Special section: Bad start only got worse for Rebel fans

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Aug. 29, 2002 | 8:41 a.m.

UNLV's 2001 results (4-7, 3-4 MWC)

The 2001 football season for the UNLV Rebels could be summed up with one word: Arkansas.

The Rebels' nationally-televised 14-10 season-opening loss to the Razorbacks set the tone for a disappointing 4-7 campaign which had begun with the school's first preseason Top 25 rating by Sports Illustrated and a Heisman Trophy campaign for quarterback Jason Thomas.

But Thomas, who had undergone surgery to his throwing shoulder just two months before the season, and the Rebels stumbled badly out of the blocks, going 0-4 in the first month of the season.

None of those losses hurt more than the Las Vegas Bowl rematch with the Hogs.

Despite Thomas having trouble gripping the ball on a humid night in Little Rock, UNLV managed to take a 10-0 halftime lead and totally dominated the game, holding the Razorbacks to one first down until midway through the fourth quarter.

But the Rebels squandered several scoring chances that would have wrapped the game up, including a couple of short field goal tries by Dillon Pieffer. That allowed Arkansas to pull it out in the final minute after backup punter Ryan McDonald mishandled a snap near midfield.

UNLV would lose five of its seven games by an average of five points, including a 35-31 heartbreaker to No. 20 BYU in the fourth week of the season. The Rebels led, 31-28, with just over two minutes to go before the Brandon Doman-led Cougars rallied.

"It was not like we were suddenly an awful team," UNLV coach John Robinson said. "If we had played the last minute of games better, we would have had a successful season. We didn't do the little things well and didn't finish. That was the exact opposite of the team before it, so that is obviously something hard to predict."

Among the positives to come from the 2001 campaign:

BYU (12-2, 7-0), which made a strong run at a BCS berth before getting demolished at Hawaii 72-45 in its regular season finale, became the first team to go undefeated in the Mountain West Conference en route to the championship.

Under first-year head coach Gary Crowton, the Cougars led the nation in total offense (542.8 yards per game) and scoring offense (46.8 points per game). But BYU lost to Louisville 28-10 in the Liberty Bowl.

Colorado State (7-5, 5-2), which defeated North Texas 45-20 in the inaugural New Orleans Bowl, finished second while Utah (8-4, 4-3), a 10-6 winner over USC in the Las Vegas Bowl, tied New Mexico (6-5, 4-3) for third place.

BYU's Luke Staley, who decided to bypass his senior season to apply for the NFL Draft (he was a seventh-round pick of the Detroit Lions), claimed the Doak Walker Award as the nation's top running back.