Columnist Dean Juipe: Late opener ‘a negative’ for Rebels

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2000 | 10:33 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.

Veteran members of the UNLV football team report today and open practice the following day.

Veteran members of the Iowa State football team -- which is UNLV's first opponent, Sept. 9, at Ames, Iowa -- will have six practices under their belts by Thursday.

By the time the Rebels get to Ames, the Cyclones will also have already played a game, as they open Sept. 2 with Ohio.

In fact, of the 114 Division-I football teams, all but nine of them will open their seasons the weekend of Sept. 2.

UNLV, Hawaii, California, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Texas and TCU are the stragglers.

"I don't like that at all," said UNLV head coach John Robinson, referring to the Rebels' belated debut. "It's a negative thing, no doubt about it."

It seems as if it would have to be.

"It's a distinct advantage for Iowa State," Robinson continued. "Every team gets 29 practices before their first game, so they'll have six more than we'll have had.

"But you have to be philosophical about it. I mean, you could go nuts and let it bother you, but what are you going to do?

"This is one of those decisions that was made by somebody else. I could call George Bush and even he couldn't do anything about it."

From a distance, UNLV vs. Iowa State won't be played on a level field. And the tilt is in the Cyclones' favor.

For starters, they beat the Rebels last season 24-0 at Sam Boyd Stadium and they're fairly well stocked with 16 starters returning. Add in this game with Ohio and the Cyclones, who were 4-7 last season, will take the field as legitimate favorites.

Ohio, 5-6 in 1999, is never a great football team yet the Bobcats will serve their purpose and allow Iowa State to get the rust off and likely pick up a season-opening win.

"The other side of the coin in this deal, however, is that we'll get to see Iowa State play a game," Robinson said. "We'll get a good look at them.

"But, then again, Woody Hayes used to always say a football team improved the most from its first game to its second game. So maybe seeing what they do the first game won't help us much at all."

If there was a mishap in arranging UNLV's schedule this season, this is it. Yet it could have been avoided.

When the University of Texas elected to skip out of its scheduled Sept. 2 game with Hawaii and bought its way out of that contract, UNLV was solicited and agreed to play at Hawaii this year. Obviously, that game could have been played Sept. 2.

But Hawaii may not be the type of team anyone wants to open the season against, as it was a surprising 9-4 last year. Given the option, UNLV chose to conclude its season at Hawaii and that game will be played Dec. 2.

From the Rebels' perspective, apparently having an extra week off prior to playing their first game was deemed preferable to opening with the majority of the country and having to play a Hawaii team that's big on trickery and a wide-open style of play.

But if the Rebels get blasted at Iowa State -- they shouldn't, but if they do -- the loss can be attributed to a front-office mistake. They could have been among the many (105) instead of the few (9).