Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Rebels’ bowl dreams vanish with loss at Colorado State

UNLV falls at CSU 2019

David Zalubowski / Associated Press

UNLV defensive back Evan Austrie joins teammates on the bench watching the clock as time winds down in the second half of an NCAA college football game against Colorado State, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019, in Fort Collins, Colo. Colorado State won 37-17.

UNLV coach Tony Sanchez spent the week leading up to Saturday’s game at Colorado State telling his team that they couldn’t afford another slow start, like when they fell behind 17-0 against San Diego State last week. He was adamant about it.

Fourteen seconds in, the Rebels trailed by a touchdown.

Colorado State return man Anthony Hawkins took the opening kickoff back 99 yards, untouched by any UNLV defender, to give CSU a 7-0 lead with 14:46 left in the first quarter.

The next 59-plus minutes didn’t go much better for UNLV, and when it was over it was really over, with Colorado State notching a blowout 37-17 win.

The loss dropped UNLV to 2-7 on the season, officially eliminating the team from bowl eligibility.

“Obviously disappointed,” Sanchez said. “Terrible way to start off the game, with a kick return for a touchdown.”

At least the Rebels got it over with quickly. After allowing the kick-return touchdown to start the game, the UNLV offense did little to respond, punting on its first four possessions while CSU ran out to a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Rebels found themselves in a 24-0 hole toward the end of the first half before finally gaining traction behind freshman quarterback Kenyon Oblad, but even the team’s best drive of the half ended in disaster.

UNLV took over at its own 11-yard line with 1:07 to play, and Oblad drove the Rebels 56 yards in nine plays to get them in scoring position. Facing a fourth-and-10 from the CSU 33 with 0:07 remaining, Sanchez called the team’s lone remaining timeout to set up a play, even though the clock was already stopped due to an incomplete pass on third down.

The play worked, as Oblad hit tight end Giovanni Fauolo on a deep crossing route, but the lack of timeouts came back to haunt the Rebels. Fauolo was tackled inbounds at the Colorado State 2-yard line as time expired.

Oblad pointed to the end of that 2-minute drill as the Rebels’ biggest missed opportunity.

“That one was probably the one that hurt the most throughout the game,” Oblad said, “because we wanted to get points on the board right there. That would have helped us a lot going into halftime, and to come up that short is brutal.”

UNLV then received the opening kick of the second half and drove to the CSU 11 before stalling out. Daniel Gutierrez connected on a 37-yard field goal to get the Rebels on the board, but it wasn’t nearly enough to get them back in the game.

Sanchez believed his team competed with Colorado State, but said the Rebels didn’t make enough plays when it mattered—especially on the two drives spanning halftime.

“[Colorado State] didn’t have a ton of yardage offensively in the first half, but we gave up a lot of third downs, a lot of big plays, really short fields,” he said. “Two drives before the end of the half, you’ve got to put more than three points on the board.”

Oblad threw a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown passes to pad his stat line. For the game, he completed 22-of-39 for 280 yards with two TDs and no interceptions.

Colorado State got a star performance from junior Warren Jackson, as the 6-foot-6 receiver toyed with Rebels defensive backs all day and finished with six catches—several of them spectacular—for 133 yards.

With the team’s stated goal of a bowl game no longer in play, the Rebels will have to summon some internal motivation for the three remaining games on the schedule.

Sanchez said he expects his players to maintain their approach through the finish line, despite the losing record.

“At the end of the day it is our job to go back to work, it’s our job to coach, it’s our job to mentor,” Sanchez said. “It’s their job to show up with good attitudes and keep working hard. Unfortunately, life hits you in the face sometimes. But you don’t turn around and run the other way, you run right back after it.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

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