Rebels baffled by road woes

UNLV traveled to New Mexico two years ago feeling confident, even though the Rebels weren't accustomed to feeling comfortable away from home.

They then went out and beat New Mexico 34-17 to end their 20-game Mountain West Conference road losing streak, justifying the good feeling the Rebels took into that Oct. 24, 2009, game.

The skid "was brought up, but most of all, we just treated it as another game," safety Quinton Pointer said this week. "We knew it was a winnable game, and to do something we didn't do in a long time, we knew we had a good chance of breaking that streak.

"When you're in a slump like that as a program, it's good to get that off your back."

Now UNLV returns to Albuquerque with a 13-game road losing streak that includes nonconference games, and the Rebels (2-6, 1-2 MWC) are favored by 7 points to break that skid against the Lobos (0-9, 0-4) at 7 p.m. PST Saturday.

"It's definitely a game we have to go and win," Pointer said.

There's little doubt the Rebels would win if the game was in Las Vegas. They pounded New Mexico 45-10 at Sam Boyd Stadium last season, their largest victory margin over a Mountain West opponent.

But the Rebels are a different team away from home. Their narrowest loss during the current road skid was a 30-7 defeat at Idaho in 2010.

UNLV's average margin of defeat at home going back to last season is 6.3 points and the Rebels are 4-6. In going 0-11 on the road in the same span, the Rebels' average margin of defeat is nearly 36 points, an average score of 46.4 to 10.6.

Nothing better illustrates the vast difference between home and away games than UNLV's recent meetings with Colorado State and Wyoming. The Rebels were blown out 43-10 at Colorado State last season, but beat the Rams 38-35 at home on Oct. 29. Last year UNLV crushed Wyoming 42-16 at home, but was routed 41-14 at Laramie on Oct. 15.

Most maddening for coach Bobby Hauck is that there seems to be no clear-cut explanation for the road difficulties.

"If we had an answer to that, we'd probably be changing," Hauck said. "We're certainly working on all those things. To me, part of it is guys haven't traveled much as a team. I think we'll go play well this weekend."

UNLV's struggles on the road precede Hauck. Previous coach Mike Sanford was at the helm for most of that 20-game conference skid, and his teams went 3-25 on the road in his five seasons compared with 13-18 at home. One of the three victories, however, was a 23-20 overtime upset at No. 15 Arizona State in 2008.

Jeff Horton, who coached the Rebels from 1994 to 1998, went 2-27 on the road and 11-17 at home. He lost his final 26 away games, a school record for futility.

Coach John Robinson's teams not only had success on the road from 1999 to 2004, but even played better when out of town. His UNLV teams went 15-22 away and 12-20 at Sam Boyd, though the 2000 Las Vegas Bowl victory over Arkansas is considered a neutral-site game.

Robinson oversaw some major road victories, most notably a 23-5 win at No. 14 Wisconsin in 2003. UNLV also won twice each at Brigham Young and UNR.

He immediately ended the long road losing streak he inherited from Horton, but Hauck's players could be in a situation where they press because of the weight of the ongoing skid.

That is, if they even think about it.

"You guys (media) are the only ones who talk about it," Hauck said. "We don't, so I don't think so."

Hauck said he won't change how he prepares. He believes establishing a routine is vital to creating consistency.

But the road woes need to end at some point, and maybe this is the weekend that happens.

When the Rebels ended their previous streak at New Mexico in 2009, wide receiver Phillip Payne remembered the flight back "coming home happy instead of all gloomy."

"Once we got the lead, it seemed they let up a little bit, so we had the confidence to take over. It was there for us to take it, and we took it," Payne said.

Hauck doesn't care about location. He just wants results.

"It's more about who we are as a football team and our margin for error," he said. "It's more about going and playing well. Home, road, anywhere, I just don't think we have any margin for error right now.

"It's not about being in some other stadium. It's about us going out and having to execute closer to perfect than some teams do in order to get wins."

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.