooled also. UNLV Basketball under Lon Kruger has a long way to go before I will say he is doing a good job. A few reject transfers and some Freshman players who are barely Top 100 does not get me all giddy. Maybe you think they are headed to the Final Four but when I look at the team I see NIT written all over it.
Sanford has lost 11 MWC games in a row. That is not the right direction, that is the wrong direction. It does not take Four years to build a Football program, even if you were left with ZERO players which Sanford wasn't. Winning coaches WIN and they WIN right away. Losers Lose and they continue to LOSE never knowing what it takes to become a winner because they do not have what it takes INSIDE OF THEM. They are losers and always will be. Maybe good assistants but as the head guy, Sanford is a LOSER and always will be as long as he is at UNLV. You could give him 20 years and you will still be hearing excuses for why he can't win. The fact is, a real head coach would and will WIN here immediately.
A change is needed. Fire Sanford.