Columnist Ron Kantowski: Why did Rebels run it up? Because they could

Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2001 | 9:40 a.m.

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

Having attended a high school of 400 students that was aligned in a conference where the next-smallest school enrolled roughly 2,500, I got used to coming up on the short end of 56-7 football games.

Combine that high blowout tolerance threshold with something my uncle, a defensive-minded college basketball coach once told me -- that the defense, not the offense, controls who scores -- and you'll understand why I don't necessarily share the consensus opinion regarding running up the score.

So my advice to the Nevada-Reno football team, and anybody else upset with Jason Thomas' frosting-on-the-cake 3-yard touchdown run on the last play of the game in UNLV's 27-12 victory on Saturday, would be to do the same thing the next time you have the chance to rub it in a little.

Or don't. The choice is yours.

That said, I still prefer taking a knee to giving a knee. The margin of victory only matters when you're battling for a spot in the Bowl Championship Series, and both these teams are a long way from that scenario.

Rebels coach John Robinson, never one to pass the buck, took full responsibility for the controversial decision to tack six more points onto the Rebels' total. But in that Robinson stopped wearing the play-calling headset two games ago and Thomas has been known to call his own number from time to time, it's possible the Rebels' coach might only have been an accessory to the crime.

In his postgame remarks, Thomas said the Rebels were going to do anything they could to get their "swagger" back. Maybe that's why he was strutting around like John Travolta with a Bee Gees' tune playing in his head.

But had I been Robinson and the Rebels, I would have just said the late touchdown was payback for those three consecutive personal fouls UNR committed in the third quarter.

And to all those holding a blue and silver betting slip (Wolf Pack money moved the line nearly five points, from UNLV minus 15 to minus 10 1/2 at kickoff) ... well, that's why they call it gambling.

The brainiacs in the Las Vegas 51s' marketing department prior to last season had a semi-permanent swimming pool and redwood deck installed in foul territory down the left-field line, hoping to entice fans and/or scantily-clad women to pay inflated admission for the privilege of getting wet during 51s games.

The trouble is, the only thing that got wet was the odd foul ball that made its way into the Dormant Waters. The 51s, according to sources, never obtained the permits to open the pool and deck and they recently were removed.

According to a letter obtained by the Sun from the City of Las Vegas, this particular promotional blunder set the 51s back $20,000.

The 51s also have yanked out those field-level seats that cost extra, too, but they are coming back next season. The seats that were used last year were constructed out of material only slightly more resilient than balsa wood. The field seats will be replaced with something a little more sturdy for 2002.

"The roar was deafening from Friday's crowd inside Ralph Engelstad Arena -- which is located at the southern end of Ralph Engelstad Arena Drive and next to Ralph Engelstad Plaza, and houses a life-sized bronze statue of Ralph Engelstad."

Just in case anybody forgot who was responsible.

Engelstad's threat to pull financing for the arena if the school failed to reinstate its unpolitically correct Fighting Sioux Indian head logo was a huge controversy on and around campus. But protesters had something else to complain about as North Dakota and Minnesota got ready to christen the House That Ralph Built last weekend.

A local business was selling T-shirts promoting the next day's football game between North Dakota and rival North Dakota State that read "Buck the Bison UNDer." The shirts, according to the Star-Tribune, featured a caricature of an obese Native American performing a sexual act on a bison, the North Dakota mascot.

Anyone wearing one of the shirts was not allowed into the football game or the hockey game the night before.

And finally, Falcons' defensive back Ray Buchanan had the audacity to ask "Couldn't they wait until after the game (before bombing Afghanistan)?"

No, Ray. We're not going to interrupt this war against terrorism to bring you the start of the Bears-Falcons game. Unless, by chance, some rookie named bin Laden is back in single formation to receive the kickoff.