Columnist Dean Juipe: UNLV coach both cursed and blessed

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998 | 10:25 a.m.

He was an older gentleman and obviously a long-standing supporter of the UNLV football team.

As he walked into head coach Jeff Horton's weekly luncheon, it was obvious he was unhappy. He was demonstrative, maybe even combative. A swear word slipped out as he expressed his displeasure.

You're going to guess the target of his anger was Horton and his 0-5 Rebels, and if this were South Bend, Ind., or Gainsville, Fla., or any other college football hotbed, you would probably be right. However, this particular fellow was seeing red because the Rebels wore black (jerseys) last week during their 31-20 loss to Nevada-Reno.

And he promised to stay mad unless something was done about it.

Playing the diplomat, Horton later thanked him for his input, smiled and sent the man on his way. The antagonist may or may not have been pacified.

The significance: Horton wouldn't have gotten off so easy elsewhere. Be it Austin or Lincoln or maybe even Boise, the coach of a team on a 10-game losing streak that has also lost 23 consecutive road games wouldn't come through any confrontation with the program's boosters unscathed -- and the topic of conversation wouldn't have been the color of the team's jerseys.

And Horton knew it.

"It kind of rejuvenates me every week to see people being so supportive," he said Tuesday at the Palace Station, where the complaints were few and the pervasive attitude was affectionately somber.

Perhaps it's simply a reflection of the community's disinterest in UNLV football, but here's a head coach with a five-year record of 13-38 and the only pressure he appears to be facing is self-inflicted.

"People have a lot of reasons to not be supportive of us," Horton admitted. "But I think they know I don't shy away from anything, and they want us to be successful. I know it gets tougher every week, but there's something to be said for looking on the bright side of things."

A bright-side news flash: Horton's team has a collective grade-point average of 2.71, or .03 better than the UNLV student population at large.

You get the picture: When it comes to wins and losses the Rebels may give the appearance of being moribund, yet no one's coming after the coach with machetes drawn. There is no public uproar in spite of the team's record, its likelihood of losing both this week at Brigham Young and next week to Wyoming, and the possibility it doesn't collect a victory all season.

It's a peculiar situation, with multiple contributors: public apathy; Horton's sincerity and straightforwardness; and, perhaps, the widespread local belief that the UNLV football team is on a perpetual treadmill that all but precludes banner seasons.

"I could never believe that," Horton said of the latter item, but how else could he react? To believe otherwise would equate him with Sisyphus, doomed to forever push a boulder up a hill in Hades.

In Las Vegas, big things are expected from the university when it comes to men's basketball, not football.

"I really don't think we'll be like this forever," Horton said. "I also want to be around when things get better. I just don't want to be a transition coach, setting up all the good things for the next guy."

He's both cursed and blessed, a cheerful man in trying times. The hatemongers are as infrequent as the victories.