Robinson puts UNR win atop his list

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Oct. 7, 2002 | 9:59 a.m.

John Robinson has been on the sidelines for some pretty historic victories in college football history.

But according to Robinson, Saturday's night 21-17 victory over Nevada-Reno in the 28th Battle for the Fremont Cannon ranks at the top of the list of his 200 coaching victories.

"It means a lot," Robinson said. "It ranks right up there with the wins over Notre Dame and the Rose Bowls and all that."

The reason isn't so much because the Rebels rallied to beat their in-state rivals as much as that they rallied back from back-to-back losses to Oregon State and Toledo that Robinson called "among the lowest ebb of my coaching career."

"For us as a team, me and all the guys and coaches on this team, we had to really dig deep down and get it," Robinson said. "And then to be able to do it under the kind of adversity we found ourselves in the last couple of weeks ... You remember the wins that were the big ones for your team and this win was huge for all of us. We were all under the gun coming into this game. We had our backs to the wall."

Robinson got the game ball from school president Dr. Carol Harter during a wild locker room celebration around the Fremont Cannon.

"I'm speechless right now," Rebel linebacker Adam Seward said. "He told us this was one of his greatest wins ever. For a legendary coach like him to tell us that really means a lot. You could tell that he was really choked up. A lot of the guys gave him a Gatorade shower. It was great."

Ironically, Robinson picked up his 200th coaching victory the same week his college coach and mentor, Len Casanova, died at age 97.

Casanova, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, coached Robinson at Oregon in the 1958 Rose Bowl. He also gave Robinson his first coaching break in 1960 with the Ducks where Robinson remained an assistant until 1972, when he hooked up with another former Oregon coach, John McKay, at USC.

"He led a great life," Robinson said of Casanova. "If he had been watching and saw me get my 200th coaching victory, he probably would say, 'I saved that guy four or five times.' And he did. I owe him a lot."

Robinson left Sunday night to attend Casanova's funeral and memorial in Eugene, Ore., which took place today.

"I just have to go," he said.

The Rebels picked up their first interception of the season late in the third quarter when defensive end Ahmad Briggs, who dropped about 20 yards into coverage, cut in front of a Wolf Pack receiver to intercept a Zack Threadgill pass.

Wolf Pack defensive end Jorge Cordova and wide receiver Nate Burleson, in particular, appeared to be urging Thomas to come over and mix it up.

"I was just telling them to go home," Thomas said. "They were talking a lot during the game, telling me I was weak and I was sorry. So I wanted them to check out the scoreboard and go home."

Thomas, who passed for 262 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 60 more yards, including two key third down conversions as the Rebels ran out the clock, will leave UNLV a perfect 3-0 in Fremont Cannon games.

"We've won three games in a row against them and you can't touch that," Thomas said. "We showed that we can move the ball up and down the field if we execute. It's not the stats that I'm happy about, but the fact the offense moved the ball and now has a fresh start."

Nevada-Reno came into the contest ranked fifth in passing offense (333.2 yards per game) and 13th in total offense (449.2 yards per game). But UNLV's blitzing defense held the normally high-scoring Wolf Pack to just three field goals over the first 47 1/2 minutes before Threadgill, who completed just 22 of 49 passes for 306 yards, connected with Burleson for a 25-yard touchdown pass and a 17-14 lead.

By comparison, Threadgill riddled both BYU (28 of 37, 410 yards, 4 TDs) and Colorado State (26 of 44, 341 yards, 3 TDs) this season. The only team to do a better job than UNLV against the Wolf Pack was Pac-10 favorite Washington State, which limited Threadgill to 155 yards passing and no touchdowns on 17 of 30 attempts.

UNLV opened a 5 1/2-point favorite on Sunday at the Stardust. It's also the Rebels' homecoming game.