Better late than never.
After going a surprising 4-1 in non-conference action, the UNLV Rebels finally turn their attention to Mountain West Conference play Saturday when they travel to Air Force (5-1, 2-0).
The Rebels are the last MWC team to begin conference play. By comparison, BYU has already played four of its seven MWC games while the Falcons will being playing their third conference contest.
"We're ready for conference play," UNLV safety Jamaal Brimmer said. "I think our non-conference record shows that we are ready. This season we're going to go out and try and win the conference. That's our main focus. But we've got to take it one game at a time."
The Rebels finished a disappointing 3-4 in MWC action in 2002 en route to an overall mark of 5-7. Included among those losses was a 49-32 setback to the Chance Harridge-led Falcons at Sam Boyd Stadium.
Air Force has 17 starters back from that 8-5 team including Harridge, who set an NCAA single-season quarterback record with 22 rushing touchdowns a year ago.
"He's probably as good an all-around (option) quarterback as I've seen," UNLV coach John Robinson said. "He can pass and he's a physical guy."
"He's really tough to defend because now they're throwing the ball more," Brimmer, who leads the MWC with three interceptions, said. "It makes it harder to try and key on him and where he's going to run."
Brimmer, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound junior, should know. He was an option quarterback himself at Durango High School and also performed Air Force scout team quarterback duties in 2000 when he redshirted at UNLV.
"It helps a little bit having done that," Brimmer said. "But I'm just one person on the defense. All 11 of us out there have to do our assignments for it to work."
The Rebels had a pretty fair scout team to simulate the Air Force option this week.
Wide receiver Terry Furlow, who transferred to UNLV as a quarterback from Fresno State and is a former high school high hurdles champion, took on the role of Harridge. Among the running backs who worked on the scout team were Ohio State transfer Ja Ja Riley and Alvin Marshall, considered one of the top junior college running backs in the nation a year ago at Compton (Calif.) College.
"The speed of which (Air Force) runs the option is the hardest thing to simulate in practice," Robinson said. "It can take you a little time to catch up to it in a game. And it sometimes is difficult just how fast they are by watching film. I think you almost need to see them in person to get a real good idea of that.
"This is the most veteran Air Force team we've played. I think they're capable of one of those perfect (option) games. Veteran teams can do that. Obviously they had a bad game last weekend. I'm sure they'll be trying to change that."
The Falcons were upset by Navy, 28-25, last week in Landover, Md. That defeat more than likely ended Air Force's hope of winning the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, long called the program's top goal by head coach Fisher DeBerry, for a seventh consecutive year.
DeBerry said his team will be able to put that loss behind them this week.
"Sure, they were disappointed because we haven't lost to that team but three times in 22 years," DeBerry said. "You just don't like to be the person on that team to say, 'Well, I was on a team that lost to the Naval Academy.' All they're thinking about right now is UNLV, and they'd better be thinking about 'em because they're such a very talented football team."
"This is difficult, but it's not the end of the world," Harridge told the Denver Post after the Navy loss. "This game is over with. We got beat by a better team. We're 2-0 in the conference, and there still are things we can do with our season. We can't worry about spilled milk. You have to dry it up and move on. We're going to find out what kind of team we really are."
Added linebacker Trevor Hightower: "The only way you can right a wrong like (the Navy loss) is to play your best game, and that's what we have to do against UNLV."
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