Victory provides lift before Rebels hit road

It was 30 minutes before UNLV played its fourth straight home football game to begin this season, 30 minutes before the Rebels attempted to earn one win before facing their own personal Blair Witch Project, commonly known as road games.

Jim Livengood was about to enter an elevator at Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday evening.

"This," the UNLV athletic director said, "is a big one."

For countless reasons.

For confidence.

For morale.

For proof that progress is being made, but only the kind winning creates.

For, most importantly, what is to come over the next month.

The errors and mishaps can be replayed in film sessions today and over the next week. For now, UNLV and third-year coach Bobby Hauck celebrate a 38-35 win against Air Force that breathes a bit of life into a team that hasn't had much good happen of late.

It was the Mountain West Conference opener for both teams and yet, while important, that isn't the most critical part for UNLV. Winning is. It could have been anyone standing on the opposite sideline. It could have been Northern Arizona.

Well, maybe not the mighty Lumberjacks.

I don't know what the future holds for Hauck as the one entrusted to rebuild this program, but anyone who has watched the Rebels reach their 1-3 record can safely and without hesitation say this: The Rebels never stop playing for him.

They fall behind and commit silly penalties and miss tackles and struggle in various ways, but not once in losses to Minnesota, NAU and Washington State did they give the slightest hint of surrender.

They didn't against Air Force, either.

That matters, or at least it should.

When things are bad, really bad, bad in a way you're down 28-17 with 10:29 left in the third quarter and the Falcons are driving again, someone has to make a play to save things. The kind of play UNLV hasn't produced very often the last, oh, decade.

Kenny Brown did so Saturday by forcing a fumble off a completed pass and Tani Maka recovered it at the UNLV 22, and the entire game changed. Momentum shifted. The Rebels had new life and took full advantage, outscoring Air Force 21-7 the rest of the way.

They needed this desperately because the road beckons.

You could spend every second of every minute of every hour of the next seven days and not totally understand how a team could be 4-44 on the road since 2004.

The Rebels haven't won a game away from Sam Boyd Stadium since 2009 and are about to go consecutive weeks against teams in Utah State and Louisiana Tech that are a combined 6-1. UNR then visits, followed by road games to Boise State and San Diego State.

UNLV still makes so many mistakes. I'm sure there is a reason Hauck continues to coordinate the special teams, but if there is to be a fourth season with him leading the Rebels, he should seriously think about finding another to handle the duties. This is not a smart team when it comes to the kicking game in any manner.

There are many other areas to clean up, numerous corrections to be made, but you can't overestimate effort and the desire to improve.

The Rebels own a lot of both traits.

"We're a young team, but we're a pretty darn good football team," Hauck said. "We were 0-3 coming in, but this gets us to 1-0 in conference. It's one win. It's not our goal just to win one game. Our goal is to go on the road and try and get another win."

Winning is important to experience, to have an opportunity to run onto a field as the scoreboard shows no time remaining and your team owning more points than an opponent, to jump into the arms of a coach whose job status has come under scrutiny, to sprint over to one side of the home stands and celebrate with the cheerleaders and band and fans.

To then gather at midfield as a team, take a knee, bow their heads, say a prayer, rise and run to the locker room to the sounds of more cheers.

It might be a short-lived experience. It might not end this well for some time. Utah State is a missed field goal at Wisconsin from being 4-0. Louisiana Tech treats scoring touchdowns like basketball players do layups.

UNLV is about to enter dangerous territory when it comes to keeping up with better teams, but that doesn't mean Livengood was wrong.

This was a big one.

For all the reasons above and then some.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on "Gridlock," ESPN 1100 and 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.