Rebel seniors hope to go out in style

With their hopes of a winning season dashed long ago and a focus already being made on next year, one might wonder just what does UNLV's football team have to play for in Saturday's season finale against Colorado State at Sam Boyd Stadium?

Simple. The seniors.

Fourteen seniors will be wearing the scarlet and gray for the final time in their careers. And only four times in their four years at Rebel Park have those seniors won a football game on their home field.

And thanks to last Saturday's 37-7 drubbing by San Diego State, the Rebels (3-7, 1-5) will bring an 11-game home losing streak into this week's game with a Colorado State squad (7-3, 4-2) that still has visions of a conference title and a bowl game dancing in its heads.

"Personally, this game is real important to me," senior wide receiver Len Ware said. "This season is not the way I wanted my senior year to go, especially with my (knee) injury and stuff. Regardless of how we get it, it would be great to go out with a win this week."

"It'll be my last memory of playing football at UNLV," defensive tackle Rod Jones said. "It means a lot to me to come out and make some plays and have some fun. I want that last memory to be a good one."

"It would be great to see the seniors go out with a smile on their faces," added sophomore cornerback Kevin Thomas. "If we can win, this would be a game that they could look back on 10 years from now and feel really great about."

One senior, strong safety Quincy Sanders, said he isn't worried as much about winning as just playing well.

"A win would mean a lot, but I'd much rather see our team come together and play a complete game," Sanders said. "Before I leave here, that's something I'd like to be a part of. It would be something like the start of a new era."

Sanders isn't alone in that regard.

"It's a very important game, not just the seniors, but for everyone," junior linebacker Randy Black said. "We've put so much time in to try and turn things around here. The hardest part about it is that nobody has really seen us play a complete game. We played great in the first half at Wyoming, but then fell apart for a while in the second. We've never really played a full 60 minutes. And this is our last chance."

So the Rebels, especially the seniors, will have something to play for Saturday afternoon.

"We're going to come out hard and hopefully get a win," running back Jeremi Rudolph said. "It would be nice to see the seniors walk out with their heads up."

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