Columnist Dean Juipe: Robinson’s pitch has some merit

Dean Juipe

Monday, Oct. 1, 2001 | 11:25 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.

He said it after Saturday night's game and he'll say it again at today's weekly fan-club luncheon. John Robinson expects his UNLV football team to win the remainder of its 2001 games.

It's a chorus his players have picked up on as well, in spite of the Rebels' 0-4 start after a 35-31 loss to Brigham Young at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Yet before you say Robinson and his Rebels have taken too many knocks to the cranium and that their collective, optimistic sentiment is hogwash, you have to look at what lies ahead on the UNLV schedule. And winning the regular season's final seven games -- plus another in what would likely be a Las Vegas Bowl encore -- is hardly out of the question.

For starters, the first game in this would-be march back to respectability comes against a Nevada-Reno team that is 1-2 and no match for the Rebels in terms of pure talent. Yes, the Wolf Pack has had an extra week to prepare for Saturday's game at Mackay Stadium, but it lacks the firepower and perhaps the incentive of its Southern Nevada rival.

UNLV should win that game, maybe with some ease.

Then it's back to the Mountain West schedule and the Rebels seemingly have already played the best team in the league, BYU.

While there are no sure victories in conference play, UNLV -- deservedly or not -- might be a betting favorite in each of its remaining games. The toughest of that lot is the Oct. 20 rescheduled game here with Colorado State, which the Rebels had been favored to win (by 5 points in Las Vegas sports books) when it was initially set for Sept. 14.

It's still a little early to have an absolute feel for the strength of the Mountain West and teams such as Utah and Air Force may be better than initially expected, but this isn't the Big 12. Not just in theory but from a practical viewpoint, the Rebels could win out.

Assuming BYU does the same, UNLV's reward as the MWC's second-place team would be a return engagement in its hometown bowl. It's not the Liberty Bowl that the team was eying when the season began, yet there's no doubt everyone in town would be smiling.

Of course there are some big ifs in this happy-go-lucky package. And, lest we forget, the 31 points the Rebels scored against BYU looks good on paper but six Cougar fumbles -- three of which were lost -- played a significant role in UNLV's point production.

Also not to be minimized is the still-unsteady play from quarterback Jason Thomas. He may have kept his mistakes to a minimum against BYU but he didn't look especially sharp and it remains to be seen if he can even regain last season's effectiveness, let alone rebound from his and his team's disastrous start this year.

A nice, comfortable outing in Reno may get everyone back on track. The Rebels get a win, Thomas gets his footing and the torture of losing four times when four victories were within reach will cease to be the sword of Damocles it may ominously feel like today.

It's a merry tune, to be sure. Coaches and players on 0-4 teams can't order up seven or eight consecutive victories on command without feeling as if they may have overstepped their bounds.

But it's a noble quest and looks doable on paper. And it beats contemplating going 0-11.