CATCH OF THE DAY:
Football frustration: Where’s the defense?

October 5, 2009 by Sage Sammons 

Rebels disappoint with lack of focus, maturity, effort

After the Rebels’ embarrassing loss to rival Nevada, Reno Saturday, it leaves Rebel fans asking, “Where’s the defense”?
The simplest answer to that is no one knows.

Yes, 11 men show up every Saturday, but mentally, it looks like they are somewhere else. Since the second week of the season, the defense has been questioned about maturity. The defensive penalty that blew the Oregon State win was a total lack of maturity.

But from week two to last week, it went from a lack of maturity to a lack of effort. The Wolf Pack put up 773 total yards against the UNLV defense. And Nevada gave up four fumbles and lost the turnover battle 4-1. The effort just wasn’t there.
When youbattle against a 0-3 team, you typically are at least in the game. You never see one team win by five touchdowns and turn the ball over four times, but on Saturday, it happened. If you didn’t watch the game or listen to it, I envy you.

If you missed it, the Rebels allowed three people to rush for more than 170 yards, including a Las Vegas local that committed to Reno instead of Vegas, Mike Ball. Ball ended the day with ridiculous numbers, 184 yards on the ground and five total touchdowns. All of this in his first real appearance for the Wolf Pack. If I could pick up Mike Ball on my fantasy football team, I would.

But it doesn’t stop there. Starting running back Luke Lippincott ran for 181 yards and a touchdown and quarterback Colin Caepernick ended the day with 177 yards rushing. He also went 15-18 with 208 yards through the air. It was a total meltdown on the defensive side of the ball.

What started as a controllable discipline issue at the beginning of the season has turned into a horrible train wreck. And there are still seven games left in the season.

So far this year, UNLV ranks last in the Mountain West, allowing opposing teams to convert third downs 50 percent of the time. Last weekend, UNR had no problem converting third down tries, as they went 7-7 on third downs.
If you’re trying to look for a positive twist on this game, there isn’t one.

Yes, UNLV recovered their first fumble of the season, but it is embarrassing that you cannot recover a fumble until your fifth game.

So what happens next?
Is the UNLV defense going to derail and start over or does this train wreck continue for the rest of the year?

Next week is the biggest test UNLV faces in a long time. Any call David Therrell, the defensive coordinator for the Rebels, gets may be his last. Head coach Mike Sanford’s job is also hanging by a thread at best.

Even if Jerry Koloskie says that he will not review Sanford’s contract until the end of the year, something needs to happen now.

A program that was committed to a winning season and possibly a bowl game has turned out a dismal year with very low expectations, again. The only difference from this year to years past is the change at athletic director and the university president.

What happens this week will show how committed UNLV the school is to their athletic program. If they accept a losing season and an embarrassment as a team, nothing will change. I expect they want change as much as any UNLV fan… I mean, if there are any left after last weekend.