MONEY FOR THE BENGALS

The Rebels paid the Bengals $325,000 to play them Saturday in Las Vegas. Idaho State was scheduled to travel to BYU this season, but the Cougars wanted to add a neutral-site game with Missouri on Nov. 14 in Kansas City, Missouri — the same date BYU was going to take on UNLV.

BYU, Missouri, UNLV and Idaho State worked out a deal where ISU took on the Rebels to fill their vacated dates with the Cougars. Idaho State’s contract with BYU called for a $420,000 payment. The Cougars agreed to pay the difference of what UNLV would offer, and BYU and Missouri forked over the money for Idaho State’s charter flight to Las Vegas.

SORENSEN NAMED SEMI-FINALIST FOR CAMPBELL TROPHY

Idaho State senior safety Cody Sorensen was named a semi-finalist for the Campbell Trophy on Thursday.

Sorensen, who had 10 tackles against UNLV, is one of 135 players named to the semis. Fifteen finalists will be announced on Oct. 29 and each will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship.

FINNEY MOVING UP THE ALL-TIME RANKS

ISU senior running back Xavier Finney is No. 2 all time at Idaho State for career rushing attempts. Finley’s 15 carries against the Rebels vaulted him ahead of Merril Hoge with 597 rushing attempts. Josh Barnett is at the No. 1 spot after he carried the ball 677 times from 2004-07.

BACK AS A WALK-ON

Redshirt sophomore receiver Cole Robinson rejoined Idaho State on Monday. The Bengals coaching staff cut Robinson after last spring, but the 6-foot-4, 205-pound wideout was brought back as a walk-on.

The depth could be needed. Junior starting receiver Broc Malcom missed the UNLV game with an undisclosed injury. After the game, Bengals coach Mike Kramer said, “I didn’t protect my own players against my own players on Wednesday — i.e. Broc Malcom.”

UNLV postgame quotes courtesy of UNLV athletics

UNLV head coach Tony Sanchez Opening Statement…

Exciting night. It’s funny some assistant coaches stopped me before the game tonight ‘we’re gonna win a lot of games.’ It was important to get a win for our seniors. They have worked extremely hard. They have done a great job of buying in. There’s no one I’m more happy for than Tina and all our players. So it’s good tonight, but we have a long season ahead of us, and our focus on Reno.

On improving from previous games…

You know what I think it was a good night I think we played three really tough teams in a row. I think we had our moments in all of those games. I think we had our moments in those games and played we well in those games. Obviously we didn’t come away with victories but it helped us grow. It feels good to get a win, but tomorrow we are going back to work. We have a lot of things to fix and things to get better at.

On the players finishing the game…

The biggest thing you’re going to see is that our players are starting to understand, and I thought it was evident tonight, and the score has nothing to do with it, but when you look at the body of what we’ve come away with over the four weeks: not a lot of penalties, not a lot of personal problems, not a lot of big plays given up. We’ve played some good football and have gotten beaten by some good football teams and tonight we had superior players and we played well. We did what we were supposed to and I think that’s a big thing going into this week. This is a week that we’ve struggled with for a long time, here at UNLV, and we did what we were supposed to. And obviously the scores not really indicative of the type of team that we are, some things went wrong, we’ve had some good special teams break early and some defensive touch downs.

They’re a good team, they’ll bounce back.

On how much fun is it when you look at the sidelines and get to see them enjoy this…

I hope everyone noticed tonight that that even when we were up 35-0, we didn’t act like it. We were focused, we were dialed in. I kept going around telling them ‘don’t smile, there is nothing to smile about.’ And I think that’s that whole blue collar mentality that we are trying to create here, ‘don’t look up, I don’t care how much you’re up by, down by, you play till the end.

On the running game….

We challenged our o-line and our backs this week. Going into this game we had not had a rushing touchdown by a running back, and that kind of irks you a bit. So we challenged them a bit, and motivated them a couple different ways. And I think they did a good job executing it, it was good.

On the defense having 4 interceptions…

We’ve been talking about the defense all year and how well they have played. Some of those games where we’ve struggled, I think our defense has kept us in the game. You go back to Game 1: they played well and did some good things. Game 2: it was almost a 10 point game at half against UCLA. And at Michigan they did a great job. They’ve done a great job. Coach Baer is a darn good defensive coordinator. The things that you are seeing is that we’re creating turnovers, we are playing better in the red zone, and we are not giving up good plays. When you do those things, you are going to have an opportunity to win games.

Cornerback Tim Hough

On being a hometown guy, and making a statement in his home turf…

Every chance we get, we show our best on the field, and I think that tonight, we happened to show it big time.

BOX SCORE

UNLV 80, IDAHO STATE 8

Idaho State 0 8 0 0— 8

UNLV 35 17 21 7—80

First Quarter

UNLV_Whitely 24 pass from Decker (Bornand kick), 14:09.

UNLV_Decker 12 run (Bornand kick), 5:54.

UNLV_Thomas 40 run (Bornand kick), 5:33.

UNLV_Whitely 2 run (Bornand kick), 1:45.

UNLV_Campbell 21 run (Bornand kick), :44.

Second Quarter

IdSt_Hatchett 25 pass from Sanders (Hatchett pass from Sanders), 14:13.

UNLV_Boyd 4 pass from Palandech (Bornand kick), 8:39.

UNLV_Criswell 36 pass from Decker (Bornand kick), 3:49.

UNLV_FG Bornand 30, :00.

Third Quarter

UNLV_Phillips 6 pass from Palandech (Bornand kick), 12:01.

UNLV_Campbell 53 run (Bornand kick), 6:45.

UNLV_Hawthorne 47 interception return (Bornand kick), 2:59.

Fourth Quarter

UNLV_Naufahu 2 run (Bornand kick), 2:51.

A_16,717.

IdSt UNLV

First downs 20 25

Rushes-yards 30-91 54-517

Passing 201 109

Comp-Att-Int 20-46-4 10-15-0

Return Yards 0 95

Punts-Avg. 7-27.4 2-41.5

Fumbles-Lost 4-2 1-0

Penalties-Yards 3-15 10-95

Time of Possession 27:37 32:23

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Idaho St., Finney 15-59, Woodhouse 5-21, Ford 8-21,

Sanders 1-(minus 4), Gueller 1-(minus 6). UNLV, Campbell 9-139,

Thomas 7-106, Whitely 12-95, Naufahu 9-76, Greene 8-62, Decker 6-31,

Palandech 2-8, Wily 1-0.

PASSING — Idaho St., Sanders 14-33-3-164, Gueller 6-13-1-37. UNLV,

Decker 7-11-0-99, Palandech 3-4-0-10.

RECEIVING — Idaho St., Mangum 8-97, Hatchett 2-29, K.Williams 2-23,

Cook 2-14, Wright 2-11, Ford 1-12, Pilster 1-9, White 1-7,

Finney 1-(minus 1). UNLV, Kend.Keys 3-30, Price 2-10, Criswell 1-36,

Whitely 1-24, Phillips 1-6, Boyd 1-4, Campbell 1-(minus 1).