Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Rebels probably classiest 0-11 football team ever

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 10:53 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand's golf notebook appears Tuesdays. His motor sports notebook appears Fridays on page 3. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

I had a lot of goals when I became a college football writer back in the early 1980s at the now defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

I wanted to cover a Heisman Trophy winner one day. Despite the fact there were two eventual Heisman winners --- Charles White and Marcus Allen --- on campus during my college days at USC, I still haven't done that for a regular newspaper.

I also wanted the thrill of covering a national championship team. And although the Trojans won three national titles in a seven-year span in the mid-1970s, they won zero during the 12 years I covered them at the Herald and the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

One thing I could never picture covering, though, was an 0-11 football team.

Such was the case this year, in my first year at the Sun. Welcome to Las Vegas, huh?

But, guess what? It wasn't all that bad.

Sure the football at times almost was unbearable to watch. And it was no picnic having to talk to disappointed players and coaches after each game, trying to come up with an interesting story on another loss.

But Jeff Horton, his staff and players handled the adversity in a first-class manor. There was no taking out their frustrations on the media or the pointing of fingers at teammates, something I've seen happen over the years, even on winning teams. Most importantly, there were no off-the-field problems to have to write about, a rarity in college football these days.

The highlight of the season for me was not Duane James running back a punt for a touchdown against Nevada-Reno or Ted Darnell rambling 50-yards with an interception for a touchdown at Wisconsin. It was James Wofford getting interviewed after a bitter 28-25 overtime loss to Wyoming.

You might remember it was Wofford's fumble at the goal line in overtime that cost the Rebels a chance for an upset victory. It would have been perfectly understandable if Wofford had decided to duck the post-game interviews after such a bitter disappointment.

But Wofford came out and politely answered question after question about the painful fumble.

Talk about being a stand-up guy. If I were his parents, Steve and Dametia Wofford of Bakersfield, Calif., I would have been a heckuva lot prouder of my son for the way he handled himself off the field than if he had scored the game-winning TD.

Horton? There were a few times he didn't like something I wrote, and let me know about it ... politely. Then everything was forgotten. Even as the pressure of the losing streak mounted, you would have had a hard time telling it by his big smile on the practice field each day.

The record books will show the 1998 UNLV football team was the first winless team in school history. But they'll always be regarded as winners in this reporter's eyes, for the way it handled such adversity.

Hopefully, the next UNLV coach, his staff and players can continue on with that tradition.

Speed it up

The timetable that UNLV athletic director Charles Cavagnaro has laid out for hiring a replacement for Horton is a little odd.

The search committee, which Cavagnaro and UNLV President Dr. Carol C. Harter head, isn't even scheduled to meet again until Dec. 7. Cavagnaro said he hopes to have a coach in town by Christmas.

One problem. Most of the top junior college quarterbacks, of which UNLV needs to sign at least two just to be able to run a normal spring practice, will likely make up their minds in the two weeks before Christmas. Most of the nation's top junior college players will be taking their trips in early December.

So it might be wise for the search committee to speed things up a little when they get back from their Thanksgiving vacations, and try to get the new coach in town by no later than Dec. 12. Otherwise, chances of landing a mid-year JC quarterback transfer will be very slim.

Whoever gets the job --- we're still pushing for John Robinson --- might be wise to keep at least a couple of Horton's assistants on his staff for recruiting purposes.

Once around the WAC

AIR FORCE: Falcons brought out lucky silver pants for their Mountain Division clinching win over Rice. Only loss this season came when Air Force wore regular white pants at TCU and coach Fisher DeBerry admits to being superstitious.

BYU: No surprise here. Junior linebacker Rob Morris was named the Pacific Division's Defensive Player of the Year.

COLORADO STATE: Guard Anthony Cesario, a probable NFL pick, will have surgery on his left wrist to repair an injury that plagued him all season.

FRESNO STATE: Junior quarterback Billy Volek, the object of much fan scorn earlier in the season, finished second to BYU's Kevin Feterik in WAC passing efficiency stats with a 131.70 rating.

HAWAII: Rainbows rank dead last out of 112 Division I teams in scoring offense with a 12.0 points per game average. Things don't figure to improve much Saturday when they host an angry Michigan squad.

UNLV: Rebels finished 111th out of 112 Division I teams in total offense with an average of just 255.3 yards per game.

NEW MEXICO: Senior Chad Smith, a national scholar-athlete winner who has a 3.99 GPA, finished his career as the school's all-time leader in punt return yards.

RICE: Air Hatfield? Option-oriented Owls actually attempted 103 passes this season, including 13 in 22-16 loss at Air Force on Saturday.

SAN DIEGO STATE: Earning a share of Pacific Division title with BYU marked only second time in 21 years since joining the WAC and the first time since 1986 that Aztecs had finished atop the WAC standings.

SAN JOSE STATE: Spartan sophomore Deonce Whitaker set NCAA single-season records for most kickoff returns (51) and kickoff return yards (1,214).

SMU: Mustangs, who finished 5-7 with 24-11 win at Navy, could be a team on the rise. Fifty members on the squad were either freshmen or sophomores.

TCU: It has been reported that Horned Frogs head coach Dennis Franchione is on the short list of candidates to replace John Blake as head coach at Oklahoma.

UTEP: Miners finished last in the WAC and 102nd nationally in total defense, yielding an average of 442.7 yards per game.

TULSA: Golden Hurricane's stunning 35-0 whitewash of Wyoming may have saved coach Dave Rader his job. Tulsa alumni have been grumbling about Rader's 48-74-1 mark in 11 years at the school.

UTAH: Utes lead the nation in kickoff returns with a 27.1 average and returned three for touchdowns this season.

WYOMING: Pokes (8-3), who have not won a bowl game since 1966, blew a chance for a Las Vegas Bowl invitation when they got blanked, 35-0, at Tulsa.

Once around the nation

ACC: Virginia All-American safety Anthony Poindexter has started rehabilitation following season-ending reconstructive knee surgery.

BIG EAST: Virginia Tech, which hosts in-state rival Virginia Saturday, has blocked an amazing 10 kicks this season.

BIG TEN: Despite last Saturday's 31-16 loss at Ohio State, Michigan is still 8-2-1 in its last 11 games in Columbus.

BIG 12: When Colorado (7-3) faces Nebraska (8-3) today, it will mark the first time since 1957 that the two teams will have six combined losses when they play.

BIG WEST: Nevada-Reno wide receiver Geoff Noisy was held to just four catches for 39 yards in 55-28 loss to Southern Mississippi and finished his career with NCAA Division I record 295 receptions.

CONFERENCE-USA: Tulane (10-0), which will face BYU in the Liberty Bowl, has scored 40 or more points in seven of its 10 games this year.

MAC: Miami of Ohio (10-1, 7-1) gained a share of East Division title with 20-14 win over Akron, but Marshall (10-1, 7-1) will play in next week's MAC title game by virtue of its 31-17 win over RedHawks earlier this year.

PAC-10: Stanford picked up a verbal commitment from the West Coast's top quarterback prospect, Chris Lewis (6-4, 205) of Long Beach, Calif., Poly High School. Lewis' teammate, cornerback Darrell Rideaux (5-9, 175), the state 100-meter champion (10.31), picked USC over Notre Dame.

SEC: South Carolina athletic director Mike McGee, who fired football coach Brad Scott this week, is the same man who once fired a coach named Ted Tollner at USC so he could hire Larry Smith, whom he also fired before heading off to South Carolina. Former Los Angeles Herald-Examiner columnist Doug Krikorian nicknamed McGee "The Executioner" for his many firings at Troy.

WAC: Remember when this conference was known for its wide-open offenses? Well, only one team --- option-oriented Air Force (13) --- cracks the top 30 in NCAA scoring offense this week.

INDEPENDENTS: Notre Dame coach Bob Davie has nicknamed backup quarterbacks Eric Chappell "Coley" and Arnez Battle "O'Brien" in hopes the duo can repeat the feat unheralded Coley O'Brien pulled off when replacing an injured Terry Hanratty in 1966's stunning 51-0 whitewash of USC at the Coliseum. Both Chappell and Battle are expected to see action for the injured Jarious Jackson Saturday night against the Trojans.

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