Columnist Dean Juipe: Rebels need 3-0 run for lasting fame

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2000 | 9:38 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.

At stake is not only a bowl bid but lasting acclaim.

Think about it. If the UNLV football team wins its remaining three games it not only will secure a spot in the Las Vegas Bowl but will position itself to be fondly recalled by the team's fans for what amounts to perpetuity.

Regardless of the program's fortunes in the years to come, should the 2000 Rebels complete the regular season 7-5 and earn a bowl bid they will always be pleasantly remembered for their surprising success. Conversely, if the Rebels stumble in any of their remaining three games and fail to qualify for a bowl berth that virtually has their name on it, they eventually will be forgotten as so many predecessors or reduced to an innocuous shrug.

How's that for an incentive to play well with the season reaching the homestretch? Win out and accept a figurative laurel wreath; lose even once and forfeit what might well be a spot in the school's athletic Hall of Fame.

"We need to get the hop back in our step," head coach John Robinson said Monday at his weekly luncheon at Big Dog's on West Sahara. That hop was missing last Saturday when the Rebels were somewhat unexpectedly derailed by a Utah team that struck early and demoralized its susceptible guests.

The end result was a 38-16 loss that forces the Rebels to stand with their backs to the wall for games with New Mexico (Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium), San Diego State and Hawaii. A single loss to any of those three teams and UNLV will not win the seven games it needs to be certified as "bowl eligible" by the NCAA.

It's simple, it's inconvenient. It's also do or die.

"Performance is a delicate balance of events," Robinson said, quite esoterically, causing those in his audience to ponder their options. What his comments from the Dennis Miller archives likely meant: If quarterback Jason Thomas plays, which he will this week after missing the Utah game, the Rebels in turn will be stoked and the nagging injuries that were so evident in Salt Lake City will dissipate as if by secret elixir.

Thomas is as close to a one-man team as a single individual on an 80-man roster can be, and the foot injury that kept him from going in Utah had a reciprocal effect on his compadres. They were sluggish and they were beaten.

Robinson broke tradition and failed to bring any film clips to the luncheon from the previous game. All agreed it was a wise move and that the experience in Utah is best forgotten.

But here come three in a row that require a concentrated effort with everyone tugging on the pulley in unison. The loss at Utah -- which, arguably, offsets an earlier win over Air Force that few of us foresaw -- will be but a bump in the road only if the Rebels win the last three games on their schedule.

The fact that New Mexico is squeezed into the same boat as the Rebels only adds to the intensity. The Lobos are 5-5 with two left to play and need to win both to find themselves bowl bound.

"These are two teams with a window open in front of them," Robinson said of UNLV and New Mexico. But only one can pass through.

In the Rebels' case, there are historical implications. Anything less than three straight wins and it'll be only a marginally successful season.