Columnist Ron Kantowski: At least UNLV got a photo before it went dark

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2002 | 10:15 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Having suffered five turnovers by halftime Saturday, UNLV's chances to upset a Top 25 team such as Wisconsin flickered like a candle in the wind.

Which, come to think of it, would have been an improvement over Sam Boyd Stadium's backup power supply.

On Wisconsin! Off with the lights! The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in the week of sports:

Good ...

WISCONSIN FAITHFUL: It's a good thing Wisconsin agrees to a home-and-home series with UNLV every five years or so because that way, the panoramic Sam Boyd Stadium media guide photograph stays current.

Actually, the photo used in this year's guide shows the stadium only half-full. But if UNLV were smart, it would have shot the announced record crowd of 42,075 -- all of it wearing red, mind you -- before the lights went out Saturday night.

Judging from the turnout of Badgers backers, the Wisconsin Dells must have been closed for the summer. More than 20,000 from America's Dairyland and about an equal number who came to boo UNLV QB Jason Thomas turned the Rebels season opener into an unprecedented spectacle.

MOUNTAIN WEST SUCCESS: Like the time zone in which most of its teams reside, the Mountain West Conference finds respect hard to come by. It's been a while since Mountain Time was mentioned in the same sentence as its Eastern and Pacific brethren, and almost as long since one of the college football TV soothsayers has had anything nice to say about Mountain West football.

But ESPN's Lee Corso, noting Colorado State's 19-14 victory over No. 6 Colorado of the Big 12, Air Force's 52-3 destruction of Northwestern of the Big Ten and BYU's 42-21 rout of Syracuse of the Big East, gave the MWC its props during Saturday's College Game Day wrap-up show.

Better late (I think) than never.

It was around midnight Eastern time when Corso was making his remarks. That means most of the biased Back East media, which believes the only good things to come out of the Mountain states are Coors beer and Wranglers, either was in bed or on its fifth cocktail.

SAM BOYD POWER FAILURE: One of my pet peeves is guys who do play-by-play over the public address system, which usually only happens at the high school level in Texas and UNLV. So there was a silver lining to the fourth-quarter power failure that left the stadium dark. It also left it silent, precluding longtime P.A. announcer Dick Calvert from trying to identify the ball carrier while the play is still developing.

I say try, because when Wisconsin put backup quarterback Jim Sorgi (who is tall and lanky) into the game, Calvert continued to call him "Bollinger" as in Brooks, the starting Badgers quarterback (who has a stocky build).

In Calvert's defense, UNLV has him pimping so many sponsors that it's probably hard to pay attention to the game.

Bad ...

CLEVELAND INDIANS: The American League team has asked a federal judge to stop the Indian Motorcycle Co. from using a script logo similar to the one the team uses.

The ballclub said continued use of the script Indian motorcycle logo would confuse consumers.

I guess when it comes to the team's use of the Chief Wahoo mascot, consumers must be more discerning. Otherwise, they might believe all Native Americans had oversized teeth, wore a feather in their hair and had the skin tone of a fire engine.

DUVAL LOVE: If somebody is going to bring shame and disgrace to a football program, I guess you'd prefer it to be a star player or a coaching mastermind -- not an insignificant graduate assistant coach.

The primary job of most grad assistants is to bring the head coach coffee and donuts, so when UNLV's Duval Love was indicted on conspiracy to distribute cocaine and Ecstasy last week, it gave UNLV a black eye that surely could have been avoided.

Nearly everybody has a skeleton in his closet, but I'll bet next time that John Robinson does one of his ex-players a solid, he'll do a background check on his character references.

Ugly ...

JASON THOMAS: Great athlete, bad quarterback -- that's UNLV's Jason Thomas in a season opening nutshell.

Thomas' inability to match the form he showed as a sophomore is more perplexing than a Rubik's Cube. But the Rebels might have a better chance to get Thomas' colors lined up if they would get him outside the tackles where he could run (preferred) or throw (distant second option).

In the pocket, where virtually every one of Thomas' 26 passes (he completed 12) against Wisconsin originated, he looks about as comfortable as Anna Nicole Smith in blue jeans.

The Rebels need to put in some bootleg and sprint out passes, to at least give Thomas a chance to succeed.

But if I'm John Robinson, he's still my quarterback. While Thomas seems to have misplaced the blueprint to playing quarterback, at least he still has the tools.