Monday, Nov. 8, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
Having endured Wyoming's 53-45 triple overtime victory against UNLV that, its wacky final score notwithstanding, lacked any semblance of artistic merit, now I know why John Robinson put the kibosh on John Robinson Fan Appreciation Day even before it got off the drawing board.
In that I believe Robinson shouldn't have to go to Provo to receive a lovely parting gift (the nice folks at BYU presented him with a trip to Hawaii during the Rebels' visit last month) for drastically improving the UNLV football facilities, putting the program on the map with recruits and, for a short time anyway, turning it around on the field, I thought those responsible could have done a little more to honor their venerable and retiring football coach than show a few highlights on the scoreboard monitor at the end of the first quarter.
Not one to blow his own horn, Robinson would have been adamant about not making a fuss about his final game at Sam Boyd Stadium even if the Rebels were 7-2. But now that they are 2-7, you can understand him wanting to sneak out the back door with little fanfare.
"Angry," he said, at first responding to only the first part of a postgame question asking for his thoughts about walking off the field here for the last time.
"I never imagined we would wind up playing street ball. As for it being the last (home) game or anything, I hadn't even thought about it."
No, it was not a time for reflection and/or hearts and flowers, not after the Rebels committed 22 penalties -- count 'em if you can -- for 167 yards. The 22 yellow flags were excessive, even for this UNLV team, which has shot itself in the foot so many times it makes Barney Fife look like Davy Crockett.
Remember the Alamo? Heck, I'm only trying to remember as far back when the Rebels actually made the opposition work for a victory, instead of giving one away with crazy personal fouls and holding penalties.
Even Robinson, who thought he had seen it all during a mostly glorious coaching career, admitted that he had never witnessed anything as repulsive as Saturday's foul-fest in shoulder pads.
"It's one of the worst exhibitions of poise by a defense that I have ever seen," he said.
The 22 penalties were just two shy of the modern record of 24, set by the Mean Machine vs. the Guards in the 1974 Longest Yard Bowl. (Actually, it was Fresno State vs. San Jose State in 1986.)
Robinson initially tried to referee the game himself by yanking any Rebels ruffian who committed a personal foul from the game. But with the UNLV bench in jeopardy of becoming a holding tank, he had no recourse but to put the James Gang, or whatever the Rebels' serial late-hitters call themselves, back in the game to create some more mayhem.
It's a good thing it wasn't hockey, or Wyoming would have been on the power play from the second quarter on.
Thanks to the Rebels' continuous high-sticking and a dedicated wagon train from Laramie -- about 2,000 brown-and-gold clad W-Y-O supporters continued to shout "yahoo!" long after the game was over and the beer ran out -- the Cowboys now appear headed to a bowl game, likely the one right here in Las Vegas on Dec. 23.
But if there's such a thing as a below average 6-3 football team, the Cowboys are it -- not that coach Joe Glenn hasn't earned his spurs for turning around a Wyoming program that was so bad two years ago it might have been the cause of vice president Dick Cheney's heart palpitations. If Urban Meyer doesn't run the table at Utah, Glenn has my vote for Mountain West coach of the year.
And the Rebels' defense has my vote for the worst tackle since the local Pic-N-Save marked down its fishing lures. It happened late in the fourth quarter, after Wyoming somehow frittered away its second 10-point lead of the game, when five Rebels gang-tackled Jouvon Bouknight after the Cowboys' wide receiver caught a short pass on what should have been Wyoming's last possession of the game.
Did I say gang tackle? And last possession? Silly me. In imitating the bronc decal on his helmet, Bouknight bucked off the three Rebels who were draped all over his back, rambling for 55 yards to a first-and-goal at the 2 that enabled Wyoming to send the game into overtime.
"Some of our attempts at tackling were absolutely pathetic," said Robinson, who made little attempt to disguise that he was disgusted to be fielding questions about poor tackling nine games into the season.
It was like Tennessee all over again. But missed tackles against a national power with locomotives disguised as running backs is understandable in the season opener. Wyoming did not have any locomotives in the backfield. Based on its grand total of 83 rushing yards on 42 carries in a marathon 4-hour game, it didn't even have a Lionel train behind backup quarterback J.J. Ratfink -- er, Raterink.
What is truly stunning is that UNLV was coming off a "bye" week during which most football teams are expected to get healthy and/or improve. The Rebels, who continue to be hounded by injuries -- their best player, Jamaal Brimmer, left the game in the second half with a rib injury, wide receiver Earvin Johnson played with a badly dislocated finger and quarterback Kurt Nantkes stayed home to attend to a personal problem -- did neither.
At 2-7 and with once thought-to-be winnable games against Colorado State and San Diego State remaining, the Rebels somehow are getting worse.
It's too bad, because on a day UNLV fans should have been honoring their legendary coach and Dominique Dorsey and his not-so-legendary 18 senior teammates, the Rebels didn't even deserve the home game of Concentration for playing along.
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