UNLV Football

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Ten months later, UNLV coach Mike Sanford still shakes his head over the loss at San Diego State that ended the Rebels’ 2008 season.

UNLV’s Mike Sanford understands better than most coaches the difficulty of what Wyoming’s Dave Christensen is trying to accomplish by radically changing the Cowboys’ offense in his first season. … Upon Sanford’s arrival for the 2005 season, he threw out the Rebels’ traditional two-back set in favor of the spread offense. The transition was messy; in Sanford’s first season UNLV averaged 18.8 points per game and went 2-9. … Similarly, Christensen has abandoned a power running game to implement the spread at Wyoming, which will host the Rebels at noon Saturday.

When recruiting a quarterback for the spread offense, it usually makes sense to look for someone with experience in that system.

At least there’s Boise State.

Today’s Q&A is with linebacker Starr Fuimaono, who returns this weekend to the scene of his season-ending shoulder injury two years ago. UNLV visits Wyoming at noon PST Saturday.

When UNLV quarterback Omar Clayton was sacked with 47 seconds left Saturday, it looked like a replay of the Rebels’ game at Brigham Young last season.

Fade passes to sophomore receiver Phillip Payne are nearly automatic, and UNLV couldn’t have picked a better time to call one Saturday night.

UNLV football players could have spent the week moaning about a questionable and costly pass-interference call that went against them last weekend.

It’s not as if UNLV’s secondary took the past two weekends off, but it didn’t face anything like Hawaii’s run-and-shoot, throw-almost-every-down offense.