Rebels pointing fingers after ugly defeat

Anyone who has watched UNLV's first two football games this season can tell you that two major components the Rebels are lacking are defense and leadership.

Enter senior cornerback Mark Hays, who may provide both.

Hays, a 5-10, 190-pounder who started 11 games for the Rebels last year and won recognition for college football's 1997 Hit of the Year with his blast on Hawaii running back Charles Tharp, missed UNLV's first two games because of family problems that he says needed his attention in Atlanta.

But he was on the sidelines for the Rebels' ugly 52-10 loss to Air Force Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium and returned to practice Sunday at Rebel Park.

Hays is expected to add a much-needed boost to a Rebels defense that has yielded 93 points in its first two games and seemed to lack ... well, let Hays pick it up from there.

"From what I saw (Saturday) night, it was a matter of heart," Hays said. "When you play on a football team, you're part of a big family. And when a family hits hard times, it needs to stick together. (Saturday) night we didn't stick together.

"What I saw on the sidelines was a lot of people pointing their fingers at other people when something went wrong. We can't do that. We've got to pick each other up instead of putting each other down. That's something I'm not going to talk about doing. Instead, I'm going to just go out and do it."

Hays, who also watched UNLV's season-opening 41-7 loss at Northwestern on TV, said it has been tough being on the sidelines the past two weeks.

"There's been a lot of pain and disappointment because I couldn't be out there to help," he said. "But family comes before football. And I had some things to attend to with my family."

Hays wouldn't elaborate further on the family problems. However, he said he has been working out regularly and hopes to be able to play Saturday at Wisconsin.

UNLV coach Jeff Horton wasn't sure how much action -- if any -- Hays would see this week.

"That remains to be seen," Horton said. "I think he's got an uphill battle because he has got to get into shape first. He's been away a long time. I'm not sure whether he'll play at Wisconsin this week."

Surgery for Sanders

Before Saturday's loss to Air Force, it was announced that starting free safety Quincy Sanders will undergo surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee this week and will miss the remainder of the season.

Sanders, who has started 26 games over the past four seasons, has a medical redshirt year available and said he would return next season for a fifth year with the Rebels. He had 13 tackles in the season-opening loss at Northwestern.

Because Sanders hadn't played in 20 percent of his team's games this year, he still is eligible for a medical redshirt year.

"I popped it in fall camp," Sanders said. "But up until last week I was able to run and play with it. I got into a practice last week and I made a wrong move and it started feeling even worse.

"I decided that instead of hurting the team in the long run that maybe I should step aside and let somebody else play. I think it was the best thing for both of us."

How did Sanders suffer the injury?

"I just made a move and my foot kind of got stuck in the ground," he said. "Everything went left except my leg. It just popped."

An MRI on the Monday before the Northwestern game revealed the torn ligament.

Senior Anthony Brown, a Chaparral High product, replaced Sanders in the starting lineup and had a team-high 12 tackles.

More injuries

Horton said that backup linebacker Bret Gilbert of Cimarron-Memorial High could miss this week's game at Wisconsin because of a bad ankle sprain and that star wide receiver Damon Williams is questionable with a deep thigh bruise.

Williams caught three passes for 32 yards in Saturday night's loss to Air Force, extending his school record streak of catching a pass in a game to 36.

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