I live in Reno and watch UNLV every week on my 52-inch hi-def. I can always find the UNLV game on the many channels that show college football.
I read the Sun's and R-J's UNLV stories every day on the Web sites.

I don't know the inside information about UNLV. But there is something intrinsically wrong with this team that goes deeper than a first-year coach trying to turn it around.

Over time, I have realized that it doesn't matter who the coach is, UNLV does a poor job of recruiting local talent. And the local talent in Las Vegas is really, really good. Just listen to Tom Lemming on the CBS Sports channel. Look at all the Las Vegas kids who proudly represent their home city at many big-time schools.

UNLV looked really, really bad against Idaho, a team that will finish behind Boise, Nevada, Fresno and maybe Hawai'i in the WAC.

Please just throw the ball to Phillip Payne every play, please. He'll find a way to catch it.

Bobby Huack is stuck with Sanford's players and maybe will do a great job recruiting to turn the program around. But a Big Sky Conference coaching staff and Big Sky recruiting connections will not get it done in the Mountain West Conference. If he focused on Las Vegas and got the best kids, he'd have a championship caliber team. I don't blame Las Vegas kids for leaving. Why would they want to play at UNLV under present conditions? (I've never understood the location of the studium.) But there are so many good and hungry players in Las Vegas that are really good, when you take a look at some of the past and present rosters at schools like Oklahoma, Utah, Oregon State and Nevada.

I look at Las Vegas as the Miami of the west -- full of talented high school players who leave town to play college ball. Former coach Howard Schnellenberger got the local kids and won a national championship. UNLV's coaching staff should learn a lesson of history.

The revolving door of head coaches at UNLV does little to establish trustful local recruiting conmtacts, I would assume.
I would also assume that Las Vegas's rep as Sin City is something recruiters must overcome with some parents. It seems like a lot of people get shot by cops in Las Vegas, from reading news reports.

Ryan Greene does a good job covering this team.

As far as the coach throwing F-bombs, hey lots of coaches cuss. Look at Rex Ryan on "Hard Knocks."

I watched on TV from Reno and it was distressing that Hauck's F-bomb tirade in the 2nd half looked like he was having a melt down. Building this program is going to be tough and to lose it like that in Game No. 1 as the Rebs' coach may be a concern.

Also, Big Sky Conference coaches who make the step up to the Mountain West or Pac-10 have not done well lately. Joe Glenn, who won the 2002 I-AA national title at Montana, was fired at Wyoming after the 2008 season, although he had one good year with the Cowboys, winning the Las Vegas Bowl in 2004.

Washington State Coach Paul Wulff, who came from the Big Sky's Eastern Washington, is a complete disaster. His win percentage is the worst in school history.

It is obvious that UNLV does not have the players yet to run a smash-mouth type of offense. Too bad UNLV doesn't have Las Vegas product Mike Ball, who is second-string up here in Reno with the Wolf Pack.

I watched on TV from Reno. UNLV still sucks. The best part was seeing Bobby Hauck's f-bomb-laced tirade in the second half. The Fremont Cannon will stay with the University of Nevada.

Look at his past dealings with the student newspaper at Montana.

He's a jerk.

The Jim Gibbons of football coaches.

There is only one great candidate to be the next UNLV football coach.

Hire Chris Ault from the University of Nevada.

He kicks UNLV's butt every year.

He goes to a bowl every year.

His kids don't get in trouble.

He invented the Pistol Offense and rolled up about 700 yards in offense against UNLV! That was so obscene that Sanford should have been fired on the spot.

He is a consistent winner in a small budget program.

He makes stars out of kids others pass on, like Colin Kapernick. Nobody wanted him out of Turlock, Calif. Remember Frank Hawkins? Just wait, he'll make Mike Ball an NFL running back.

He commands a small salary, when compared to other schools in the WAC or MWC.

He knows Nevada and has great politcan connections.

He knows the recruiting grounds of Las Vegas and So. Cal, the Fresno area and the Sacramento area.

All he has to move down from Reno. Since he already works in the university system, the transition could be very smooth.

It's a no-brainer. But since this is UNLV. It will never happen.

Take a closer look at the lyrics of "Home Means Nevada."

It makes no mention of anything that has to do with Clark County or Las Vegas.

It deals with images only from Northern Nevada...the Kit Carson Trail and the Truckee River.

Some state song.

ralston ...the watchdog of the rival newspaper. What a great public service..like he's never made a mistake.

I was at the game yesterday with some old friends who flew up from Las Vegas. I live in Reno and am a huge University of Nevada football fan.

And I love keeping up with the UNLV Rebels on the Sun website because the sportswriter here is really good.

I root for UNLV all weekends that they don't play Nevada. Many folks in Reno recognize that Las Vegas is a great city, the economical engine of our state.

That's why beating the UNLV football team means so much to us. Nevada's offensive line moved UNLV's front at will Saturday. I can see why UNLV fans get so frustrated with the coach.

Plus, by reading the Sun and RJ, you've got a dirt, dusty parking lot for your home games? That's terrible!

Really, if the University System was not in such a budget crunch, your sad sack coach would already have been fired. So I guess you can blame the economy as much as anything else.

I thought that UNLV had some good players. The WR Wolfe (sp?) could start at Notre Dame.

I heard some Las Veges folks at the game mumble that UNLV should drop its football program. We would hate to see that in Reno. This rivalry is a good thing for our state.

Nevada's 1969 team, which played (and won) in the first Nevada-UNLV game was honored at halftime. We respect the UNLV football legacy in the North, Mike Thomas, Coach Ireland, Glenn Carano, Mike Whitemaine, Icky Woods and especially Randall Cunningham. The coaches up here used to call him Superman.

There have been many years that UNLV has kicked Nevada's butt, that's for sure. But lately, wow.

I would pin the blame for the UNLV loss on the UNLV coach.

The officials obviously missed the call when Bellfield tripped and the ball went out of bounds.

Kruger got very angry about it and it seemed from TV that he could not let it go.

It seemed like he never got his head back in the game after that blown call.