Strong second half lifts Rebels

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Oct. 8, 2001 | 9:46 a.m.

After playing arguably their poorest half of the season Saturday in Reno, one wouldn't have blamed UNLV coach John Robinson for tearing into his team.

The Rebels, after all, had managed exactly zero points and 143 net yards against a Nevada-Reno defense that came into the contest ranked a dismal 105th in the nation in scoring defense (35.7 ppg) and 103rd in total defense (454.3 ypg). And this despite the fact Robinson had stuck his neck out a week earlier and predicted his team would win its final seven games of the season.

But instead of pulling a Woody Hayes-like riot act in the locker room at halftime, Robinson tried the opposite approach.

"I think the whole team was uptight at the start," senior guard Greg Hulett said. "He knew it. So he told us to just take a deep breath and go out and play."

A deep breath? That's it? No "Win one for the Gipper" speech?

"Nah, as a team we all just took two deep breaths," Hulett said. "Then he told us to relax and go out and have some fun."

And that's what the Rebels did the final 30 minutes, racking up 250 yards en route to a 27-12 victory at Mackay Stadium.

"That was basically what we needed to do ... relax," freshman tailback Dominique Dorsey said. "We were just too tense."

Of course, it certainly didn't hurt that the 5-7, 153-pound Dorsey exploded for 144 of his game-high 180 yards in the second half. Or that junior quarterback Jason Thomas, who seemed confused and tentative for the first four-and-a-half games of the season, showed flashes of the JT of 2000 by rushing for 50 yards and one very controversial late touchdown.

What did Robinson do to calm down his star quarterback?

"He said, 'Get your stuff right or you're coming out of the game,' " Thomas said with a smile. "Nah, he just said I was playing too tight and that you can't win like that."

Said Robinson: "He'd gotten himself into where he was doing stuff where we were saying, 'What in the hell is he doing?' " Robinson said. "Finally I really got angry with him and said, 'You stop doing that sideways stuff and running back-and-forth and just play physical and like you're a tailback. And he looked like that in the second half. All his stuff will start coming now."

"I finally got it going in the second half," Thomas said. "I can't really explain what the problem was. I just know the light went on and I started running the ball. I saw holes, I saw lanes, and I just took off and hit them. Before I would have stayed back and tried to find a receiver."

"When he runs, there's not many guys around who can catch him or stop him," Hulett said. "I was glad to see him taking off again."

"I think he realized he just needed to do his job and let everybody else do theirs instead of trying to make plays and stuff," offensive tackle Brandon Bair said. "Actually, he did make plays. I think he just relaxed more than he usually does."

A front page column by Chad Hartley of the Reno Gazette-Journal on Sunday read: "Classless move spoils UNLV's win."

Wrote Hartley: "UNLV could have run out the clock and went home with its first win of the year and its class and dignity intact. Now, the Rebels are home in Las Vegas with just a victory because they ran up the score."

Said Nevada safety Ronnie Hardiman: "That definitely adds fuel to the fire for next year."

Added quarterback Zach Threadgill: "I guess that's Vegas. I don't know what to tell you. That hurt. The game was pretty much out of reach at that point. I thought that was unnecessary. But they did it. It is disappointing."