Columnist Ron Kantowski: Who hears a Horton at UNLV?

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2001 | 10:16 a.m.

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

At first glance, you wouldn't think Dr. Frankenstein and Mr. and Mrs. bin Laden would have anything in common with UNLV football coach John Robinson. But judging from the reaction to the team's 0-4 start, the Rebel football coach also has created a monster.

One letter writer in Sunday's paper even mentioned Robinson's name in the same sentence as his predecessor, Jeff Horton. That's like saying Tiny Tim and Frank Sinatra both were singers.

The gist of her beef is that the Rebels, 0-3 in 2001 (this was before Saturday's gut-wrenching 35-31 loss to No. 20 Brigham Young) are really no better off under Robinson than they were under Horton, who likewise was 0-3 in 1998.

Stop it.

What Mrs. Poison Pen didn't point out is that Robinson's Rebels, despite tackling what arguably is UNLV's toughest early season schedule ever, easily could be 3-1 provided the lucky bounces went their way (as they did much of the time during last year's Las Vegas Bowl championship season).

Conversely, Horton's 1998 Rebels opened the season with losses to Northwestern, Air Force and Wisconsin by scores of 41-7, 52-10 and 52-7. It wasn't until the seventh week of the season, in a 28-25 overtime loss to Wyoming, that the other side's starting players remained on the field in the fourth quarter.

To apply the lucky bounce analogy to Horton's team, if they all rolled UNLV's way against Wisconsin, the Rebels might have lost 52-14.

The letter writer also failed to mention that UNLV lost every game during Horton's final year. Or eight the year before that. Or 10 the year before that. Or nine the year before that. And can we please place an asterisk next to 1994, Horton's first year, when he inherited some good players from Jim Strong?

The Rebels went 7-5 that year and won the Las Vegas Bowl, when it was just a booby prize for the NCAA's Little Conferences That Couldn't, the Big West and the Mid-American. UNLV's wins that year came at the expense of Eastern Michigan, Utah State, New Mexico State, Lousiana Tech, San Jose State, Nevada-Reno and Central Michigan. All that was missing was a win over a Big Sky team.

Not that the Rebels didn't try. They were beaten 48-38 by a bunch of potato farmers from Idaho who turned their defense into mashed potatoes, rolling up nearly a half-mile in offense (707 yards).

Jeff Horton is a nice guy, and he's gotten a lot of the credit for developing quarterbacks as an assistant at Wisconsin, which this year will meet Florida State in the Reebok Free Shoes Bowl presented by Nike.

But were he still here, UNLV would not be beating out Pac-10 schools for recruits, would not be playing respected programs in legitimate bowl games, would not be playing in front of 30,000 fans every week in a stadium with a real press box and luxury suites, would not be on TV more often then Victoria Principal during a cosmetics garage sale and would not be giving nationally ranked opponents fits in those nationally and regionally televised games.

Just the fact that some fans are upset by the 0-4 start is testimony to the buzz John Robinson has created within the once moribund program.

So he can stay as long as he wants as far as I'm concerned. And next year if he wants to bring Paterno in as defensive coordinator, that's fine by me.