Youth figures to give Rebels higher ceiling

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo.

Mike Sanford is a coach, which means he obsessively searches for different forms of motivation like a chef does his next original entree or a comedian his next joke or Leonardo DiCaprio his next supermodel.

This week, with the nonconference portion of his UNLV football team’s schedule expired, Sanford conveyed to his players a leadership philosophy of author John C. Maxwell.

It’s called the Law of the Lid and symbolizes one’s leadership capabilities. Thinking is, hard work and proficient organization can advance you only so far. The key is to raise your overall expectations of success. To raise the lid.

UNLV continues that pursuit tonight with a young roster having played to a predictably inconsistent level. If the lid is to be raised, most of the heavy hoisting will be done by a two-deep that includes 10 freshmen and sophomores.

The Rebels weren’t near focused or efficient enough to beat UNR last week and now return to Mountain West Conference play against an Air Force team also coming off a rivalry loss but one that has beaten UNLV in four of the past five meetings.

UNLV is a typical program in a head coach’s third year — not yet proven good enough to contend for a league title and yet noticeably more competitive with players recruited to execute his system.

That usually means young, which demands teaching them how best to handle the inevitable weekly swings of emotion, of not getting too high after shutting out Utah at home or too low after falling at UNR in the final seconds.

“That’s a challenge for a mature team,” Sanford said. “It’s even hard for NFL guys to respond after a big win or emotional, tough loss. But all of that is even magnified when you have young players. It’s a whole process of getting them to think big and not small.

“What ends up happening is a young guy says, ‘I’m just trying to play college football.’ It’s getting them to take that next step, to not just worrying about playing and playing well but playing to win. We have seven games left, and I have in my mind raised the expectations for this team compared to how I felt going into the season.”

He might not have counted on playing so many underclassmen, but injuries and individual development has made it so. Travis Dixon is a redshirt freshman quarterback starting as much for the fall camp knee injury to Rocky Hinds as anything. Shane Horton is a true freshman safety whose ability has earned equal to more time than senior Tony Cade.

But with young skills come costly errors. Horton played well in a close loss to Wisconsin and also started against Hawaii. But he was out of sorts all day at UNR, blowing a first-quarter coverage that resulted in a 90-yard touchdown pass and never fully recovered thereafter.

Still, playing it safe when scribbling names on a depth chart shouldn’t be part of Sanford’s mind-set as he tries to build a competitive program. He should err on the side of youth now to potentially reap the benefits later.

It will mean some incredibly obvious mistakes — you know, like giving up 90-yard passes — but it’s the only way UNLV has any chance to exist among the league’s upper tier a season or two from now.

“Some younger guys, not all of them, have come into the program and just played better than those who were already here,” Sanford said. “The older guy might know what to do better or make fewer mistakes, but the younger guy with more ability is going to play better (long-term). He’s going to do more things.”

Being young is no excuse for the lack of concentration UNLV showed at critical times against UNR. Sanford is correct to play the underclassmen, but he must at least demand they pay enough attention to things like formations and coverages so that they have a fighting chance in a conference that right now wouldn’t scare your local Pop Warner squad.

The Mountain West is an average league at best this season. There is no unconquerable force, meaning there’s no reason the Rebels for the first time in years can’t reach Halloween and still be preparing for meaningful games.

All they need to do is raise that lid.

“I know some people might think I’m drinking the Kool-Aid,” Sanford said, “but I and our team believe we can (contend).”

I like that he’s playing so many underclassmen and believe UNLV will profit from it in coming seasons.

As for contending this year, one question: Is the flavor grape or cherry?

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