Columnist Dean Juipe: Why panic? Forecast had Rebels 1-3

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2002 | 9:45 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.

Anxiety, it seems, is inescapably in the air. The UNLV football team is 1-3 and close to being panic stricken.

Faces are long and jobs are up for grabs. The coach is displeased and the players are puzzled.

But aside from the degree of the ineptitude the Rebels have shown thus far, the results are hardly unexpected.

UNLV has been favored in one game (vs. Kansas), which it won, and it has been the underdog in three games (vs. Wisconsin, Oregon State and, last Saturday, Toledo), each of which it lost.

So, really now, why such despondency? Why not just try to regroup or, if semantics allow it, admit that the remainder of the season will be approached with a survivalist's mentality?

After all, the Mountain West Conference season hasn't even begun and won't, in UNLV's case, for another three weeks.

But if ever a team needed a week off, the Rebels are it. Some of the players may feel or say that they wish they were playing this week to erase the sour taste of the 38-21 loss at Toledo, but UNLV's lone 2002 bye is timely. This is a good week not to be playing and the Rebels aren't, as they're off until an Oct. 5 must-win game with Nevada-Reno.

That's "must win" as in a loss would justify a widespread panic attack. UNR may be improved but that's a game the Rebels truly need to win for their own well being.

The real trouble thus far isn't that UNLV is losing but has, the past two weeks, been blown out early. That's discouraging for players, coaches and fans alike.

The offense lacks creativity, Jason Thomas continues to write his quarterback obituary, flags are flying on a far too common basis, neither line is formidable and the secondary has been porous. Yikes! This isn't a very good team, is it?

No, it's not, but where's the surprise in that? Most observers saw the Rebels winning only four or maybe five games this year, and in that respect they're still on course.

Yet they might also win only once more, with Wyoming (Nov. 2) looking like the only other sure thing on the schedule.

A 2-10 season would be abysmal and everyone knows it, which is contributing to the current malaise. There's a fear that the mistakes of the first four weeks are merely preludes to even greater ones.

There's also a sense, or a sinking feeling if you will, that all of UNLV's eggs are in Thomas' basket and that any and all successes and failures will be the result of his play. This much is for sure: the problems he has had with technique still remain, making him appear to be uncoachable or the victim of poor coaching.

If he can't or won't get any better, Thomas will soon fall into a unique trap: a star player who has to be moved from his primary position, or maybe even completely off the field. Obstinate as head coach John Robinson has been toward the notion of replacing Thomas at quarterback, there could come a time when he will have no choice but to shift him to wingback (or something) and install Kurt Nantkes at the helm.

But I wouldn't do that just yet. I'd give this team through its game with Reno to pull itself together before I'd succumb to the urge to yank it apart.

I'd keep my chin up and realize only the most optimistic Las Vegan believed the Rebels would be anything but 1-3 thus far.