UNLV proves itself

This is what concrete proof looks like, feels like, sounds like. It's emotional and physical and impressive in so many ways. It's a statement rather than a wish, a reality instead of a vision.

It's the sight of Frank Summers breaking three tackles and dragging defenders on his back early and running free down the sideline late in a rout long since decided.

It's a portrait of domination.

UNLV's football team on Saturday night won the biggest game of third-year coach Mike Sanford's tenure and did so in a commanding manner. The Rebels out-played, out-coached, out-hit and out-classed Utah in every imaginable phase 27-0 at Sam Boyd Stadium, finally putting an end to forgettable streaks of 11 consecutive losses to the Utes and 12 straight to open a season's conference schedule.

This is what it means to beat someone that matters, taking the kind of large step forward the Rebels haven't allowed themselves in some time.

In doing so, the progress Sanford has continually spoken about seeing from his team this season was confirmed on both sides of the ball. For as much as Summers was under-used the opening three games, the junior running back on Saturday was a focal point for which Utah could never find an answer.

You can't overstate the importance of 29 carries for 190 yards and scoring three touchdowns, of consistently gaining positive yards while taking from the clock precious minutes. Summers was terrific.

Defensively, the Rebels through a 1-2 beginning had shown enough improvement from previous seasons to think they could at least control Utah enough to give their offense a fighting chance.

Control nothing. Utah hadn't been held scoreless since 1993. The Rebels' defense was superb.

It's true the Utes spent several plays flailing in a high tide of stupid penalties and feeble execution of questionable play calls, but UNLV's first shutout in seven years was more about its players' implementation of a fantastic game plan than its opponent's incompetence. They say UNLV senior linebacker Beau Bell is destined to be selected over the first three rounds of the next NFL Draft. His performance Saturday will only enhance that prediction.

Utah more than proved the notion true that a far more factual assessment of its ability this season is of the team that was thumped at Oregon State and lost at home to Air Force than one that routed UCLA 44-6 last week. The Utes are not near what they have been for several years, and yet that's not UNLV's problem.

When you open Mountain West play by beating anyone 27-zip and control tempo as well as UNLV did most of the evening, all the credit resides on your sideline. When you spend the previous 26 games searching for this kind of victory to finally make people outside the diminutive boundaries of your program take notice, it's more than acceptable to strut for an hour or five afterward.

But all of it for 15 or so eerie minutes became absurdly insignificant late in the first quarter when UNLV running back David Peeples was knocked unconscious on a first-down run deep in Utah territory. He was hit and crumpled to the ground, the ball spilling out and into the hands of a Utah defender.

It's a different type of quiet that engulfs a stadium when things like this happen. It's a frightened quiet. It's walking through the cemetery at midnight quiet, when everything seems to move in a dreamlike fashion. Thousands of eyes strain to see through the huddled medical personnel tending to the player, hoping to catch a glimpse of movement. A hand. A foot. Anything.

Even the cart carrying the spinal board seems to move at a snail's pace. Parents and other family members emerge from the stands and walk slowly toward the circle of fear. Peeples thankfully regained consciousness while being attended to and showed movement before being taken from the field and to Sunrise Hospital for tests. The victory was wonderful news for a UNLV football program that has under Sanford waited and envisioned and dreamt of beating a program of Utah's tradition. The early prognosis that Peeples wasn't seriously injured was far better.

You can build from this so much easier than again trying to find bright spots in otherwise undistinguished efforts. Wins like this can create the kind of confidence Sanford has wanted to at least afford his team since arriving in December 2004.

UNLV at least gets a chance now to see what it can make of such a memorable win. To see if momentum is something the Rebels can maximize.

This is what concrete proof looks like.

A portrait of domination.

Ed Graney's column is published Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.