Rebels look to play out campaign ‘for pride’

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Nov. 9, 2001 | 11:10 a.m.

Their hopes of a postseason bowl were officially dashed with last week's 42-14 loss to Utah. So just what do the UNLV Rebels have left to play for in their last two games of the 2001 season?

How about pride?

"It's all those cliches," Rebel coach John Robinson said. "A test of your manhood ... things like that."

But whether that is enough to get UNLV (3-6, 2-3) fired up to bounce back Saturday afternoon at New Mexico and next Saturday at Air Force remains to be seen. Being a spoiler for New Mexico's and Air Force's bowl chances was not exactly high on the list of goals entering the season for the Rebels.

"We're down," Robinson admitted earlier this week. "We thought we had a very good team. But we lost some close games early that took us out of contention. But people don't commit suicide over these things. I think we'll continue to play hard and I believe our final two games are tossup games."

Robinson stressed to his team after the Utah loss that it must pull together and continue to play hard during the final two games.

"The loss puts out a lot of dreams and goals that you set for yourself early in the year," Robinson said. "It's easy to become disappointed as a player. But the issue for us is you came here in August to join this football team and you're still a member of this football team. And there is no asterisk on that.

"It's an interesting challenge. Hopefully we'll come out of this a little tougher."

Look for the Rebel offensive line, which was embarrassed by its 38-yard rushing output against the Utes, to try to put that bitter memory away on Saturday with a solid effort against a New Mexico defense ranked ninth in the nation in rushing defense (80.9 yards per game) and that has also compiled a Mountain West Conference-best 22 quarterback sacks.

Although starting wide receiver Troy Mason (sprained ankle) and starting fullback Steven Costa (turf toe) are listed as "doubtful" by Rebel trainer Kyle Wilson, the Rebels should be a little healthier on offense this week.

Freshman tailback Dominique Dorsey, hobbled for three weeks with two sprained ankles, practiced the whole week and appears to be close to 100 percent again. And starting tailback Joe Haro, who needs just 16 yards to crack the 1,000-yard mark for the season, is making progress after being slowed by back spasms.