Columnist Steve Guiremand: Thank you, Mike Garrett

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Oct. 13, 2000 | 11:51 a.m.

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. His Around Campus column appears Friday during the football season.

UNLV coach John Robinson recently suggested that BYU build "a two-story statue" of retiring LaVell Edwards and put it in front of Cougar Stadium.

It makes sense. After all, Edwards should be honored for basically building one of college football's top programs from the bottom up in his 29 years as head coach in Provo.

But while we're on the topic of building statues to acknowledge important contributions to football programs, we have a suggestion for one to be erected outside Sam Boyd Stadium.

No, not one for Robinson. At the rate he's turning things around, he probably will have his own building named for him one day on campus.

No, we suggest they build a statue of USC athletic director Mike Garrett.

When it comes to someone who may have made the biggest donation to the improvement of UNLV's football program, one need look no further than the 1965 Heisman Trophy winner.

After all, it was Garrett and his out-of-control ego that undermined Robinson's coaching efforts his last two years at USC and then fired him just two years removed from a Rose Bowl win over Northwestern. And it was Garrett who then hired Paul Hackett, a k a The Nutty Professor, to take over for Robinson at Troy.

Without Garrett, there is no John Robinson putting UNLV's once-sorry football program on the map. And without The Nutty Professor madly pacing the sidelines at USC, there would be no Jason Thomas quarterbacking the Rebels into the national spotlight.

Talk about two ships passing in the night. When Robinson took over UNLV two years ago, it was a pathetic 0-11 squad that would have had trouble beating a top-notch junior college team. USC's scout team had more talent.

Now two years later, Hackett is on the verge of his third straight collapse. Carson Palmer, the quarterback he hand-picked over Thomas, has that "deer in the headlights" look as he takes beating after beating behind an offensive line that Hackett supposedly made one of his top priorities to shore up when he took over the reins from Robinson three years ago. You close your eyes each time Palmer takes a shot wondering if he'll break his collarbone for a fourth time.

Meanwhile, Thomas has turned out to be everything those of us who have followed him since his high school days at Compton's Dominguez High School thought he could become --- arguably the most dangerous quarterback in college football. Or, at the very least, this side of Virginia Tech's Michael Vick.

We won't even talk about the Trojans' chronic problems with stupid penalties. Or special teams that are a weekly nightmare. Or the fact the team didn't seem to even show up mentally for last week's key game against Arizona.

To hear Hackett say it, he just needs time to bring SC back to the glory days of the '60s and '70s.

"The object is to come here and build a program," he said this week. "I signed a five-year contract because it takes five years. In Year 3, you need to show some spark and improvement. We did at the beginning of the year, but we're out of sorts. It's too early to say, 'It's over. Oh my God.' This is still awful premature."

Huh?

Robinson inherited a Trojan program in total disarray from Larry Smith in 1993, yet took his team to a New Year's Day Bowl in the second year, dismantling Zach Thomas and Texas Tech, 55-14, in the Cotton Bowl.

In Year 3, the Trojans beat Northwestern, 41-32, in the Rose Bowl. In Year 4, they ended a 13-year drought against Notre Dame that dated back to Robinson's first coaching tenure at USC. After a 6-5 blip in Year 5, he had Thomas and arguably USC's best recruiting class in decades lined up to come in, many of whom scattered elsewhere when it became apparent Robinson didn't have Garrett's support. The Trojan brass even snubbed their noses at a Las Vegas Bowl berth because it was beneath them.

Let's give Garrett a little credit, though. He has become more of a standup guy this year.

Before USC's loss at Oregon State two weeks ago, Garrett told the Portland Oregonian: "We don't make excuses anymore. ... If you can't get it done here, you have to go. Nothing personal, but that is the Trojan way. We're winners. If I can't hire the right people and provide the resources to help us win, I have to go, too."

Hmmmm.

Don't worry, Mike. There will always be a spot for you here in Las Vegas.

After all, no one has made a greater impact into UNLV's improving football fortunes than you have.

Thank you.

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