Rebels hopeful season will end with post-season play

Justin M. Bowen

Malo Taumua gets wrapped up Friday night as UNLV plays its annual spring game at Sam Boyd Stadium.

By Brett Okamoto (contact)

Saturday, April 18, 2009 | 1:15 a.m.

It was going to be so perfect.

Despite a five-game losing streak that consumed the middle of their season, the Rebels needed only to beat lowly San Diego State to become bowl eligible and likely earn an invite to the 2008 Hawaii Bowl.

Defensive tackle Malo Taumua, who graduated from Aiea High School in Honolulu, couldn’t help but let his family in on the rumors. Playing in his home state with his entire family on hand to watch seemed like a dream come true.

Unfortunately, as we all know, the dream ended early – Nov. 22 to be exact, at the hands of a 42-21 loss to the Aztecs. Taumua was so disappointed he couldn’t even watch the game between Hawaii and Notre Dame.

“I heard the rumors we were going to play in the Hawaii Bowl, and trying to watch it from home broke my heart,” Taumua said. “I watched the first series then just said, ‘I can’t do it anymore.’ I wanted so much to play in front of my family, but sometimes things just don’t work out.”

Taumua dealt with the disappointment by traveling home for a two-week vacation after the bowl games. The two-year letterman went home, recharged and got over the season-ending loss.

Then he got back to work.

The entire defense seems to have taken a similar approach, showing a cohesiveness and intensity in Friday’s spring game rarely on display at this point in the year. The No. 1 defense shut down the backup offense, allowing no points and just 73 total yards. The starters, playing as the Scarlet team, beat the backups 17-0.

“Even the No. 2 defense really stepped up in the beginning and stopped our top offense,” said linebacker Jason Beauchamp. “You can see by the score it wasn’t a blowout. I think we were just efficient tonight. We can always play better, but we really stuck to the basics and had fun. Our hard work is paying off.”

Although playing offensive backups isn’t the same as taking on conference opponents, it would have been hard to expect more from the first-team defense Friday night. While they failed to force a turnover, they were relentless in pursuing ball carriers, allowing just 11 yards on 10 carries.

They weren’t bad defending the pass either, a problem that plagued them all of last season as they surrendered a conference-worst 24 touchdowns last season. That weakness will be a focus of three junior college transfers, all of whom seem to have adapted to the Rebels’ system.

Transfers Warren Zeigler and Kenny Brown both broke up deep pass attempts to last year’s breakout receiver Phillip Payne. Zeigler in particular has been lining up with the best of the Rebels’ receivers all spring long and continually shown the ability to keep up.

“Guarding Phil, he likes to go deep,” Zeigler said. “We practice every time and sometimes he get’s me, but on that play I just happened to get him. Every time I go against any of these receivers, I’ve seen them all do great things and if I can hang with them I feel like I can hang with the best, because I think our core of receivers is one of the best in the conference.”

According to the players themselves, the biggest strength of the defense isn’t a veteran line or a fresh crop of defensive backs. The biggest strength winds back to even before that loss in San Diego. All of them will say this is finally a group that knows how to enjoy what they do on the field and is willing to fight for one another.

It’s that bond that the Rebels are hoping will make sure 2009 doesn’t end with them watching the bowl games from home.

“I’m going to put it like this,” Taumua said. “Since I got here, we were all broken links in a chain. We’re a chain now. I love every guy out here, it brightens my day just to see them everyday. Every year we’ve grown closer as a family and we’re one chain now. We’re not going to let it break, everybody’s going to hold on and we’re ready for a ride in the fall.”