Coach stokes flame in rivalry

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005 | 10:12 a.m.

Mike Sanford admits he blew it.

During his weekly television show Sunday night on Channel 8, the first-year UNLV football coach actually uttered the word "Reno" once.

As UNLV prepares for its annual Battle for the Fremont Cannon against in-state rival UNR on Saturday night at Mackay Stadium, don't expect the words "Nevada," "Reno," "Nevada-Reno" or "Wolf Pack" to be uttered by any Rebel coaches or players.

That's because Sanford has issued a directive to refer to Chris Ault's squad as simply "the team up north."

"The whole thing is respect," Sanford explained. "They are our rival, and we're not going to give them the respect of calling them by their name."

Ever?

"This is forever," Sanford said.

Just consider it the latest salvo to be fired in the Battle for the Fremont Cannon.

Sanford acknowledged he is taking a page from the book of former Utah head coach Urban Meyer, who referred to bitter in-state rival BYU as only "the team from the south."

"It's just how we're going to refer to them from now on," Sanford said.

If past history is any indication, Sanford and the Rebels can probably expect to be called a lot worse names than that when they take the field at Mackay Stadium.

"That's part of the deal with a rivalry game, isn't it?" Sanford added with a smile.

Sanford, who admits he had only heard of the Fremont Cannon in a California high school history class before arriving at UNLV last December, said he's been told stories about how intense -- and that's putting it kindly -- the crowds can be at Mackay Stadium for a UNLV contest.

"I haven't experienced it first-hand but I've had numerous explanations and numerous exposures to it," Sanford said. "Basically, I've been told it's unbelievable, and that's what we're expecting."

Sanford said he has talked with former Rebels coach John Robinson about the rivalry.

"Not recently, but a while back after I heard he got hit in the head with a beer bottle or whatever," Sanford said. "He just said it was completely out of control ... crazy."

Robinson, who won his last five in a row against the Wolf Pack, was hit in the face by a plastic beer bottle while walking back to his team's locker room at halftime of the 2003 contest. The Rebels, angered by the sight of their coach getting hit right below the right eye by a bottle, rallied from a 9-3 halftime deficit to pull out a 16-12 victory.

Kevan Old, 31, of Reno later pleaded guilty to a battery charge and was sentenced to five days in jail. But he was just the one who got caught. Pizza, beer, batteries and ice have been chucked at the Rebels over the years as they were going to and from the locker room.

The team's equipment truck was also turned into an impromptu urinal by some other fans last year. And players and coaches were serenaded by a chorus of vulgarities from other nearby fans, some not yet in their teens, who were also seen jumping up and down while "flipping the bird."

"I think the biggest thing going into it is we have to prepare the guys for what it's going to be like," Sanford said. "I think that is important. We've got to prepare them basically for mayhem.

"I don't want to prepare them for a fight or anything like that," Sanford continued. "I just want to prepare them for what the crowd is going to be like and what the environment is going to be like so that there is nothing unexpected. ... We're not going to have anybody throwing beer bottles at them or anything but at Thursday's practice we're going to pipe noise into the stadium. I think it is a small enough environment that noise could be an issue."

Especially if fans of "the team from the north" don't like their new moniker.

"This is a huge rivalry," Sanford said. "It's in their backyard. And we're going to have to bring everything we've got."

UNLV officials tried to get ESPN to release the game so it could be shown locally by KLAS-TV Channel 8. But ESPN, which also is keeping the contest off its Gameplan pay-per-view package, refused, according to Mark Wallington, UNLV's associate director of sports information.

Those fans who have a DirecTV sports package subscription can catch the contest on channel 609 starting at 7 p.m.

The Los Angeles Daily News, quoting unnamed sources, wrote that USC's compliance office continues to examine phone records of the two players to see if any contact had been made with UNLV coaches prior to Hinds or Wright obtaining their official releases from the Trojans. If so, that would be a violation of NCAA rules.

If any improper phone calls are discovered, the Daily News said USC would forward that information to the NCAA.

Both Hinds, who also took a recruiting trip to Texas, and Wright, who also visited Michigan State, have said they contacted UNLV on their own after obtaining their releases.

Aguayo's kick was the program's first game-winning field goal since 1992.

New Mexico wide receiver Hank Baskett and Air Force fullback Jacobe Kendrick shared conference offensive player of the week honors while New Mexico defensive end Evroy Thompson was named the defensive player of the week.

Bell left Saturday's win against Idaho in the first half and watched the second half on crutches in street clothes.