Columnist Ron Kantowski: Las Vegas may become football town

Thursday, Dec. 28, 2000 | 10:26 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears Thursday. His notes column appears Tuesday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

With the UNLV basketball program in disarray, its best player suffering from a food disorder (will somebody please make Kas Kambala a ham sandwich, minus the foreign objects, and have him pay for it with a $5 bill?) and games against opponents which might be confused with oral hygiene and cheap beer (Monmouth and Old Dominion) on tap this week, don't be surprised if the average Rebel fan is exhibiting symptoms of football withdrawal.

It has been exactly one week since Jason Thomas & Friends chewed up and spit out (in Thomas' case, literally) the Arkansas Razorbacks 31-14 in a Las Vegas Bowl that, to anybody who has followed Rebel football for any period of time, had to be like a Springsteen concert or a Spielberg movie.

It ended way too soon.

It's a shame the Rebels aren't playing this week, because based on their second-half showing against Arkansas, there's probably not a dot-com bowl team they couldn't match up with.

Marshall, Cincinnati, Texas Tech, East Carolina, Iowa State, Pitt, Colorado State, Louisville, UCLA, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, LSU, Texas, Oregon, Fresno State, Air Force, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Northwestern, Nebraska ... the Rebels could line up with any of 'em, based on the way they turned the Razorbacks into pork rinds.

OK, so I'd need a few points if I were to give you Nebraska. But if the Rebels were to catch a few breaks and Thomas could keep his bodily functions to himself, UNLV might even give the mighty Cornhuskers a tussle.

Which tells you how far this program has come in two years under John Robinson.

Two years ago, the Rebels were 0-11. Playing a tougher schedule this past season, they went 8-5. And one could make a case that had every bounce gone their way and had Thomas not tweaked his foot early in the season, they could have finished 12-1. The 37-22 defeat at Iowa State in the season opener was the only game the Thomas-led Rebels weren't truly in from start to finish.

In order to witness a faster turnaround than the one Robinson fashioned, you'd have to send Pam Anderson strutting down the street in one direction, and a dozen sailors in the other.

But here's the real bombshell: There are signs Las Vegas may be on the verge of becoming a football town.

The Las Vegas Bowl crowd of nearly 26,000 was modest by Southeast Conference standards, but it also was remarkable in that it exceeded projections by as much as 10,000. That meant a lot of Rebel fans decided to jump on the bandwagon at the last minute, arranging their schedules so as not to miss the weird 5 p.m. kickoff time.

Given the cheap seats were going for $30, parking lots that resembled construction sites and weather that was cooler than Isaac Hayes, it was impressive to see the UNLV side of the stadium jam-packed for the first time all season.

Conversely, the Thomas & Mack Center hasn't filled up for a UNLV basketball game since Jerry Tarkanian said so long in 1992.

So if I were Charlie Cavagnaro, I'd be judicious in selecting my next basketball coach. Because if UNLV doesn't get the right man, it might as well measure its athletic cash cow for shoulder pads and a helmet.