The University of Nevada at Las Vegas has been a football underachiever for its entire existence. The Rebels have never been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, even for a single week. Their most successful team went 11–2 in 1984, but all 11 wins were vacated as part of NCAA sanctions for using ineligible players. National Football Foundation Hall of Famer and future NFL star Randall Cunningham came and went, and barely anyone noticed.
The school was a men’s basketball super power for a time, winning a national championship and playing in four Final Fours. Its peers out West like Utah, BYU and Boise State have had extended stretches of gridiron glory—even Nevada, Air Force and Colorado State all have fielded top-10 teams. Yet, UNLV football has been persistently irrelevant. To put it in locally familiar terms, it’s been nothing but snake eyes for these guys.
