Rebels looking to end skid vs. UNR

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 | 11:06 a.m.

For UNLV's football team, it's time to put up or shut up.

John Robinson's Rebels (0-4), who have not won in Reno since 1979, face in-state rival Nevada-Reno (1-2) in the Battle for the Fremont Cannon on Saturday afternoon at Mackay Stadium. And if the Rebels play as good as they've talked this week, they might finally be able to break through in the win column in the 2001 season.

"We're going to win the next seven," Robinson said. "That's what our goal is. It's the same goal we had coming out of Utah (in 2000) ... win the next four games and we're going to go to the Las Vegas Bowl and we're going to win the Las Vegas Bowl.

"We did it once before. We can do it again."

Robinson, who made that message quite clear in the locker room moments after last Saturday's tough 35-31 loss to 18th-rated BYU, knew his comments would be appearing on opposing teams' bulletin boards. But he also knew he had to find a way to get his squad focused again following a disappointing 0-4 start.

It appears to have worked. In fact, it seemed like a lot of players were so fired up that they were ready to play the Wolf Pack last Saturday night.

"We will bounce back," senior linebacker Shanga Wilson said. "That's what we have to do if we want to go to a bowl game. It's like last year when we had to win our last four games in a row. We just have to come out and give it all we've got every game."

"They don't have a chance in the world," senior linebacker Scott Parkhurst said of Nevada-Reno. "We are going to stomp them and everybody else we face."

The war of words escalated Thursday when the Reno Gazette-Journal got the Wolf Pack's reaction to Robinson's and Parkhurst's comments.

"They talk -- that is all they do," senior wide receiver Mo Jones said of the Rebels. "Every year since I've been here, they have been talking. It is nothing new. "

Added defensive lineman Derek Kennard: "We are going to bring the cannon back home where it is supposed to be."

And senior quarterback David Neill, who expressed dismay over how poorly UNLV treated the Fremont Cannon after defeating the Wolf Pack, 38-7, at Sam Boyd Stadium last year, also vowed the Wolf Pack would win Saturday.

"When you are around here, you have the mentality that you don't ever lose to UNLV," Neill said.

"Everybody has their own prediction," Rebel strong safety Sam Brandon said after hearing of Neill's comments. "But we'll see after the game is over. A lot of people like to shoot their mouths off. I just say back it up. If you're going to talk it, back it up."

Nevada-Reno head coach Chris Tormey, who has compiled a 3-12 record since taking over for Jeff Tisdel in 2000 and was in tears after last year's loss to the Rebels, admitted that copies of UNLV's quotes were posted in Cashell Fieldhouse.