UNLV still looking for first win as UNR comes to town

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Oct. 2, 1998 | 9:45 a.m.

What's the quickest way to make your fans forget about four consecutive blowout losses?

If you're UNLV head coach Jeff Horton, it would be a long overdue victory against in-state rival Nevada-Reno.

The Rebels (0-4) host the Wolf Pack (1-2) in the battle for the Fremont Cannon on Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium. UNR has won the last three matchups, including a 31-14 decision last year in Reno.

Horton, a former Nevada-Reno assistant and head coach who fell from grace up north when he left to become UNLV's head coach in 1994, is confident the Rebels can end their losing streak to the Wolf Pack as well as their nine-game overall losing string dating to Oct. 11, 1997.

"I feel it," Horton told the Rebel Football Foundation at its weekly luncheon earlier this week. "I sense it. It's time.

"That bump in the road is like Mount Everest right now. But eventually somebody climbed that thing just like we're going to climb here."

Still, with just one year left on his contract through the 1999 season, a win over the Wolf Pack certainly wouldn't hurt Horton's standing with Rebel boosters, not to mention athletic director Charles Cavagnaro.

"We still have seven games to go," said Cavagnaro when asked about Horton's standing. "That's still about three-quarters of a season. A lot can still happen. You deal with those kinds of issues at the end of the year. It wouldn't be fair to do it now."

Horton was asked if this was the biggest game of his UNLV coaching career.

"Right now, yeah," he said. "Probably the biggest one was the first year (1994) here because that put us into a bowl game. But this one I think we need to win for a lot of reasons."

Horton showed his team and also the boosters at the luncheon highlights of that 1994 victory which ended with UNLV fans tearing down the goal posts.

With just seven victories in 40 games since, there hasn't been a whole lot of reason for UNLV fans to tear anything down.

* REBEL NOTES: UNLV coach Jeff Horton said he had patched up his differences with Nevada-Reno athletic director Chris Ault. The two didn't speak for several years after Horton left Reno for Las Vegas. "I had a good talk with him this summer," Horton said. "He's always been very important to me. He was a great leader for me, somebody I tried to emulate a lot. Most of the things I've learned in football I've learned from him. Obviously, our relationship was strained at times. Hopefully, time heals all wounds and we both can move on. I respect him tremendously." ...

Nevada-Reno quarterback David Neill (6-5, 190) is a true freshman from Hart High School in Newhall, Calif., who will be making only his second college start. His first one, a 27-24 upset at Fresno State, was outstanding. Neill completed 21 of 38 passes for 328 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. "He did a great job for us," Nevada-Reno head coach Jeff Tisdel said. "Now he needs to continue to grow and mature." ...

Wolf Pack wide receiver Trevor Insley was a prep teammate of UNLV quarterback Chris Hayward at San Clemente, Calif., High School. "I saw Chris during the summer but he didn't know what his situation would be there then," said Insley, who is a year ahead of Hayward. "Chris was a backup my senior year, but he still threw me a lot of passes during 7-on-7 drills and stuff like that."

Late Thursday afternoon the WAC office announced it was officially reprimanding UNLV safety Randy Black for his out of bounds hit on Colorado State quarterback Ryan Eslinger in the Rebels' 38-16 loss at Fort Collins last Saturday . Black was penalized for a personal foul and ejected from the game while Eslinger suffered several cuts in his mouth and a mild concussion.

"While football is a game of contact, there is no place in it for this type of play which can result in severe injury, and it will not be tolerated," WAC Commissioner Karl Benson said in a prepared statement. "It's my opinion that the game officials made the proper call and took the appropriate action. Any further conduct will result in additional penalties."

The timing of the WAC announcement was odd, coming five days after the incident and resulting in no further penalty against Black. Because UNLV head coach Jeff Horton has issued a gag order on his team this week, Black did not comment on the matter. "Randy apologized for the hit after the game," Horton said. "I felt after watching the play on film that it was not intentional."