Rebels kicked aside

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Nov. 24, 2003 | 10:40 a.m.

UNLV senior placekicker Dillon Pieffer has certainly had a college career to remember.

The Lou Groza Award semifinalist twice was named the Mountain West Coneference's special teams player of the week this season, including after the Rebels' stunning 37-34 upset of New Mexico when he connected on three field goals that included a career-best 50-yarder.

He also tied the school record for consecutive PATs with 45 over the 2001 and 2002 seasons. And he can break the school single-season record for field goals of 21 set by Nick Garritano in 1994 with four more in Saturday's season finale at Wyoming.

So it was sadly ironic that on the final field goal attempt of his UNLV career at Sam Boyd Stadium against Colorado State on Saturday night, the popular Pieffer would suffer the biggest miss of his career.

Pieffer, who earlier in the game had connected from 35, 24 and 24 yards, hooked a routine-23-yarder with 2:38 to go that would have put the Rebels up by nine points and all but sealed a UNLV victory, keeping his teams' Las Vegas Bowl hopes alive in the process. But he missed, UNLV's prevent defense once again broke down and prevented another win, and the Rebels dropped a heart-breaking 24-23 decision to the Rams.

So how could the usually dependable Pieffer, who had connected on 18 of his 22 previous field goal tries this season, miss what was basically an extra point in such a key situation?

"I had been kicking them left all night," he said. "I should have kept my head down."

That wasn't a problem afterward.

"That's the worst part of it," the Colorado Springs native said. "Everybody is telling me to keep my head up but it's kind of hard because this is one of my last games. It's against CSU, my home team, and in my last home game. On my last kick at Sam Boyd. It's tough."

The teary-eyed Pieffer said he now has to put the crucial miss behind and move on to Saturday's game against Wyoming, which is only about a three-hour drive from his hometown.

"All I can do is bring myself out of it," he said. "Everybody says its not my fault but that's why I'm here. That's my job and I didn't do it."

Steichen completed 12 of 26 passes for 172 yards and didn't throw an interception despite a heavy Colorado State pass rush. He showed good mobility and poise.

"I thought he played well," UNLV coach John Robinson said after reviewing the tape on Sunday. "I thought he did a good job. He seemed poised. And he had fun playing, too. He does a good job in the pocket. I think he has good vision. He pretty much understood what he was doing and he did it."

Robinson said he plans to play both Steichen and junior Kurt Nantkes in Saturday's finale although he didn't say who would start.

Steichen seemed to win over the confidence of his teammates with his play.

"Steichen, he has so much poise," junior cornerback Ruschard Dodd-Masters said. "He's the future of UNLV right there, baby."

"It had to be by just an inch, man," Moore said. "I thought I got it flat. As soon as I hit it I said, 'Overtime!' But it went through anyway. I really didn't think it had a chance."

Saturday's forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-30's and with lows in the teens with a few snow showers.

It could be a whole lot worse as the New Mexico Lobos can attest.

The temperature at kickoff for the Lobos' 26-3 win over the Cowboys on Saturday was 9 degrees with a wind chill of minus-5. It was the coldest game in New Mexico history dating back to 1959 when weather stats were kept.