Columnist Dean Juipe: Wisconsin gets jump on Rebels

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002 | 9:36 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

If you've looked ahead through the TV guide in an attempt to plot your weekend, you're already aware of a Friday night college football game between Wisconsin and Fresno State.

If you're a UNLV fan, your reaction is understandably predictable: "Hey, that's not fair."

The Rebels will open their season the following week with Wisconsin, while it will be Game No. 2 for the Badgers when they play Aug. 31 at Sam Boyd Stadium. One team will come into the contest virtually stone cold, while the other will already have had the opportunity to work the kinks out.

Guess who holds the upper hand?

"Oh, it's a big advantage for them," UNLV head coach John Robinson said Tuesday. "There's an old coach's axiom: A team will improve the most between its first and second games of the season.

"And there's a lot of truth to it, because in that first game you can get all of your jitters and all of your screw ups out of the way."

Wisconsin will have had that game, at home against a decent Fresno team, while UNLV does its best to mimic game conditions as it works out on its campus field.

"We're concerned," Robinson said. "What we feel we'll need to do is more 'game situations' on the practice field."

But those will be dry runs for the Rebels, and in terms of adding to your poise or experience they'll be poor substitutes for the real thing the Badgers will acquire when they step on to the field with the Bulldogs.

If there's any consolation for UNLV, it's that Wisconsin has to come here -- albeit with a horde of fans -- for that late August game. As Robinson quickly recalled, two years ago the Rebels were in an even worse situation.

"We opened at Iowa State and they'd already played a game (vs. Ohio)," he said. "Now that was a big, big disadvantage for us."

Not surprisingly, the Rebels lost 37-22. The fact that they had a chance to watch tapes of Iowa State's game the previous week was of little value.

Nor will it be of much value to study or review Wisconsin's game with Fresno.

"We get to watch them play, but they always run the same stuff," Robinson said. "With Wisconsin, it's a matter of seeing if you can stop what they do, because you pretty much know what they're going to do."

The Badgers did implement a spread offense last season to add some variety to their old power attack, yet they (and head coach Barry Alvarez) remain fairly predictable. While they're coming off a 5-7 season, this year they're loaded on offense and have the most returning lettermen in the Big Ten.

From a diabolical point of view, the best UNLV fans can hope for as Wisconsin and Fresno play is that the Badgers might lose, might suffer a few physical or injury setbacks, or might waltz to such an easy win that they'll come to Las Vegas a little too overconfident for their own good.

Short of that, Wisconsin will arrive here with what is apt to be a 1-0 record and a group of players who are feeling good about themselves and are acclimated to the rigors of football. Conversely, UNLV will be 0-0 and still searching for its identity.

All things considered, the game looks stacked. Almost everything will be in Wisconsin's favor.