The key for UNLV football will be how it answers loss to USC

You need to remember this was always part of the story for UNLV football in 2018, that no matter how inspired and improved the Rebels were in opening the season at Southern California, departing the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with anything but a loss would have been an upset along the lines of the Raiders ever trading Khalil Mack.

Or, you know, some other big upset …

That the Rebels dropped a 43-21 decision to the Trojans on Saturday before an announced gathering of 58,708 isn’t nearly the most important chapter early in Tony Sanchez’s fourth year as UNLV coach, and yet it’s true his team was inspired and improved and, hold on to your scarlet and gray hats, actually tackled with some conviction and authority.

The most important chapter is against Texas-El Paso on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium.

A team that went 0-12 last year and opened this season with a 30-10 home loss to FCS member Northern Arizona.

The next most important chapter is the following week against Prairie View A&M, and so on when facing opponents that UNLV will be expected to beat.

This is the next step the Rebels need to take, the next phase of maturation in a program starving for relevancy.

It’s not about holding your own for much of the day against a side such as the 15th-ranked Trojans. It’s about how you answer it.

“The biggest thing for a lot of teams is you go and prepare and play your guts out against a really good team like (USC) and then hope you haven’t wasted so much energy that it’s hard to get yourself back up,” Sanchez said. “When you look at the history of UNLV, losing games (it is supposed to win) has been a huge, huge issue.

“It was an issue (against Howard) last year and teams like Southern Utah before that. But if we just come with the same mindset and energy like we did here, there’s not a remaining team on our schedule that we won’t have an opportunity to beat.”

Things remain relative with UNLV, at least until it can produce a winning season and then another and some semblance of a consistent competitive nature.

Like the one seen for much of Saturday.

In this way, it didn’t feel like a 22-point loss, nor did the Rebels appear overmatched physically or athletically.

USC had more of both, but not to the level you would assume.

It’s a tough sell, and a highly disingenuous one, to suggest the defense was any good when the other guys generate 43 points and 501 yards.

Those aren’t good numbers to surrender, like ever.

But within them existed these truths: UNLV did tackle better than recent seasons. It applied pressure against USC’s front. It made athletic plays on balls.

It all began to leak in the third quarter, given the Trojans obviously figured some things out at halftime about an opposing defensive coordinator (Tim Skipper) coaching his first game at UNLV, and the better team extended its margin.

But for 30 minutes, the Rebels defended as if they expected to be much better on that side. That’s huge.

It’s not that UNLV is just a handful of players away from winning such a game, from making a specific set of plays it needed to but didn’t in order to really have chance.

It’s still more than that.

But from where UNLV operates, a Mountain West Conference team trying to reach a bowl game for just the third time in 24 years, the Rebels showed more than enough to suggest continued progress is being made.

Which brings us back to that most important chapter: The not-so-mighty Miners of UTEP come Saturday night.

“The biggest challenge is going to be the leadership from the locker room,” Sanchez said. “We’re going to message it right, but our guys have to believe in the process and come with the same energy and same enthusiasm and same desire to want to get better at the details. I believe they will.

“I have no worry they’re going to show up and be ready to go. I saw how they worked in the past and the summer and throughout camp. We’re not doing anything special — just stick to the process, stick to what we’re doing and continue to grow.”

Look, the Rebels were always going to lose to USC. That part of the story wasn’t changing. But maybe a more important one will.

Beat the folks you’re supposed to beat. Do that, and the book has a much better ending than previous versions.

More Rebels: Follow all of our UNLV coverage online at reviewjournal.com/Rebels and @RJ_Sports on Twitter.

Contact columnist Ed Graney at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.