July 21, 2009

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV football team was picked to finish fifth in the league's official preseason poll, which was released Tuesday at the Mountain West Conference Media Days being held at Green Valley Ranch Resort.

The Rebels received 108 points, which was one more than Colorado State. The projection is the highest for UNLV since tying with BYU for fifth place before the 2004 season. Since the league was formed in 1999, the only other times UNLV was picked as high as fifth was in 2001 when the defending Las Vegas Bowl champions were voted second and in 2002 when the Rebs were projected fourth.

UNLV had been picked for last place both of the previous two seasons but showed significant progress a year ago by posting a 5-7 overall record, good for a sixth-place finish.

The annual poll is conducted by the conference with select members of the media from all nine MWC cities taking part. TCU is the top choice in 2009, earning 15 first-place votes and 207 points overall. BYU is second with six first-place votes and Utah is third with the other three first-place nods. Air Force is fourth, followed by UNLV, CSU, New Mexico, San Diego State and Wyoming.

"It's encouraging that the media views us as a program that is making progress," said UNLV head coach Mike Sanford. "However, all that ultimately matters is what you do on the field and we have high expectations for this team. We can't wait for the 2009 season."

2009 MWC FOOTBALL PRESEASON POLL

1. TCU (15)        2072. BYU (6)         1903. Utah (3)        1794. Air Force       1305. UNLV            1086. Colorado St.    1077. New Mexico      608. San Diego St.   539. Wyoming         46