Graney: Better every day has to be message for Arroyo, UNLV

“Small daily improvements over time lead to stunning results.”

— Robert Sharma, author.

I’m not sure UNLV football is ready to stun anyone, but the part about getting much better as the sun rises each day should absolutely be a central objective.

For the 2021 season and years beyond.

Things begin anew for the Rebels by hosting Eastern Washington on Thursday night at Allegiant Stadium with no attendance restrictions.

UNLV was held (see pandemic) to just 2,000 fans for two home games in 2020 and none for a third at its sparkling new home. Feels longer than just a year.

Isn’t that how everything feels?

Marcus Arroyo is the second-year head coach whose maiden voyage in leading his own program finished with an 0-6 record in what was an abbreviated season.

Most teams nationally felt fortunate to have competed at all while the coronavirus ravaged a global map. Compared to life and death, sports was inconsequential.

But as things return to some level of normal — whatever that means — Arroyo and his team face a challenge that has overwhelmed most UNLV sides the past four decades: How to become relevant. To actually matter.

Can he coach?

“I know what we’re dealing with psychologically with this football program,” Arroyo said. “You’re dealing with a team and a culture and narrative that’s accustomed to losing. But that has changed inside our gates. At least right now it has.”

Still, winning games remains the best solution. Much easier said than done. UNLV has produced just five winning seasons since 1985. F-i-v-e.

I don’t know if Arroyo can coach. You don’t. The Rebels last season were outscored 38-17 on average. They didn’t in any significant manner improve as the season progressed.

I know this, however: It was bad enough for a program’s development to miss all of spring workouts last year. It was even worse for a team with a new coaching staff and philosophy on both sides of the ball.

“Coach Arroyo having to be in a head coaching chair for the first time during a pandemic — I can’t imagine what that was like for him or anyone who took over a program last fall,” Eastern Washington coach Aaron Best said.

Arroyo said he is excited to learn about the DNA of his players. That he wonders …

Do they believe in each other? Do they like each other?

Will they fight for each other in the right way and not amongst themselves?

Will they do the right things the night after a game?

Will they prepare the right way before one?

“All of that is a huge piece as to how winning programs stay effective for the long haul,” Arroyo said. “They know how to do those things behind the scenes.”

Begin with respectable

His team has been assigned a meager win total of 1.5 by local sportsbooks. Hello, Everest.

But do you know what would be a successful season for UNLV?

If it’s better in October than September and in November than October. If it shows on-field progress from Games 1 to 3 and Games 3 to 6 and Games 6 to 9 and so on.

Such a progression doesn’t even include wins or losses.

Here, for the love of local dissent toward all things UNLV, come the disagreeing emails.

But there is a reasonable argument for small steps before giant leaps. You’re not going straight from annual bottom-feeder to Mountain West contender. So let Arroyo recruit and coach and see what’s behind those sunglasses.

Which, of course, I’m really hoping he doesn’t wear indoors.

“I’m fired up to see these guys have some success,” he said. “Fired up to see it grow and force them to believe in themselves.”

Stunning is a hard get. Respectable is a more plausible goal right now.

UNLV can start by being better Friday than Thursday.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.