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Sports Watch
THE University of Hawaii football team had its Senior Walk Saturday night at Aloha Stadium with 23 players honored. Trouble is, Nevada-Las Vegas had its version of the senior run. UNLV had
own version of senior
walk SaturdayWell, almost senior run. Quarterback Jason Thomas is only a sophomore.
But he joined senior running backs Jeremi Rudolph and Kevin Brown to be among three literally Runnin' Rebels who rushed for more than 100 yards in the 34-32 victory to close out a disappointing 2000 season for Hawaii.
UNLV ran for 431 net yards against a porous UH defense. But not even the 1976 Nebraska team, which beat Hawaii, 68-3, while rushing for an opponent record 655 yards, had three running backs who each gained 100 or more yards in the game.
Rick Berns, a part-Filipino and the Benny Agbayani of that time, ran for a then Cornhusker single-game rushing record of 211 yards on 25 carries in the game.
And UNLV's John Robinson, who used to coach the nation's premier running backs at the University of Southern California and should know better, can't recall when three players on the same team ran for 100 or more yards in the same game.
So when Rudolph -- the Mountain West Conference's leading rusher -- ran for 159 yards, Brown 139 and Thomas 126, you knew that it was a long night for Hawaii's defense.
Still, to think that UH only lost by two points -- after failing all nine two-point conversion attempts this season -- you realized that it was close, but no cigars, once again for the hometown team.
Break down the game and you realize it was same old, same old, again for Hawaii. Dropped passes, one 3-and-out too many and kickoff coverage by the special teams that could be described charitably as pathetic, and that could sum up the UH season.
That meant all the difference between this year and last year as UH went from a nine-win season to a nine loss season. From bowl eligible to bowl negligible.
With the victory, UNLV gained a berth in its hometown Las Vegas Bowl. The Rebels definitely had a lot more to play for than UH. They were Rebels with a cause, and it showed at the final gun.
WHILE the UH locker room resembled a morgue, UNLV's was raucous and the players were yelling, "Let's go Rebels. Let's go Rebels."
For the hearing impaired like me, it almost sounded like, "Let's go Rainbows, let's go Rainbows." Until I realized that's not the nickname of the 2000 UH football team.
Robinson, who was hired to make football almost as big a sport as basketball at UNLV, yelled to his players above the din, "All those who don't want to play in the Las Vegas Bowl, say yes.
No one said a word. Then he said, "All those who want to play in the Las Vegas Bowl and kick the ass of whoever we are playing, say yes."
No recount was needed.
And so it was back to the drawing boards for Jones and Company.
With quarterback Tim Chang, who had an eye-opening 3,041 passing yards in his year, Jones has something to build on.
Also, all I can say is, let's hope that Aloha Stadium officials and the police can guarantee that there will be no traffic jam for next season's Sept. 1 opener against Iowa State.
After all, they have one year to work on it.
Go 'Bows.