As I sat inside a packed Tam Alumni Center on UNLV's campus—there were quite possibly more people in the room than there were in Sam Boyd Stadium for the final home football game of the 1998 season—I could not believe my eyes. There, some 10 feet away, was John Robinson, a living football legend. On the table in front of him sat a UNLV football helmet. Behind him, a university banner.
The man who had won Rose Bowls and a national championship at the University of Southern California, who had twice taken the Los Angeles Rams to the brink of the Super Bowl in the 1980s, had just agreed to become the head coach ... of the UNLV Rebels? The same program that was coming off a season in which it had won exactly zero games and compiled a horrendous 6-39 record over its previous three years?
Astonishing.
"People have asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'" the then-63-year-old Robinson told the assembled crowd on December 3, 1998. "Because it gives us the chance to put ourselves on the line. Every athlete, every person, every one of you, we're all at our best when we are on the line, when we accept a challenge and do whatever we can to meet it. ... I'll do anything I can to make this program work."
To a guy who had personally witnessed every one of those 39 losses in the previous 45 games—I served as the Rebels' beat writer for the Las Vegas Review-Journal from 1996-98—it was an absolutely brilliant hire. Without question, Robinson was the most significant addition to an athletics department in desperate search of legitimacy since a guy named Tark roamed the campus.
No way, I thought, would this guy fail.
Yet nearly five years to the day after the Robinson hire left me so stunned, I sit here equally flabbergasted to see that, on the eve of the legendary coach's final game, the UNLV football program is virtually right back at Square One: buried at the bottom of the Mountain West Conference standings, battling internal strife and dealing with the fact that virtually nobody around here really gives a crap what happens next.
That last part is especially damning. Because if there was one area where Robinson figured to succeed, it was building widespread community interest in the program. The wins? Well, even the most optimistic among us knew that part wouldn't be easy, even for J.R. But at the very least, the fiery coach would stir a passion for UNLV football never before seen.
Instead, students, alumni and the community at large appear as apathetic today as they were in the wake of that 0-12 campaign in 1998. Case in point: Following consecutive victories last month over arch-rival UNR at home and at conference foe BYU, the Rebels came home to face New Mexico on October 16 ... and failed to draw a crowd of 20,000.
That's not to say the Robinson Era was a bust. On the contrary. By the end of his second year on the job, he had led the Rebels to an 8-5 record and a victory over Arkansas in the Las Vegas Bowl. And thanks to the legacy he established at USC and with the Rams, Robinson was able to attract the caliber of athletes to UNLV that no other coach before him could have dreamed to recruit.
Problem was, for whatever reason—and there are many opinions—he failed to parlay any of that into long-term success. In fact, take away that 8-5 season in 2000 and Robinson's cumulative UNLV record entering Saturday's season finale at San Diego State is a mind-boggling 20-36.
This year has been especially confounding, as Robinson had what many believed to be the most talented team of his five-year tenure. But the Rebels (2-8) never recovered from a brutal early schedule that included season-opening losses at nationally ranked Tennessee and Wisconsin, followed by home defeats to Air Force and Utah State. Following the latter setback, Robinson announced he would retire at season's end, a move that seemed to inspire the troops, as UNLV won those two games against UNR and BYU. Since then, however, the squad has lost four straight and now finds itself in need of a victory Saturday to avoid its worst record since 1998—and the worst mark by Robinson-coached team in 26 illustrious years on the sidelines.
Since Robinson turned in his resignation in late September, several names have surfaced as possible replacements, including former Nebraska coach Frank Solich and assistants from such top programs as Michigan State, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. Athletics director Mike Hamrick is expected to make a final decision in a matter of weeks, but whomever he chooses will undoubtedly be faced with this question:
If John Robinson couldn't get it done at UNLV, who can?