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UCLA appears to be sure bet against Nevada Las Vegas, but players hedge

UCLA Bruins running back Soso Jamabo carries the ball against the Virginia Cavaliers at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.

UCLA Bruins running back Soso Jamabo carries the ball against the Virginia Cavaliers at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.

(Stephen Dunn / Getty Images)
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The preteen comedy show “You Can’t Do That on Television,” once opened an episode with the announcement, “The college football game, the UCLA Bruins vs. the UNLV Rebels, will not be seen tonight because ‘uclasunlv’ is a dirty word in Croatian. …”

It remains to be seen whether tonight’s first-ever game between the Bruins and the Rebels dissolves into a laugher. The one likely thing Nevada Las Vegas (0-1) can’t do on television is win this game.

UCLA (1-0), fresh from a 34-16 victory over Virginia, walks into Sam Boyd Stadium as a 30-point favorite against a program that has a .303 winning percentage since 1990.

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The pregame stance in Westwood is predictably one of caution.

“You can never assume a win,” center Jack Brendel said. “You can’t go into this game thinking it’s going be to be easy. It’s never easy.”

The Bruins were in lock-step.

“We have to erase what happened last week,” linebacker Myles Jack said. “What could kill us is if we’re still feeling ourselves off that win and come into Vegas thinking we’re unstoppable.”

And …

“They are a very, very hard-nosed football team,” tackle Caleb Benenoch said. “Guys who play hard like that give you trouble if you don’t finish plays.”

And ...

“We came out of the first game with a lot of hoopla about [quarterback] Josh Rosen, so we’re getting a lot of media love,” linebacker Deon Hollins said. “This can be a trap game.”

But eventually reality slips in.

Asked whether it could be harder to focus playing a team that has been down, Hollins said, “If any player says it’s the same, they are lying. But our coaches do a great job focusing on the right things.”

Little things do slip out.

Hollins said matching up with UNLV’s tackles “is something we can exploit a little bit. I guess ‘exploit’ would be a bad word, but I think we have favorable matchups. I think they play really, really hard.”

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The head coach has the focus locked in.

“We’re going to treat them with great respect,” Coach Jim Mora said. “Any time you go on the road, there are challenges.”

This could be the type of body-bag game big schools collect. Only UCLA doesn’t have to write a big check for an expected victory — New Mexico State received $550,000 for a 59-13 beating in 2013.

Still, Mora said, “We’re very conscious about making our players know we’re there for business and not pleasure.”

UCLA is the 14th team from what are now the Power Five conferences to come to Las Vegas. UNLV is 2-11 in those games. Wisconsin has dropped by for victories four times since 1996.

Having UCLA come to town is profitable for first-year coach Tony Sanchez, who is trying to salvage a program that has had four winning seasons in the last 25 years.

“Any time you play a Pac-12 school, you get to test your mettle,” Sanchez said. “It’ll be a packed stadium. It’s an exciting deal for our community and kids.”

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Plus, he said, “We recruit heavily in the Los Angeles area. With Los Angeles, Hawaii and other Western areas, there is no reason we shouldn’t be a good team in the Mountain West Conference.”

Maybe so, down the road. But on Saturday night, there is no reason to think UCLA will lose.

“People have their own opinion about games,” Brendel said. “Our opinion as a team is we just have to do our jobs.”

chris.foster@latimes.com

Twitter: @cfosterlatimes

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