Cowboys, Rebels have shared similar struggles

UNLV head coach Marcus Arroyo estimated that the team had just 49 eligible players last week due to positive tests and contact tracing, but that the number of positive tests was now down to just three, according to ESPN Las Vegas’ Tyler Bischoff.

“The unfortunate part about this year is the fact that these kind of things have been, they’ve happened so much to these guys,” Arroyo said during his weekly appearance on the Rebzone Sports Show. “I think you’ve almost built unfortunate resiliency to be kind of good, bad or indifferent, I think, to be ready to pivot.”

UW and UNLV had their most recent games canceled on the same day: Wednesday, Nov. 18. While the Rebels were slated to play on Nov. 21, UW found out about its game 30 hours or so before kickoff was set to take place that Thursday.

Both teams faced similar frustrations: putting all of your preparation into an opponent, only to have the rug pulled out from under your feet. It’s one thing when a game gets canceled on a Sunday before preparation has truly started. In the middle of the week, though? That’s brutal.

The Cowboys and Rebels both lost their last games, too: UW lost its first Border War since 2015 on Nov. 5 in a 34-24 defeat at Colorado State, and winless UNLV fell victim most recently in a 17-point loss at San Jose State on Nov. 14.

UW was openly looking forward to its matchups with Air Force and Utah; each was set to be a potential palate cleanser before it was ultimately called off.

Arroyo’s squad was right in the middle of preparing for the Rams when their first game of the year was called off last week. Under the first-year head coach, who most recently served as Oregon’s offensive coordinator and served in the same capacity at UW from 2009-10, the Rebels are desperate to get on track.

“It’s been pretty frustrating. Not gonna lie,” UW redshirt freshman offensive lineman Latrell Bible said. “We prepare so hard, and we work so hard to try to, you know, get that bad taste out of our mouth from the CSU game. And so, to come so close to playing a game and then not play it is kind of frustrating.”

UNLV is being outscored by nearly 20 points per game this season. The offense is averaging a touchdown less per game than it did a year ago, and is surrendering 36.2 points per game this season, which ranks 102nd in college football. No one wants to get back on the field more than Arroyo and his players.

But much in the same way as UW head coach Craig Bohl has handled the pandemic and all of the distractions around getting his team back on the field and playing to their potential, Arroyo’s players and staff have said and done all the right things. UNLV took the hit in stride.

There isn’t really anything he or his staff can do about it. The only thing you can do is move forward. A positive outlook on things makes the whole situation a bit easier to swallow.

“You put in a lot of work to get prepared for an opponent, and you’re obviously disappointed to not have that opportunity,” Arroyo said. “There’s just no substitute for experience and time and maturity and play on the field. And so there’s nothing you can do about it. You can cry and cry about it all you want … We’re just not into that. Our culture is not into that, the way we teach and think isn’t into that.”

Bohl and Arroyo have both shared similar sentiments on the importance of creating a sort of bubble for players during the middle of the season so as to protect players from contracting the virus. It is on the players to keep out of harm’s way; one wrong move by a teammate or staff member could spell doom for the rest of the team.

The Cowboys have talked about individual accountability since the summer, and, for the most part, it has paid off, as UW has largely avoided COVID-19 complications.

“We’re getting tested three times a week, and I think they all understand, you know, we’re having outbreaks of COVID in Laramie and around the state, so they really need to be proactive and make sure that they protect themselves and our team,” Bohl said. “This stuff is really contagious. And so our guys, I think, have really done a good job.”

Arroyo shared a similar feeling and also disclosed the importance of checking in on his players to make sure their mental well-being is doing as well as their physical fitness.

The last few months have been tough on everyone, and sometimes even he forgets that he’s dealing with young men undergoing something truly life altering.

“Sometimes we lose perspective,” Arroyo said. “There’s some morale issues there that you have to attend to. And I think that’s a really important piece of it. We don’t skip over those at all. And that is an interesting piece of their life they’re living right now. We’re very attentive to it and empathetic, so we’re trying to do everything we can to make sure those guys know that we’re there.”