Columnist Ron Kantowski: Rebels almost elude critics after big win

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2003 | 9:07 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

When you physically manhandle a nationally ranked team on the road, as UNLV did Saturday at No. 14 Wisconsin, it's like landing on Free Parking in Monopoly.

Nobody should criticize the coaching staff and players for at least a week. It's like your wife's birthday. Let her bask in the moment. You can talk about the diet or the messy house some other time.

Yet, when UNLV coach John Robinson opened the floor to questions at his weekly luncheon Monday, the second query from the peanut gallery criticized him for being too conservative at the end of the first half Saturday.

That's like spending the night with Pam Anderson, and then complaining when she doesn't cook breakfast in the morning.

I guess the questioner didn't see the rainwater dripping off Robinson's nose. Or the last drive before halftime of the Toledo game, when quarterback Kurt Nantkes tried to make chicken salad out of chicken, er, feathers, flinging the ball with two hands to nobody in particular and nearly having the Rockets return the interception for a touchdown.

Robinson was diplomatic in replying to the criticism, but he got his point across.

"It was wet, and that made it hard to succeed," he said. "I don't take myself too seriously, but I do believe I have an idea of what you're supposed to do in that situation. You have to play the bet properly -- that's what's important in all this.

"In that weather, more bad things could have happened while trying to do (good) things."

Robinson isn't the first football coach to err on the side of conservatism, but at least he's consistent. At the end of the game, the Rebels began taking a knee so early that they gave the ball back to Wisconsin with time still remaining on the clock.

Instead of being content to fall on the ball -- as coaches constantly instruct their players to do -- Eagen scooped up the fumble and ran like a Woolly Bully. When the Badgers caught him from behind, which didn't take long, Eagen lateraled to Jamaal Brimmer.

It looked like Jack Mildren, the old Oklahoma wishbone quarterback, pitching to Greg Pruitt, only Eagen's knee was ruled to have hit the ground a fraction before he dished off.

Had the play stood, Brimmer, who later scored on a 55-yard fumble return and nearly brought an intercepted pass all the way back, would have had yet another defensive touchdown.

Eagen broke into laughter when I asked him when was the last time he ran the option.

"I picked up that ball and I said to myself, 'I gotta run, but it looks kinda far. I don't know if I can do it,' " Eagen said. "I feel all these guys (closing in) and then I see Brimmer right there, and he's telling me to pitch to him.

"So I ran about four yards and pitched to him. The coaches told me never do that again."

Former Rebels defensive back Sam Brandon made a couple of nice pass breakups for the Broncos in their rout of the Chargers Sunday. ... Speaking of former Rebels, Scott Linehan, who was UNLV's quarterbacks coach in 1991 under Jim Strong, has gone on to bigger and better things, as he is now the offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings. ... Steven Jackson, the former Eldorado High star who is projected as a first-round draft choice whenever he tires of the rainy weather in Corvallis, Ore., left Oregon State's 28-16 win against New Mexico State with a sprained knee Saturday after rushing for 166 yards and two touchdowns. But he's expected to play against Boise State this week. ... After criticizing Monday Night Football sideline bimbo -- er, reporter -- Lisa Guerrero in this space last week, I heard from BoDog.com, a sports book in Costa Rica which is accepting action on whether Guerrero will return in 2004. Hard to believe that "Yes" is a small favorite at minus 150. You can get plus 100 on the "No."