UNLV standing by Sanford

UNLV football coach Mike Sanford will return in 2008 for his fourth season, athletic director Mike Hamrick made clear Tuesday.

But with a third straight two-win season likely this year, selling the status quo to Rebels fans could prove to be a difficult task for UNLV.

Hamrick, however, said he anticipates improvement in the program, despite Sanford's 6-27 record since replacing John Robinson in 2005.

"I think we're going to sell it like we always have since Mike has been here. I believe the program is going to continue to get better, and the hard-core Rebel fans will always support Rebel football," Hamrick said.

"But you know and I know how this town is. If we start winning, fans will come. And if we don't, they won't come. It will benefit us to get off to a really quick start next year because (probably) three of the first four games are at home."

UNLV plays Utah State on Aug. 30, at Arizona State on Sept. 13, Iowa State on Sept. 20 and UNR on Sept. 27. The Mountain West Conference releases its portion of the schedule early next year.

With Mountain West games against Brigham Young and Utah on the road -- and hot ticket Wisconsin dropping off the schedule -- the Rebels' only certain marquee home opponent will be UNR.

UNLV set home attendance records this season with 175,684 fans attending six games for an average of 29,281. The Rebels hosted Wisconsin, Hawaii, Utah, BYU, Colorado State and San Diego State.

The Rebels will be hard pressed to draw as many fans next season, especially after another dismal season. Their remaining games are Saturday at Texas Christian and Nov. 24 at New Mexico.

"When you don't have the wins, it's always hard to sell the fact the program is getting better," Hamrick said. "Our football team is more competitive than in Mike's first two years. But at some point, competitiveness isn't enough. You have to win games you're competitive in. Our desire and our hope is it will happen in Mike's fourth year."

Hamrick declined to discuss his evaluation of Sanford or assign a certain number of wins the coach would need in 2008 to continue at UNLV.

However, another two-win season clearly wouldn't bode well for Sanford's job status.

"It seems at times we're very capable of playing with everybody on our schedule, but the key is we have to do it on a consistent basis, which we didn't do this year," Hamrick said. "As the kids get older and more mature ... that will happen. Next year, we're not going to be a young team."

Under Sanford the Rebels' average margin of defeat is down to eight points from 12 last year and 15.8 in 2005.

"Even though we're not anywhere close to where I wanted to be at this point, I do believe we're much more competitive than we've been the last two years," Sanford said.

The Rebels will return just about their entire offense in 2008, including tailback Frank Summers. He is 135 yards from becoming UNLV's first 1,000-yard rusher since Dominique Dorsey in 2004. The defense will lose its best player, linebacker Beau Bell.

Sanford said he isn't looking ahead just yet.

"We are not just finishing out the year," he said. "What we're doing now has a direct impact on next year, but I'm not ready to move on to next year."

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2914.