UNLV Rebels vs Southern Utah Thunderbirds Football Recap

Southern Utah 41, UNLV 16

If “whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” then the UNLV Rebels are in for not just a very tough year, but a very tough decade.

A program mired in misery had just begun to show signs of life and give at least a few indications that it could climb upward in the Mountain West Conference. However, one really impressive performance in week three of the college football season did not carry over into week four.

Indeed, one week after drilling a talented Hawaii team and lifting hopes throughout the program, the Rebels – either distracted or returned to their normal selves (take your pick) – produced a first-degree face-plant by getting bombed at home. Moreover, the Rebels suffered a blowout defeat at the hands of an opponent from the Football Championship Subdivision.

Perhaps the rest of us should have been clued in to how UNLV felt about its FCS opponent, Southern Utah, when it ran a fake field goal for a touchdown just five minutes into the game. It was UNLV’s only touchdown of the game until the Rebels picked up a garbage-time score with 25 seconds left, as Southern Utah routed UNLV by 25 points on a late Vegas Saturday night that completely undid the good things achieved in the win over Hawaii... and then some.

In UNLV’s trickery, former-backup-quarterback-turned-safety Mike Clausen, also the Rebels’ place holder, stood up with the field-goal snap and hit Austin Harrington for a 23-yard score. That was pretty much the only memory worth keeping from this supreme stink-bomb. This was a mistake-filled game for UNLV, to say the very least; the Rebels turned the ball over five times in the loss. Caleb Herring made a truckload of mistakes on Saturday, one of them being an interception to Southern Utah’s Nick Witzmann, who returned the pigskin 35 yards for a touchdown—a sight Rebel fans would get used to Saturday.

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With the game tied 10-10 at halftime, Herring started the second half by throwing another interception; this time returned 22 yards by Southern Utah’s Blake Fenn for another touchdown. It wasn’t all turnovers that gave Southern Utah command of the game, but two pick-sixes naturally gave the visitors the kick start they needed. The Thunderbirds put together two scoring drives in the second half. Quarterback Brad Sorensen hit Austin Minefee for a 55-yard pass that would set up Minefee for a 6-yard touchdown run for a 24-10 lead. The Thunderbirds capped a 55-yard drive early in the fourth quarter with a 40-yard field goal. Then, to add to UNLV’s embarrassment, Erron Vonner returned yet another Herring interception 74 yards for a touchdown to cap Southern Utah’s scoring.

Herring did end the night with a stat line that might first seem okay: 23-of-41 for 223 yards and four touchdowns. However, there’s just this one little problem: Three of those touchdowns went on the board for the other team. UNLV will use a bye week to regroup before facing rival Nevada on the road in two weeks.

The Rebels need that bye week more than anyone can possibly imagine.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer