Graney: UNLV football saves worst for last in Frisco Bowl loss

FRISCO, Texas — They talked about it all football season. Players. Coaches. Anyone and everyone close to UNLV’s program.

The Rebels wanted more than anything to be a better team in the end than the beginning.

They wanted to be playing their best at this time of year. To finish strong.

Turns out, they saved some of their worst for it.

UNLV lost to Ohio 17-10 in the Frisco Bowl at the Ford Center at The Star on Tuesday night, meaning there would be no consecutive 11-win seasons for the Rebels. No high note of which to attack the offseason.

Fact: If a 38-31 win against Idaho State to open things in Week Zero was UNLV’s poorest game of the season based on level of competition, this was by far the next most deflating of results.

If styles make fights, they can also decide who wins a football game.

Ohio (9-4) dictated the pace and tempo and pretty much everything else in this one.

The Bobcats do methodical well. The Rebels don’t.

New faces

“I didn’t do a good enough job preparing us for this game,” UNLV coach Dan Mullen said. “Our goal was to come out fast. It’s on me and the preparation. I have to have everybody clicking and bring everyone along to get us rolling. I thought our attitude was really good coming in.

“The benefit is we have a group of guys coming back. Jan. 1 is going to be Day 1 for a lot of new faces. But it won’t be Day 1 for a program. Hopefully that accelerates us to a point where we’re better next year. But there’s nothing fun about not winning.”

There was nothing fun about watching UNLV try and change the narrative throughout. It happened so that in this, the third consecutive bowl game for UNLV, its high-scoring and explosive offense didn’t show up.

The team that over its first 13 games averaged nearly 36 points and 460 yards couldn’t do much of anything. And when it did, when it played well enough to reach the red zone, a turnover or dropped pass or penalty would push the Rebels back.

UNLV was just all out of sorts from the beginning. The Rebels didn’t hold up particularly well up front. They couldn’t stop Ohio from, well, being Ohio. From running the ball and controlling the clock and not allowing the Rebels the number of plays from which they have become accustomed.

The thing is, this one was sloppy from the outset.

It was as if players on both sides of the field had sat around drinking Scooter’s coffee all day.

Jacked up and not very capable.

The Rebels just kept making mistake after mistake. It was hardly them playing their best in the final game of a season.

It looked more like a fall scrimmage.

Taking blame

“It starts with me,” junior quarterback Anthony Colandrea said. “When your quarterback doesn’t play well, you have no shot at winning a bowl game. It was on me. I played badly the whole game.

“I’m excited about (next season). I trust coach Mullen to bring the right guys in here and get this thing going again.”

So now it’s about the future. About moving on from this 10-win season. About the recruiting and the transfer portal and who’s coming and who’s going and what changes there might be made across a coaching staff. Now it’s about what every team nationally faces.

“Our goal was to win the Mountain West championship and we came up a little short (against Boise State),” Mullen said. “But to become a championship program you have to focus on the attention to detail every single day of getting better.

“I know how to get us there. We know how to build championship teams. We have coaches who have won a lot of championships. It’s easy to say and hard to do. But they came to work and continued to work every day. They blocked out all distractions. They got better.”

They just didn’t show it in the end.

They didn’t finish as players and coaches talked about all season.

Didn’t come close really.