Game Preview: Gophers vs UNLV Runnin' Rebels

Pop Quiz Hotshot.  Who are the best UNLV Runnin' Rebels football players of all time?

Give up?

They have one number retired and it's Randall Cunningham.  He was pretty f'n good.  They also had Ickey Woods and Keenan McCardell.  They had music mogul and Vanilla Ice Dangler Suge Knight play for them a bit.  Kenny Mayne apparently was a quarterback there too, which gives us some insight into recruiting strategy. Check out super-sized Ickey doing the Ickey Shuffle below:




Current alumni that are in the NFL include: Isaako Aaitui, Joe Hawley, Frank Summers, Martin Tevaseu and Eric Wright.  Never heard of them except for Wright.

Sherry's lips do look a little purple here.  Just sayin'

Coach Bobby Hauck has set a team goal for UNLV to play in their first bowl game since the year 2000.   Sophomore QB Nick Sherry is excited about the offense saying they'll be "fun to watch and fun to play."  I have no information on how much purple drank each consumed prior to that statement.  The team does return 19 starters from last year.  Besides Sherry, the team relies on running back Tim Cornett to provide punch on offense.  The senior is just 700 yards away from the all time school record of 3,149 yards.  He ran for over 100 yards in eight games last season.  Cornett also takes care of the ball; he has just one fumble in his career.  Junior left tackle Brett Boyko returns after an injury riddled season last year where he played only 4 games.  For the seven minutes of the game that I'm sober enough to pay attention, I'll watching how Boyko (6'7", 310) holds up against our defense.

On the defensive side for UNLV, end Sonny Sanitoa had 5 sacks and 28 tackles in 9 games as a redshirt freshman last year.  He's Samoan, so you know he's good.  Senior Tim Hasson (6'2", 215) is an undersized linebacker that is the leading returning tackler.  His half brother Tahj is nearly as big as him (6'1", 195) and is one of the starting corners.  Look for the Gopher offensive line to frequently get to the second level and mow over these dudes.

Here's a strange and interesting story I found on the Las Vegas Sun UNLV blog:  Their starting right guard is a converted tight end named Nick Gstrein.  That in and of itself isn't super odd, but he got there by speaking to Hauck in the spring and asking where he could get more play time.  Hauck tried him at guard, center and HALFBACK, but eventually the 6'4", 285 Gstrein landed the starting job at right guard over last year's starter, Ron Scoggins.  That's just...odd.

UNLV Roster All-Namers

#68 Tui Fakauho
#32 Mike Horsey
#57 Roscoe Kalilikane
#66 Bryson Mook
#63 J'Ondray Sanders
#42 Peni Vea

Some impressions from watching video of their fall scrimmage:

- Lots of multiple wide receiver shotgun sets shown.

- Nick Sherry is prone to a (more) horrible pass when he goes to a second receiver.

- No fans are in attendance.  Hot sun watching crappy football or deliciously cool casino playing cards?  That's no choice at all.

- When they did manage to complete a pass, the tackling was miserable.  Now imagine the bowling ball Kirkwood is running at them.

- I found myself staring at the mountains in the background a lot.

- Jerry Rice Jr. is on the team I guess.  Not a starter.  The video I watched called a pass out flat to Rice by Herring that he broke two tackles on and turned it into 15 yards the "offensive play of the day".

Prediction

If I felt completely comfortable with our passing game I would say this is a 50-10 type of game.  While I like how Nelson has been throwing the ball in practice, I need to see it in a game before I jump in with both feet.  That being said, I didn't think much of UNLV before watching some video and reading up on them and I actually came away thinking they were worse than I originally thought.  The Gophers should be able to run at will and the defense shouldn't struggle too hard with Sherryball.  That poor converted tight end might have to go up against Hageman for the few plays he's able before his chest is caved it.  I'll say Gophers 34, UNLV 13.

What Others are Saying

UNLV #Rebels at Minnesota #GoldenGophers 8/29/13 - Free #CFBPicks & Odds http://t.co/QzBMOfgWss
— ctsportspicks (@ctsportspicks) August 29, 2013

These guys are saying it will be close and to take the +14 based on last year's game.  They don't know about #YEAR3 I guess.

In exactly 24 hours, UNLV football takes the field. In a 'Now or Never' situation, these boys are choosing the 'NOW'! #winwinwin! #unlvfb
— Runnin Ramble (@RunninRamble) August 28, 2013

UNLV's only football tradition is losing. @PatrickReusse on the #Gophers first opponent: http://t.co/2EiKoPi0YJ #B1G
— Star Tribune Sports (@StribSports) August 26, 2013

Our guy Reusse keeping it classy.

Our @ronkantowski sees a ray of hope for UNLV football. Does that make him an optimist or an idiot? http://t.co/RyNIne9ajb
— Review-Journal (@reviewjournal) August 29, 2013

So is he an idiot?  Here's his picture, decide for yourselves:

Gophers @ UNLV Week 1 Preview

Where's Moses Scurry?

The Gophers open the 2012 season under the Thursday night lights (great show) at Sam Boyd Stadium.  Since I'm going there to watch the game and potentially Ben Sanderson myself, I'm going to have to hit you with the game preview early in the week. 

In many ways the UNLV football team is the Mountain West version of the Gopher football team.  They're young and scuffling to make it out of the bottom of their conference standings and into respectability.  Except that the Mountain West Conference seems to change each time you look at it and some of the better teams (BYU, Utah and TCU) have run off to other conferences.  Hawaii, Nevada and Fresno State join the conference for 2012 and Utah State and San Jose State will join in 2013 after Boise State and San Diego State bolt for the Big East of all places.

The Sagarin ranking for UNLV is #140, while Minnesota is slotted at #82.  Vegas books have Minnesota at a 8 or 8.5 point favorite.  So, the Gophers are bound to roll, right?  There are a lot of reasons to think that is possible or even probable, but if you're not gun-shy for this non-conference tilt you've probably drank away all memory of September 2011.  Props to you for finding a way to obliterate those memories.

Check the slacks!

Coaches

Head Coach Bobby Hauck enters his 3rd season after winning only two games each of the first two seasons.They've shuffled around the other coaches in a confusing game of musical chairs. The former DC is now assistant head coach and linebackers coach.  Former assistant coach, defensive backs coach and "pass-game coordinator" J.D. Williams is now the defensive coordinator.  The TE coach Brent Meyers is now the OC.  If you didn't understand any of that, just know that they're the same dudes, but with different titles, which ALWAYS works.

Marcus Sullivan Flails at an Errant Pass

 

Offense

Caleb Herring has been beaten by RS Freshman Nick Sherry for the starting quarterback position.  Sherry is big (6'5", 240lbs) and is more of a traditional pocket passer than Caleb.  That could prove useful since UNLV was 118th in passing with just under 110 yards per game.  *puke*  UNLV has a couple of Junior RBs that are effective with Tim Cornett and the smaller Bradley Randle.  Similar to the Gophers, there are a lot of young WRs looking to step forward, most notably Marcus Sullivan, Taylor Spencer and Marquis Thompson.  Sullivan has been off the practice field of late due to injury and if he plays Thursday will not be 100%.  The line is also very young with Boyko, Jefferson and Waterman starting as freshman last year; but at least they have experience now. 

Sidney Hodge will tackle your neck off.

Defense

The defense was 118th nationally in points allowed per game at 40.4.  They were especially stinky in pass defense.  Kellen Moore likely pleasures himself to his game tapes against UNLV.  They do return a decent defensive back in Junior Sidney Hodge, so he can try and shut down one side of the never-ending waves of Gopher receivers that will be thrown at the Rebels.  Senior John Lotulelei was the leading tackler at linebacker and has too many vowels in his name.  UNLV also has this odd thing about moving QBs to the defensive side.  A backup LB is a former QB and James Boyd, a transfer from USC is a DE.  Boyd apparently has some upside at his new position.  Tyler Gaston is a DT that is supposedly pretty good.  I know this because I looked at the "blue ribbon preview" and he's the only UNLV player listed on the All Mountain West team.

His mustache ride will end you.

Who Wins?

This game is less about the opponent and more about how much the Gophers improved in the off-season.  This is an early litmus test, but it could set the tone for the entire season.  A loss here and it's last season all over again -- a win sends them to a home opener against New Hampshire who just uses their football team as a proving ground for making the checking line on their pucks squad.  Let's not get ahead of ourselves too much, but if the Gophers have a 2-0 start maybe the student section will stay for four quarters for game three vs. Western Michigan before jell-o shotting themselves into oblivion.

Can the Gophers show composure traveling to Las Vegas and imposing their will despite some potentially tough conditions?  We've heard how much bigger and stronger the offensive line is. If this is the case, they should dominate on the ground and a more experienced MarQueis Gray should be able to use that to carve up the secondary through the air.  The defense should be in Nick Sherry's face early and often.  The veterans at linebacker and the man-beast that is Ra'Shede Hageman should control the run.  This is a Rebels team that should not be able to match up.  It's time for all of the work and preparation that the players and the staff and the media have all been talking about to show results on the field.
I expect the travel and first game jitters to make much of the first half too close for comfort for most Gopher fans.  However, eventually I think the Gophers settle into control and take over this game.  If you're joining me in Vegas I think the smart play might be a UNLV bet on the 1st half line if it's around +6 or +7 and a bet on the under 56.  If the line stays at -8.5 or better, I'd even plunk something down on the Gophers, but that might be because I have a horrible addiction.