Team has few jitters about flying

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Sept. 20, 2001 | 10:11 a.m.

WHEN: Saturday, 7 p.m.

WHERE: Arizona Stadium, Tucson

RADIO/TV: KBAD 920-AM, KFBT/Gold 33, Cable 6

EXPECTED CROWD: 50,000

LINE: Arizona by 2 1/2 points

SERIES: First meeting

UNLV's football team will board an airplane Friday afternoon and fly to Tucson, Ariz., for its Saturday night game against the University of Arizona.

That's not normally news. The Rebels and hundreds of college teams around the nation fly to games each weekend.

But this flight is different. It will be the first one for John Robinson's squad since terrorists hijacked and crashed four planes on Sept. 11, killing more than 5,000 people and destroying the World Trade Center towers in New York and part of the Pentagon.

So are the Rebels even a tad nervous about getting on a plane and flying about 400 miles on Friday?

"Nah, you can't live like that," quarterback Jason Thomas said. "I've learned you just have to live your life. If it happens, it's your time. I'm a religious person. I believe that when it's your time to go, it's your time to go."

In fact, Thomas says he doesn't plan to change his usual pre-flight ritual.

"Before every flight I say, 'Well, if we go down, we're going down as a team,' " he said. "Everybody always gets on me about that. But you can't live your life in the clouds. The way I see it, we're going to just hop on a plane and go play."

Center Pete Tramontanas agrees.

"I guess there might be a couple of people who might get a little nervous," he said. "But I think everyone is more focused on the game than the flight down there."

That might be a little different if the Rebels were taking commercial flights to Tucson. Instead, they'll be flying on a private charter.

"Everyone who will be on the plane will be people that we know," Tramontanas said. "There won't be any strangers on board. Still, I think what happened last week will still be in the back of everybody's mind."

"When it's all said and done, I think security is going to be tight," tight end DeJhown Mandley said. "I don't think there will be anything to worry about. If it's going to crash, it's going to crash because of a malfunction on the plane or something. But I don't have any worries about flying."

Mandley, who as a 7-year-old was a late scratch on Northwest Flight 255 which crashed and killed 154 people on takeoff near Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Aug. 16, 1987, said last week's plane crashes definitely brough back some bad memories.

"Yeah it did," he said. "That kept coming up when we were talking about what happened. If not for the grace of God ..."

A crowd of about 50,000 is expected and will include extra security personnel. Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood would not disclose how many extra security personnel will be on hand.

"It would be nice to think that when we are talking about security we are talking about hanging on to the football," Arizona head coach John Mackovic said. "Obviously, it's not that way."