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UNLV players not fazed by road MWC losing streak
Rebels maintain that 2009 team is more mature than those of the past
Friday, Sept. 25, 2009 | 2:30 a.m.
A Long and Painful Road
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The UNLV football team has lost 19 straight conference road games and 16 in a row under Head Coach Mike Sanford. As the Rebels prepare for Saturday's road conference game against Wyoming, they talk about the streak and what they must do to stop it.
The Rebel Room
Lookin' ahead: Wyoming
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Ryan Greene and Rob Miech help get you prepared for UNLV's conference opener this weekend against Wyoming, offer up some predictions and welcome in Eric Schmoldt of the Casper Star-Tribune. He'll offer up all the nuts and bolts about the 1-2 Cowboys that you need to know leading up to Saturday afternoon.
Next game
- Opponent: Wyoming
- Date: Sept. 26, 12 p.m. PST
- Where: Laramie, Wyo.
- TV: None
- Radio: ESPN Radio 1100 AM
- The Line: UNLV by 4
What others are saying
Read what other writers are saying about UNLV's upcoming game against Wyoming:
- Casper Star-Tribune: Inside the matchup: UNLV at Wyoming
- Casper Star-Tribune: Freshmen Cowboys rising
- Casper Star-Tribune: Fresh Face: Christensen tabs Carta-Samuels as starting QB
- Wyoming Tribune: Wyoming is still adjusting to changes
- Casper Star-Tribune: Let the defense rest
- Laramie Boomerang: Offensive woes continue for the Cowboys
A 19-game losing streak on the road against Mountain West Conference foes could be a monstrous elephant in the middle of the room for the UNLV football team.
However, the squad's veteran leaders try not to acknowledge its presence as they get ready for their first venture away from Las Vegas in the 2009 season this Saturday at Wyoming.
"A game is a game, a win is a win, a loss is a loss, regardless of excuses or anything like that," senior linebacker Jason Beauchamp said. "I think (the streak) is just an excuse. There's no curse or anything like that.
"I think that was more of a thing in the past, and that'll change."
OK, maybe not completely a thing of the past.
"I wouldn't say it's never spoken about, because it's an emphasis to prove that we can win on the road," junior offensive lineman Matt Murphy added. "It's something we haven't proven in the past. I wouldn't say it's a key motivator.
"The main focus is Wyoming itself."
On paper, it certainly looks like the Rebels have a golden opportunity to end their streak this weekend in Laramie.
It's the second-longest road conference losing streak in the FBS, only behind Duke, which has dropped 20 consecutive away games in ACC play.
Under first-year coach Dave Christensen, the Cowboys' offense has sputtered, having not scored a touchdown in its last nine quarters. They're fresh off of a 24-0 loss at Colorado, and this weekend will hand the offensive keys over to a true freshman quarterback in Austyn Carta-Samuels, who has split time so far this season with junior Robert Benjamin.
The Cowboys are 1-2 and are truly a team on the ropes early in the season.
For the Rebels, they believe that the key to righting the ship away from Sam Boyd Stadium has plenty to do with leadership, which they now feel is firmly present within the roster.
"What I do, a lot of the d-linemen or linebackers do," Beauchamp said. "It's a mentality thing. If I was cracking jokes all the time or decided to not show up to meetings, some of the younger guys would do the same. They'd think, 'Hey, he's doing it, and he's doing great, so I'm gonna do it, too.'
"So that's all it is. Guys in leadership roles are mature, and we're a lot more serious about winning than we've been in the past."
Beauchamp and his fellow senior leaders, such as receiver Ryan Wolfe, have dealt with more road letdowns than their younger teammates, and plenty of it is still fresh in their minds, as they can draw off of three major setbacks from 2008 that helped contribute to letting a 3-1 start turn into a 5-7 finish with no postseason.
Murphy and Wolfe both referenced last season's 42-35 loss to BYU — one during which the Rebels held a 35-34 fourth quarter lead — as their toughest experience during the streak.
"They were close all the way to the end, and you're so close to beating them that you taste it, and it just kinda fell their way," Murphy said. "We had a bus ride there, bus ride back, so it was a long bus ride, and it was in my head the whole time."
Added Wolfe: "We played our (backsides) off for 60 minutes and just didn't do enough to get it done. Credit (BYU quarterback) Max Hall. He led the two-minute drive of a lifetime and got it in there, and we just couldn't capitalize. None of them are easy, especially on the road, because you've got to think about it the entire way back."
The toughest one for Beauchamp was last year's 41-28 loss at Colorado State, which was the second leg of a five-game losing skid in the middle of the season.
That game compares to this weekend's contest in Wyoming in the sense that if UNLV wants to go to a bowl game for the first time since 2000, these are the types of games which have to be won.
"We knew that was gonna be a game where one of the two teams would go to a bowl game," Beauchamp said of CSU, which won the New Mexico Bowl after a 6-6 season. "Like I said, everything's different now. We're mature now, so things are really different."
Discussion: 13 comments so far…
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Sufferin, a couple days ago you said Sanford would never win a MWC road game. Now you say he may have success at Wyoming. Which is it? I think ye speak with forked tongue.
You've made your point that you dislike all UNLV coaches and administrators. Maybe you could come up with something new to complain about going forward.
The reason that UNLV will have a harder time with BYU, Utah, and TCU....... they have more talent than Wyoming, SDSU, and New Mexico.
Sufferin, did your dog run away and you still need something to kick? Give it a break.
Seems like sufferin was a non athlete commenting on who can coach and who can't, wonder how he does on his job, probably worse then any coach we have! Easy to be negative when you don't have to identify yourself!
One other thing sufferin, don't tell Miami that you can't win with an off campus stadium, they probably won't agree!
Sanford will find a way to get beat by Wyoming
Sufferin, that may go at most campus's, because students most places live on campus but not here, it is a commuter school. We averaged 25000 a game in 1981, and the stadium was out in nowhere then, now it's a short drive from all parts of town, can you imagine the congestion getting out of a campus stadium, basketball is bad enough. Win enough and they will make the trip!
Sure seems like a good atmosphere at the usc-ucla game, off campus!
Certainly the atmosphere on game day will be better if Sufferin isn't there. If keeping the stadim off-campus will prevent Succertrash from attending then I say leave it where it is. Hopefully, Succertrash will just listen on the radio from his mom's basement.
I agree with trouble. The location of the stadium has nothing to do with it. At the UNLV-Arkansas game in Little Rock a few years back it was a great atomosphere and the stadium was 100 miles from campus.
Sufferin is wrong 99% of the time. But he's right about the on-campus stadium! If you don't agree, you're fooling yourself.
and tweeter - wasn't that the last game they played at War Memorial? Didn't they start playing at a new stadium in Fayetville (sp?)
Ault will find a way to be 0-3
The Rebels will win this game agaist Wyoming I see a 30-10 kind of score, or even a 33-9, maybe even higher. There is no way Wyoming moves the ball up & down the field on us and outscores us. There is not a chance that they shut down our offense, I don't care if they do run a 3-4-4 scheme it isn't going to matter. This years team is much more mature and the players are not going to lose this game. They know there is too much at stake this year. Also look for Trotter to have a big game today, there should be a lot of running lanes for him to burst through. U-N-L-V- GO FIGHT WIN!!
As far as the stadium is concerned, would we all love an on campus stadium? Absolutely - is it going to happen? NO. I have been going to Sam Boyd on & off since Jim Strong was coach & it has gotten a million times better since then. The drive really doesn't bother me, even from Summerlin it still only takes me 20-25 minutes, it's all freeway. I really dont like parking in the dirt but hey I love football so I'll sacrifice. At this point I think the ticket prices are a little too high still. I would like to see them offer some kind of family packs since when I go I am taking 5-6 people to the games at a time and I get no break on the cost of tickets and have to pay full price. I recently moved back to Vegas from SoCal and I used to take my kids to the UCLA games and 5 of us could get in the game for $30, & enjoy beautiful Pasadena for a day. UCLA offered $6 dollar general addmission tickets in the north endzone of the stadium that is a great deal for a family.