It will come Saturday evening at San Diego State, the most significant football game UNLV will have played in eight years. But regardless if the Rebels win or lose against the lowly Aztecs, whether they become bowl eligible or finish two games under .500, Mike Sanford’s future as head coach should be even more solidified come Sunday morning.
It’s not often the better coaching job in a UNLV basketball game takes place opposite the Rebels bench.
Randy Couture over the last 15 months learned one or two or 10 valuable lessons but none more important than a simple truism often echoed throughout sports: Play to your strength.
Any handicapper who says jockeys don’t make a difference hasn’t been watching Rafael Bejarano ride on a day-to-day basis. His dominance of the Southern California jockey colony in his first year out west is truly remarkable.
It is in their hands now for the first time in what seems an eternity. Eight years, really. But what a long, painful, frustrating eight it must have been for those who follow UNLV football. Think of the world’s incessant wait for Tom Cruise to take up scientology full time and try ruling the universe in anonymity. That long.
The striped bass in Lake Mead have taken a page from the casino industry’s playbook. They have adopted the use of “periodic payouts” as a means of keeping the attention of anglers hoping to put a few of the fish on their stringers. Sometimes these periodic payouts come in the form of a striped bass, and sometimes the payout comes in the form of a striper boil.
He has made this walk before while thinking of her and will do so again.
The fifth season that could decide Mike Sanford’s future as head football coach at UNLV will arrive with this certainty: The Rebels are solid at a most significant position.
Face it. Watching poker live or on television is hardly like watching Ellen Burstyn in “Requiem for a Dream.” There is the drama of winning millions of dollars and a shiny bracelet, and then there is an electroshock therapy scene that leaves you immobile.
Horse racing could learn a lot from President-elect Barack Obama. And it matters not if Obama signs one piece of legislation to help the industry.
As Hyrum slid behind the wheel of the 21-foot, custom-painted Skeeter bass boat, I was more than a little nervous. Knowing a 225-horsepower outboard was on the back didn’t help. Though he is 12, Hyrum already has a well-earned reputation as The Wildman, mostly because he knows no fear. He’ll try just about anything at least once, especially if it involves speed or heights.
This is how the game is played: A college basketball program signs a highly rated recruit who also considered a program of superior stature and tradition. In this case, Kentucky.
They begin to occur in a college football coaching’s staff third season and increase in the fourth. Measuring games. Those weeks when it is determined where your program stands in relation to the best in its conference. Those weeks when you discover how far you have come and how far you must travel to be considered valid.
Did you hear the one about the guy who makes snow for a living and who woke up one day to find himself a crew member for an NHRA team, handling everything from tires to rear suspension to repacking parachutes?
