UNLV fighting for survival

It understands just one concept: Winning is the only thing that keeps your pulse beating.

UNLV’s football team began a three-game stretch Saturday night that for the second straight season will decide if the Rebels again watch the college bowl season or, wonder of wonders, actually participate in it for the first time since 2000.

But there is more at stake for the program this time around. Another regular-season loss would not only guarantee UNLV’s sixth consecutive nonwinning season, but would most assuredly end the tenure of its fifth-year head coach.

Mike Sanford continues to be the most likely to be voted off the island each week at Tribal Council. But his torch still burns today. The issue is tabled for another week.

Colorado State saw to that.

More important, UNLV did.

The Rebels were the better team for the just the second time in their last seven games, and it was apparent on both sides of a 35-16 win against the Rams before another one of those fictitious crowd counts (15,902) they like to throw out around these parts.

I’m not sure which UNR team lost to the Rams earlier in the season, but from watching Colorado State here, my guess is Chris Ault played quarterback for the Wolf Pack that day instead of coaching them.

But that’s no concern of the Rebels. UNLV did what you should to inferior teams — make big plays offensively, not break defensively, protect the ball like, well, it means keeping your bowl hopes alive.

The Rebels even managed an interception, and it only seemed like the first since Jamaal Brimmer roamed the secondary. It was UNLV’s third of the season, meaning it is now tied for last in the nation in that category and not sitting all by its lonesome.

CSU gained 424 yards but you never once got the idea it could make a game of it in the second half. Of those 424, 171 came in the fourth quarter, when the game was decided and the Rams were chucking it around to try to make things more respectable.

They controlled the ball for nearly 38 minutes to 22:01 for the Rebels, but when you are as bad as the Rams, owning possession doesn’t assure scoring points. That’s another thing UNLV did well, taking advantage of opportunities to expand the margin.

Whether the Rebels win out and go bowling remains a long shot until proven otherwise, but the chance of it will only increase if junior quarterback Omar Clayton continues these efficient ways:

He completed 10 of 17 passes for 147 yards and a score against CSU while also rushing for 44 yards and a touchdown. Ryan Wolfe caught a team-best four balls for 42 yards, and in case you missed it, the senior wideout and NCAA’s active career leader in receiving yards this past week took another step closer to becoming the school’s first CoSIDA academic All-American on a national level.

News like that tends to get painted over by talk of coaching changes and losing records and bowl berths. It’s too bad.

If the mountain was shrunk with the season’s fourth win, the climb to bowl eligibility remains stringent. UNLV next plays at Air Force on Saturday, against a Falcons program the Rebels have beaten once in the last six tries.

Air Force is 6-4 and has a top-10 defense nationally this season, allowing an average of 12.9 points per game. Its only loss at home this season is to the Mountain West Conference’s best team (Texas Christian) by a 20-17 final in poor weather conditions.

Should the Rebels overcome what probably will be a double-digit spread in Colorado Springs, San Diego State would again represent the team UNLV would need to defeat to win its sixth game. The Rebels have an off week to prepare for the Aztecs and play the game here.

If there were no excuses for losing to SDSU last season with a bowl berth on the line, there really wouldn’t be any this time around.

Survival mode has begun again, and the Rebels are alive for at least six more days. They were the more prepared team Saturday, the more focused and determined team, unquestionably the better team.

Hey, when your torch is about to be snuffed out and that annoying Jeff Probst is about to ask you to leave the island, you can’t help but play your tails off.

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.