Rebels’ performance could come down to effort

Effort should be the one guaranteed trait a football player owns. Speed. Strength. Skill. Smarts. You can lack in all of these and still play hard.

You can lose 63-28 and still sweat to the final seconds, or in the case of UNLV against UNR last week, the final time a Wolf Pack running back sprinted untouched into the end zone, then afterward joked how his mother could have run through such generous openings.

Mike Sanford insists his UNLV team did not give up as UNR poured on late points, that the Rebels did not surrender their energy when it became obvious a fifth straight loss to their state rival would end in embarrassing fashion.

Watching how UNR backs scored with such ease in the final several minutes causes one to question Sanford's assertion, or perhaps it was just too implausible to believe the Wolf Pack are still that much more talented and better coached.

"Nobody quit," Sanford said this week. "Nobody quit. We just have to play better. I believe in our coaching staff. I believe in our players."

Sanford has talked so much the past few weeks about existing within a vacuum, I'm pretty sure a quick glance at his stock portfolio would reveal great interest in Dyson.

But it makes sense now more than ever, this idea that the Rebels do their best to shut out any outside noise about their program. It's tough. The clamoring about Sanford's job status and where the program is headed since the UNR defeat has made a KISS concert seem calm.

Tonight could tell everything.

The Rebels will host a Brigham Young team that will undoubtedly own at or near a majority of support from the Sam Boyd Stadium crowd. My neighborhood in Summerlin alone might produce more BYU fans than those who cheer for the Rebels given all that came out of 63-28. The Cougars are ranked 18th and 161/2-point favorites.

It would seem all the Rebels have to offer is effort.

It also would seem this is the best time in Sanford's tenure to determine just how hard kids will play for him.

"Each individual has to do his job better," Sanford said. "That's all of us -- players, coaches, everybody. We have to believe in each other. We have to understand that adversity brings out either the weakness or strength in you. I want a bunch of guys that it brings out the strength in them. That it makes them stronger, tougher, better.

"We have an opportunity to bounce back. We know what our problems were (at UNR), and we know how to fix them, and we expect to bounce back. We are going to find out a lot about this team."

It needs to learn if it can stop anyone.

Sanford has gone out of his way this week to spread the fault for 63-28 between both sides of the ball, but anyone who watched the massacre play out knows Florida's offense might have struggled making up for the revolving door that was UNLV's defense in Reno.

Forget schemes. Defense is about intensity and effort and how hard one pursues the ball. It's true you need to be in proper position to make most plays, something UNLV players rarely were in against UNR, but simply working harder than the other guy can often erase technical errors.

I heard a lot about gaps this week, and it had nothing to do with a clothing store. Rather, how UNLV defensive players either didn't pursue the correct ones against UNR or mistakenly covered for teammates when attacking others, how playing defense is just not as straightforward as the wretched old media would have you believe, how there is a list of 75 factors that go into properly preparing a defense to compete.

(Seventy-five? No wonder UNLV can't defend. Who knew you had to own Stephen Hawking's brain to tackle Colin Kaepernick?)

I heard about UNLV's offensive line scout players not being deep or fast enough to simulate the UNR attack, a truth that can be attributed in some measure to the Rebels not having a full allotment of scholarship bodies.

I watched as Sanford tried explaining some of it on an eraser board in his office. I saw the little X's and O's and everything. The only thing missing was Tim Riggins sleeping through the chat session. I heard that blame should be shared among coaches and players.

I heard a lot of things. Believing most of them was the tough part.

"There is not a simple answer to your question," Sanford said of my query on his team's defensive limitations. "You're trying to make it too simple."

Simply put, tonight could tell everything.

Believe this: It will take one heck of an effort.

Simply put, how much fight do the Rebels have left?

For themselves, for their season, for their head coach.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He also can be heard weeknights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on "The Sports Scribes" on KDWN-AM (720) and www.kdwn.com.