Leaky defense could maroon Rebels again

Close your eyes. You still can see him. There he goes, running up and down the Sam Boyd Stadium football field against UNLV, not really bothered by gusts of wind posing as tackles, that Harvey Unga kid from Brigham Young. The Rebels still haven’t tackled him. He rushed for 177 yards that night last October. It seemed like 377.

It’s just one vision from last season’s 2-10 debacle, one snapshot that defines a major reason UNLV stumbled to its seventh straight nonwinning record and one that ultimately could determine if No. 8 is inevitable.

Everyone keeps talking about who will win the starting quarterback job. There are whispers Mike Sanford has completely turned the offense over to second-year coordinator Todd Berry, although let’s hope any such decision is based on something other than Berry’s Division I-A head coaching record at Army (5-36, ouch, even for there).

Nine starters return on that side, and you have to believe three losing years is ample time for someone to have come up with at least one play that consistently works on fourth down. Maybe they should peek at some Florida film.

But no matter how much attention is given UNLV’s potential to move the ball over the next several months leading to the Rebels’ Aug. 30 opener, none of it will mean squat if they can’t stop anyone.

Today, I’m not sure they could stop themselves.

How could anyone be?

Sanford and his staff are certain they can and will limit others, but it’s spring — the only time football coaches are in a more positive and joyful mood is national signing day.

“We’ve made improvements (defensively),” Sanford said. “We’ve made a lot of progress.”

You couldn’t tell during Friday evening’s spring game, which made sense. April is not the time to play your hand before hundreds of eyes. It wouldn’t have benefited anyone for the Rebels to be anything more than vanilla five months before they hit for real.

No one was seriously injured all spring. Translation: It was a successful time.

When the team gathers again in early August, evaluations will be far more severe.

It’s not some magical formula UNLV hopes to create for a defense that last season allowed averages of 28.6 points, 183.6 rushing yards and 386.8 total yards per game. Be more aggressive. Scheme to get more bodies in the box. Confuse quarterbacks with different formations. It’s nothing that will keep opposing coordinators up at night, unless you prove good enough to execute it.

“Football is still about lining up and kicking the person’s tail across from you,” said coordinator Dennis Therrell, now the third man in Sanford’s tenure to get a chance at running UNLV’s defense. “It’s about a mind-set. I was amazed at how much we were able to throw at them and put in (this spring) before we had to stop, slow down and sort some of it out.”

The scary part: Five starters return on a defense that ranked seventh out of nine Mountain West Conference teams. The best player — linebacker Beau Bell — is gone. One of the more promising younger ones — defensive back Shane Horton — transferred to Southern California, probably as a package deal for the Trojans to sign Horton’s little brother, but it’s a major upgrade in every conceivable way for the elder one just the same.

Jeremy Geathers could have made an impact at defensive end for UNLV but decided to leave school early to make himself eligible for the NFL Draft, more than a little shocking for a guy whose name I remember hearing announced during games last season no more than five times.

It all makes for this: If the Rebels don’t find some way not to get run over time and again to the point of allowing BYU two third-quarter drives that amassed more than 12 minutes, they could find themselves in that unpleasant realm of having to outscore teams to win.

Problem. Big problem. UNLV averaged 18.2 points last season and six times was held to 14 or fewer. Just a guess, but it’s hard to imagine the Rebels suddenly being on the good side of any 42-35 game.

Or scoring 35, for that matter, given they haven’t managed that since the final game of the 2006 season.

“We were able to get a lot done this spring,” said senior defensive tackle Jacob Hales, the team’s best player over the last six weeks of practice. “We have to go out and play to win.”

They have to stop people. If not, Sanford could play quarterback and it wouldn’t matter.

Wonder if Berry still would call plays then.

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