Records don’t matter: Rivarly week is here

By: Juan López

Monday, September 28, 2009 - 11:36 PM

Nevada could lose all of its games this season, but beating the University of Nevada, Las Vegas would make it a good year. The Wolf Pack could get smashed by 50 points every game, but beating the Rebels by one point would make it a good season. Nevada could — you see where I’m going with this.

Saturday’s matchup between Nevada and UNLV is for all of the state’s marbles. As soon as the final horn sounded in the Wolf Pack’s 31-21 loss last week to No. 21 Missouri, Nevada’s focus shifted to UNLV.

The Wolf Pack’s players are very adamant about not losing the Fremont Cannon, but willpower will be just one of the factors in this hatred-filled civil war.

ROLE REVERSAL

Prior to the college football season, Nevada was picked to finish second in the Western Athletic Conference. The team was often seen on ESPN and proclaimed to be a possible Bowl Championship Series buster.

Fast-forward four weeks and the Wolf Pack is 0-3 with no talks of a bowl game, much less a BCS game.

As for the Rebels, they were picked to finish fifth in the Mountain West Conference. Expectations were low for the team, which had gone 11-36 in its previous four years under head coach Mike Sanford.

Well, through four games, UNLV is 2-2 and could very easily have been undefeated (its two losses have come by a combined five points).

The quality of football has done a complete 180 and the higher quality now resides in Sin City. So much for preseason predictions.

START OF A NEW STREAK?

When the cannon leaves, it doesn’t come back for a long time.

In the UNR-UNLV series, which goes back 34 games, only five times has a team won the game to start a streak and then lost the next meeting.

During the past two decades, the elongated winning streaks have been the trademark of this series. From 1989-93 and from 1995-99, the Wolf Pack kept the cannon. From 2000-04, the cannon was red. And since 2005, the cannon has been blue.

Needless to say, there is a very good chance the Rebels will come into Mackay Stadium and walk out with a victory. If UNLV wins this game, history shows that we won’t see our darling cannon for a long time.

MORE THAN JUST A GAME

The Wolf Pack played Notre Dame earlier this season. The Irish are one of the most storied college football programs in the nation. UNLV took on a Pac-10 foe, Oregon State, earlier in the year.

Yet, no matter who else each team plays throughout the year, this game is always the biggest of the season.

There’s much more that makes this rivalry one of the top in the country. For one, the schools are the only two universities in the seventh-largest state in the U.S.

Secondly, a lot of the students who attend each school have friends at the other school, making the football game personal. There’s year-long bragging rights at stake here.

Finally, there is a genuine hatred between the schools. Not a hatred which would result in major crimes (hopefully), but a hatred which pulls for the other team’s quarterback to roll his ankle during pregame warm-ups.

When it comes to rivalries, little compares to wishing injury on your opponents, but that’s what makes Nevada vs. UNLV so special.

Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com.