UNLV ticket sales on rise after win

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1999 | 10:49 a.m.

Ca-ching!

Success on the football field last Thursday at North Texas is translating into $ucce$$ at the box office for UNLV's football team.

"The phones were hopping on Friday," said Terry Cottle, UNLV associate athletic director in charge of sports marketing. "I don't have the exact numbers on how many new season tickets we sold, but I know we did real good."

John Robinson's Rebels snapped a 16-game losing streak with a 26-3 victory over the Mean Green in Denton, Texas, on Thursday night. The contest was viewed live by more than 100,000 people in Las Vegas.

"You better believe that helped us," Cottle said. "Televising that victory definitely was a big plus for us."

Cottle believes the school will match last year's season-ticket sale of a little over 7,000 sometime this week. Fourteen of the 16 luxury suites at refurbished Sam Boyd Stadium, which go for a base price of $45,000 per year with a minimum five-year commitment, have also been sold, as well as about half of the new 460 club seats, which range in price from $2,000 to $3,500 per year depending on location. The school sold eight club seats on Friday alone.

"I really think we will be able to sell season tickets all the way up to the BYU game (on Oct. 23)," Cottle said. "Normally you can't do that. Normally you sell them into the first couple of games and then you are done."

* RUNNING BACK TRANSFER?: The Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat reported that Florida State backup tailback Raymont Skaggs had been granted his release and "appears headed to UNLV."

Skaggs was buried on the depth chart behind All-American candidate Travis Minor and freshman Nick Maddox, considered the top prep running prospect in the nation a year ago.

Skaggs was a member of a Dorsey High School squad that won the Los Angeles City 4-A title in 1995 and included Ohio State linebacker Na'il Diggs and Arizona wide receiver Dennis Northcutt. He moved on to West Los Angeles JC, the same school at which another Dorsey alum, Keyshawn Johnson, made a name for himself.

"He was a good running back," Dick Lascola of the Fallbrook (Calif.)-based Scouting Evaluation Association said. "It is very unusual for a school like Florida State to come out here and recruit a junior college player."

Skaggs would have just one year of eligibility remaining if he enrolls at UNLV.

* SHOCKING THE WORLD: Baylor (0-1), which hosts UNLV on Saturday night at Floyd Casey Stadium, has won just two games each of the last two seasons.

But the Bears, who lost a 30-29 overtime game at Boston College on Saturday, are confident they can turn things around under first-year head coach Kevin Steele.

"I think we'll win six or seven games this year and be in a bowl," all-Big 12 cornerback Gary Baxter said last week. "We're going to shock the world."

* CLASS ACT: Although a missed PAT by senior kicker Kyle Atteberry in overtime spoiled his Bayler head coaching debut, Steele handled the 30-29 heartbreaker with a lot of class afterward.

Atteberry, who simply shanked the conversion attempt which would have sent the contest into a second overtime, also had a punt blocked to set up another Boston College touchdown and had a 35-yard extra point blocked after a penalty for excessive celebration.

Steele's first words to Atteberry after the huge miss? "I just told him I loved him."

* STREAK THIS: At his weekly Monday media luncheon at Big Dog's Cafe, Robinson, who had tried to low-key the team's 16-game overall and 26-game road losing streaks heading into the North Texas opener, admitted he was glad to put them to an end.

"I was so tired of people coming up to me and saying, 'Did you know we haven't won a game since World War II,' " he said. "It's over with by God and I love it."

* VAUGHAN PASSES HIS FIRST TEST: Robinson said he was very happy with the first start by JC transfer quarterback Jason Vaughan, who completed 16 of 19 passes for 127 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

"I gave our passing game plan and execution an 'A,' " Robinson said. "And I gave Jason Vaughan an 'A.' ... I just loved him and the way he played in the game."