Columnist Dean Juipe: Robinson comfortable with Rebels

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999 | 9:23 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Greeting a first-time visitor to his UNLV office, John Robinson took a seat not behind his desk but on a cozy couch and proceeded to live up to his reputation as a genuinely hospitable 64-year-old football coach on a mission.

Mixing cordiality with frankness and small talk, the graying legend appeared surprisingly at ease Monday with practice starting later this week and a harried schedule to keep. With a panoramic view of Las Vegas behind him, Robinson effortlessly discussed what is and what may be as he plays the role of catalyst in what the school -- and community -- hopes is a complete turnaround of fortunes for a program that currently is on a 16-game losing streak.

Without a hint of preaching, he's steadily adding converts.

"I was kind of ready to get back into coaching," he said, having spent 1998 off the sidelines for the first time since 1975. Twenty-one seasons later he is 104-35-4 as a collegiate coach, 79-74 in the pros and suddenly charged with righting a program that hasn't had a winning season since 1994.

Wouldn't he rather be back in the pros? Or playing golf for that matter?

"If I hadn't taken this job I probably would be working in the NFL in some capacity, but I don't think I would be offered another NFL head-coaching job," he said. "Last year I went to the Washington Redskins' camp and hung around for a few days and that kind of got me rolling again. It got me thinking of all the things I could do if I was coaching that team."

But instead of the well-stocked Redskins, he inherited the bare-boned Rebels. Yet at this stage of his life, he prefers the authoritative role of collegiate coach to the corporate restrictions that come into play at the professional level.

"When you're an NFL coach you're working under someone else's vision of the team," he said. "There's always somebody down the hall to second-guess you.

"In the NFL, there's some real excitement Sundays but the relationships between the coach and upper management are very complicated. Here (at UNLV), I'm not bugged by anything like that."

He's right. If it has anything to do with UNLV football, Robinson now has the final say on it.

"I've been out in the community so much, I feel like I'm running for mayor half the time," he said. "As opposed to being an NFL coach, a college coach becomes part of his community. I like that and I like the appeal of dealing with players who come to you as adolescents and hopefully leave you as mature college graduates -- even though by the time they're leaving you sometimes can't stand them anymore."

He laughs at the imagery and then comes clean on the toughest question of all: What if he doesn't succeed at UNLV?

"Every coach knows there's a flip side and he might not achieve what he wants to," Robinson said. "In our case, if we don't take a couple of steps forward each day it seems like we've taken one step back. And even the smallest steps can take a lot of effort.

"But I fully expect things to be different by the time I leave. When that day comes, I should be able to say 'I'm leaving you a contender' or 'I'm leaving you a top-25 team' and I'll be off to Tahiti.

"Either that or I'll be whining and saying 'I did the best I could' like every unsuccessful coach says."

Yes, that is a familiar refrain but maybe, just maybe, it has outlived its usefulness at UNLV.