Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
UNLV head coach Mike Sanford sprints off the field after a 59-21 loss to BYU Oct. 10 at Sam Boyd Stadium.
Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009 | 2:34 a.m.
BYU vs UNLV
The Rebels suffered their second straight lopsided loss, this one by No. 18 BYU. The Cougars piled up 611 yards of total offense on their way to a 59-21 victory.
The Rebel Room
BYU POSTGAME: Rebels run ragged ... again
Ryan Greene, Rob Miech and Alex Adeyanju digest all there was to take in from UNLV's 59-21 loss to BYU on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium.
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- Opponent: Utah
- Date: Oct. 17, 7 p.m.
- Where: Sam Boyd Stadium
- TV: The Mtn. (Cox ch. 334)
- Radio: ESPN Radio 1100 AM
I suppose it was never a matter of whether UNLV was going to beat Brigham Young tonight but whether the Rebels would play well enough for embattled head coach Mike Sanford to keep his job another week.
Hmmm.
I suppose that remains to be seen.
While the Rebels didn’t lose 63-28 like at Nevada-Reno last week, they did lose 59-21. While they didn’t allow 773 yards like at Mackay Stadium, they did allow 611 yards.
What UNLV and Sanford needed was a game against New Mexico. Or the UFL’s California Redwoods, which lost 30-17 to the Las Vegas Locomotives on the same swatch of field turf on Thursday night.
But Sanford has no control over who the Rebels play and when. And so now he may have no control over whether he still has a job on Monday morning.
• It’s hard to believe that halfway through the season the Rebels are still such poor tacklers. Stripping the ball from UNR quarterback Colin Kaepernick is one thing, stripping it from Harvey Unga, who has hands like vice grips, is quite another. Yet that’s what the Rebels kept trying to do.
Three Rebels tried to strip Unga on a 33-yard touchdown run; another tried to strip his helmet from his shoulders on a second long first-half touchdown run of 52 yards. That didn’t work, either.
• I never thought I’d be saying this, but UNLV quarterback Omar Clayton seemed on the verge of becoming a liability in the first half. After throwing just four interceptions over all of last season, Clayton threw two more in the first two quarters, giving him seven this year. And the first one — an afterthought attempt at a throwaway along the Rebels’ sideline — was atrocious.
• Clayton’s 75-yard touchdown pass to Michael Johnson on the Rebels’ first possession of the second half seemed better thought out. Had he thrown like six more of those, UNLV might have had a chance.
• UNLV’s performance in five words of less: So long New Mexico Bowl.
• Mike Sanford’s job status in five words or less: Hanging by a thread.
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