Columnist Steve Guiremand: Las Vegas in for wild ride with Robinson

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Dec. 4, 1998 | 10:58 a.m.

Steve Guiremand's college football notebook appears Friday. Reach him at steveg@lasvegassun.com or 259-2324.

Welcome to big-time college football, Las Vegas.

Nothing against Jeff Horton, Ron Meyer, Harvey Hyde or any of the other former UNLV head football coaches who have paced the sidelines at Sam Boyd Stadium. But Thursday's hiring of John Robinson immediately puts the Rebel football program in another stratosphere.

If you don't believe me, all you had to do was count the TV trucks in the parking lot outside of the Richard Tam Alumni Center.

When Horton was fired on Nov. 16, it merited a quick mention in the notes section at the end of ESPN's hour-long SportsCenter program. If you weren't lookly closely, you probably missed it.

Thursday, ESPNnews and CNN-SI were on hand to broadcast the announcement of Robinson's hiring, live and on national TV. There seemed to be more alumni and boosters crammed into Tam Alumni Center than you'd normally see at the end of a Rebels' home game.

And as Robinson spoke, it was easy to see why he has long been one the biggest names in coaching.

There are few, if any, better public speakers around. Not only can Robinson motivate, but he also can bring down the house with his quick sense of humor. He makes it fun to be a booster of his teams, even in the tough times.

Unlike some school presidents and athletic directors, Dr. Carol Harter and Charlie Cavagnaro knew a good thing when they saw it. They smartly pushed up their timetable for a new head coach and focused their attention on bringing in Robinson.

"About two minutes," Harter said when asked how long it took for Robinson to convince her that he was the right man for the job.

It was, like it was first suggested in this column two weeks ago, a no-brainer.

Some local TV broadcasters wasted part of Thursday's press conference grilling Harter and Cavagnaro about Robinson's $350,000-per-year salary, which is more than double of Horton's.

Fellas, if you want filet mignon, you've got to pay for it. The extra money put out for Robinson's contract will easily be made up by increased attendance, TV exposure and merchandise, not to mention the rent on those new suites at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Don't expect miracles overnight, however. Although Horton's recruiting classes picked up the last two years, this is still an 0-11 team with major holes at quarterback, running back, outside linebacker and defensive line. Even a coach as adept at recruiting as Robinson will need time to turn things around.

A quick fix of junior college talent could speed the turnaround up, but there's usually a reason why a kid attends junior college to play football in the first place --- he's either not that good or not that smart. If half of your JC recruits pan out, you've done well.

But given two or three years, it's a safe bet that Robinson will have UNLV near the top of the new Mountain West Conference.

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the ride.

Guiremand column

Lede to come

Once around the WAC

AIR FORCE: Falcons have put together back-to-back 10 win seasons for the first time in school history.

BYU: Running back Ronney Jenkins needs 171 yards in Saturday's WAC title game to break Pete Vanvalkenburg's school single-season rushing mark of 1,386 yards.

COLORADO STATE: Former walk-on placekicker Derek Franz kicked a school-record 21 field goals this season.

FRESNO STATE: Jamie Kimbrough's 1998 rush total of 1,168 yards ranks third in school history behind current NFL backs Ron Rivers (Detroit, 1,477) and Aaron Craver (Saints, 1,313).

HAWAII: Rainbows ended season with nation's longest losing streak --- 18 games. It figures to hit 19 when Hawaii opens its 1999 season at home against USC.

UNLV: Rebel freshman wide receiver Duane James finished third in the WAC and ranks 23rd nationally in kickoff returns with a 25.0 average.

NEW MEXICO: Hard to believe it was only a year ago that Lobos were in the WAC championship game against Colorado State. Since that outing, New Mexico has lost 11 of its 14 games.

RICE: Senior guard Charles Torello, a former walk-on, tied the school record of 44 consecutive starts set by former NFL center Courtney Hall.

SAN DIEGO STATE: Nice guys don't always finish last. Aztecs coach Ted Tollner was named WAC Pacific Division Coach of the Year after leading squad to a share of Pacific title.

SAN JOSE STATE: Spartans allowed 3,110 yards on the ground this season, an average of 259.2 yards per game. That put them 111th among 112 Division I teams.

SMU: Demolition of Ownby Stadium was recently completed and construction on the new Gerald J. Ford Stadium already has begun.

TCU: Horned Frogs' 6-5 mark was just sixth time in 33 years the school has had a winning season.

UTEP: Miners' defense recorded just 13 sacks in 11 games this season.

TULSA: Walk-on wide receiver Jeremy Golden played three downs in season-ending 35-0 upset of Wyoming. Golden, Tulsa's version of "Rudy,' stands just 5-foot-4 and weighs 146 pounds.

UTAH: Former Sun writer Paul Arnett, now at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, reports that Utes head coach Ron McBride told Hawaii athletic director Hugh Yoshida that he is interested in the Rainbows' head coaching job.

WYOMING: Cowboys' season-ending 35-0 loss at Tulsa was their first shutout loss in 158 games.

Once around the nation

ACC: Florida State's 23-12 win over Florida extended Seminoles' win streak at Doak Campbell Stadium to 40 games. FSU has outscored its opponents by an average of 44-12 during that span.

BIG 10: One major reason Wisconsin is headed to the Rose Bowl for the second time in five years is turnovers. Badgers are an outstanding plus-22 in turnover ratio.

BIG 12: Colorado quarterback Mike Moschetti, who was sacked 49 times this season, played the last three games with cracked ribs suffered in a Nov. 7 loss at Missouri.

BIG EAST: Miami linebackers Nate Webster (13.4) and Dan Morgan (13.1) rank 1-2 in Big East in tackles.

BIG WEST: Utah State had two quarterbacks, Riley Jensen (1,231) and Jeff Crosbie (1,111), throw for more than 1,000 yards in the same season for the first time since 1979 when Eric Hipple (1,924) and Craig Bradshaw (1,021) did it.

CONFERENCE USA: Tulane quarterback Shaun King's passing rating of 183.3 broke the NCAA record of 178.4 set by Florida's Danny Wuerffel in 1995.

MAC: Marshall is favored to win its 100th game of the '90s tonight when it faces Toledo in the MAC title game. That's the most of any NCAA Division I or I-AA team in the decade. Florida State is second with 97 wins.

PAC-10: USC (8-4) will end its season the same way it started ... against Purdue. Trojans, who beat Boilermakers, 27-17, in Aug. 30 Pigskin Classic, will face Joe Tiller's squad in the Sun Bowl.

SEC: Tennessee, which faces Mississippi State in the SEC title game Saturday night in the Georgia Dome, is 11-0 for the first time since 1938.

WAC: Only one of the remaining eight teams in the WAC --- TCU (6-5) --- finished with a winning record this season. Meanwhile, only two teams in the new Mountain West Conference --- UNLV (0-11) and New Mexico (3-9) --- had losing records.

INDEPENDENTS: Louisiana Tech wide receiver Troy Edwards is one of three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's premier wide receiver. Florida State's Peter Warrick and North Carolina State's Torry Holt are the other finalists.