This year’s Rebels trying to match last year’s Warriors

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000 | 10:40 a.m.

HONOLULU -- Two years ago, it was hard to pick whether UNLV or Hawaii was the bigger laughingstock in college football.

The Warriors had just finished an 0-12 campaign and had an 18-game losing streak. UNLV was 0-11 and had a 16-game skid.

But after replacing Fred vonAppen with June Jones, Hawaii became a Cinderella story in 1999, going 9-4 and winning the Oahu Bowl over Oregon State.

And now a year after that, it's UNLV and second-year head coach John Robinson who have a chance to complete an amazing turnaround.

Perhaps ironically, the Rebels (6-5) can secure a bowl bid of their own here on Saturday night at Aloha Stadium with a victory over Hawaii (3-8).

A victory sends UNLV into the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 21 against an at-large team to be announced.

A loss and UNLV will not have the required winning record mandated by the NCAA to be eligible for a bowl berth.

"We have a chance to do what Hawaii did last year and that's play in a bowl game at home," UNLV coach John Robinson said. "But for that to happen, we have to take this game seriously and forget about any thoughts of being on vacation.

"There will be time for that if we can get a win and put ourselves into a bowl game for the first time in six seasons."

The Rebel players, who arrived here Thursday night after a lengthy 11-hour sojourn through the air, maintain that their minds will be on football, not the cute little wahines on Waikiki Beach across the street from their hotel.

"We talked about that," said sixth-year senior cornerback Amar Brisco, whose game-winning 72-yard interception return last Saturday at San Diego State kept UNLV's bowl hopes alive.

"We know what's riding on this game. Everybody is focused. We've got to handle the task at hand before we think about having any fun."

Indeed, a loss on Saturday night could make the long, red-eye flight home on Sunday night a whole lot longer.