Columnist Dean Juipe: UNLV win masks its bland season

Dean Juipe

Monday, Dec. 2, 2002 | 9:51 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.

There's never a bad time to play your best game of the season.

And if that game happens to be the one to close your season, the heightened awareness it directs toward the following season makes it all the better from a marketing (and enthusiasm) point of view.

But there is a drawback to peaking in your finale, particularly if it concludes a season best noted for its many disappointments. As the UNLV football team has almost certainly discovered following its return to Las Vegas after its most glorious outing of the year, people are naturally drawn to a single question: What took you guys so long?

The Rebels were surprisingly determined and downright brilliant offensively in upsetting 16th-ranked Colorado State 36-33 Saturday afternoon at Fort Collins. It was a performance both unexpected and peculiar, given UNLV's 5-7 record and its failure to contend in the relatively weak Mountain West Conference.

While the result allows the Rebels, its coach and its fans the luxury of some contented musing, it also casts an element of doubt over the just-concluded season. As in, why wasn't the offense this crisp back in September, October and through the first 29 days of November?

Did it take a different quarterback -- with Kurt Nantkes filling in for the "quietly" injured Jason Thomas -- to turn things around? Or was it the seemingly sudden decision to diversify the rushing attack by utilizing each of the backs at the Rebels' disposal? Or was the 390-yard rushing game merely a reflection of an offensive line that finally meshed and began opening huge holes against the ranked and Liberty Bowl-bound Rams?

Is it too late to wipe the slate clean and start the season over?

I'm here to tell you, the way the Rebels played in Colorado was the way their fans expected them to play from the get-go. After all, they were not only loaded with quality backs, but they had an athletic quarterback, a gifted wide receiver (in Earvin Johnson) and a future NFL offensive lineman in four-year starter Tony Terrell.

Scoring points wasn't supposed to be a problem, yet there were times when it was even if UNLV averaged a decent 24 per game. But nowhere during the course of the previous 11 games did the play calling and the execution come together as it did with Nantkes at the helm, with Larry Croom, Joe Haro, Steve Costa and Dominique Dorsey repeatedly busting loose and with Johnson snagging a remarkable 12 passes for another 132 yards at Colorado State's expense.

Where was all this firepower when the Rebels were losing to such middling teams as New Mexico, San Diego State and Utah? Being misused, perhaps?

The fact that it all came together at such an unlikely juncture only adds to the perplexing nature of the season. With a bye week preceding the game at CSU and with absolutely nothing beyond pride to play for, the Rebels defied conventional wisdom and went out with a burst of gusto.

My conclusion: UNLV's 2002 season was one of underachievement, and the closing victory (like one a year ago under similar circumstances at Air Force) only masks the obvious. This team could have and maybe should have won the league championship, instead of finishing closer to the bottom.