Utah trip stirs painful memory for Fuimaono

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004 | 9:48 a.m.

Monday marked the one-year anniversary of the scariest moment of UNLV nose guard Howie Fuimaono's career.

It was early in the third quarter of the Rebels' 28-10 loss to Utah at Sam Boyd Stadium last October when Fuimaono, down on his hands and knees without a helmet at the end of a play, took a straight-on kick in the face from Utes guard Chris Kemoeatu.

The blow, which was captured by TV cameras, knocked Fuimaono out of the game and also sent him to the hospital in pain and with blurred vision. But he was lucky because Kemoeatu's cleat landed just inside the left eye socket and not directly on the eye or bones around the eye.

"It came pretty close," said Fuimaono, a 6-foot, 330-pound sophomore from Chula Vista, Calif. "If it was just one inch to the left, it would have shattered one of the bones in my face. It was scary. I just thank the Lord that it wasn't serious."

Fuimaono will meet up with Kemoeatu again on Saturday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City as the Rebels try and play spoilers for undefeated Utah's BCS bowl hopes.

"Yeah, what happened last year does give me more to motivation to play harder," Fuimaono said. "And to also keep my helmet on."

That's right, Fuimaono can actually look back now and crack a joke about the incident.

Kemoeatu got a one-game suspension from the Mountain West Conference for ejection, his second in two games for kicking a player. Utah head coach Urban Meyer also ordered Kemoeatu to take anger management classes before being allowed to rejoin the team.

"I've just tried to forget about it, but every time Utah comes up, there's always the memory," soft-spoken Fuimaono said. "It's just a memory I won't forget."

Kemoeatu was a surprise visitor at Mountain West Conference football media day in July at the Ritz Carlton Hotel at Lake Las Vegas and said he had remorse for what he had done.

"I really feel bad about what I did and I regret doing it," he said. "In the heat of the battle sometimes you overreact and do stuff you're not supposed to do."

Kemoeatu also said he wanted to apologize to Fuimaono.

"I haven't talked to him yet but I would like to talk to him and apologize," Kemoeatu said. "What I did was uncalled for."

Fuimaono, who has 15 tackles and a sack this season, said he still hasn't heard directly from Kemoeatu but forgives him.

"From the articles I read he seemed like a pretty cool guy," Fuimaono said. "I don't have any hard feelings about what happened last year."

Fuimaono, the object of double-teams on just about every play, knows he'll be in for another tough battle in the trenches again this week.

"Utah has always been a physical team," Fuimaono said. "I think last year they were the most physical offensive line that we played against.

"I'm looking forward to this game as is our whole team. Any time you play a ranked team it gets you fired up to play. We know we're going to have to come out and play our best game to have a chance to beat them."

And also keep their helmets strapped on tightly.