Life Is Good for Vegas Longshot

The weathered coach once won a national championship at a top-shelf football school, but nothing compared to the Gatorade splash that ensued after last Saturday’s underdog victory against a respected foe.

Taking over a top 10 program and keeping it there is one thing.

Getting people to stop laughing at a laughing stock is another.

Oregon State Coach Dennis Erickson deservedly stole the headlines Saturday with his team’s stunning win against USC in Corvallis, snapping the Beavers’ 26-game losing streak against the Trojans.

But Erickson wasn’t the only big-name college coach leading a once-forsaken program to a breakthrough victory.

Saturday evening, not far off the Las Vegas strip, in a game that would not receive a paragraph’s mention in the Southland’s largest metropolitan newspaper, John Robinson made his first serious national noise as second-year coach at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

You needed a magnifying glass to find the score in the agate type: UNLV 34, Air Force 13.

“It wasn’t a fluke,” the 65-year-old Robinson said from his office this week. “We dominated the game.”

In fact, the Rebels (2-2) amassed 483 total yards and didn’t punt until the fourth quarter.

That Robinson’s team broke through on the day USC lost to Oregon State is only worth digressing to note that, in two stints at USC, Robinson was 10-0 against the Beavers with an average winning margin of 28.8.

It was only coincidental that on the day kids were tearing down goal posts in Corvallis, UNLV was pushing to the national fore sophomore quarterback Jason Thomas, the former USC prized recruit who transferred to UNLV after USC fired Robinson in 1997.

Thomas, from Compton Dominguez High, completed 16 of 22 passes for 259 yards and a touchdown and ran for 57 yards and a score.

This week, Thomas ranks as the nation’s fifth-leading passer.

“He’s doing a remarkable job,” Robinson said of his quarterback.

This wasn’t Robinson’s first meaningful win at UNLV.

Last year, in his debut, UNLV ended a 16-game losing streak.

But the Air Force win was Robinson’s first “clout” victory.

“You can’t do it against Ralph’s Delicatessen,” Robinson said. “You’ve got to beat somebody. And it’s nice if somebody knows about it too.”

The win was televised regionally by ABC, UNLV’s first network appearance since 1981.

It has been a good year for the retreads: Erickson, Robinson and Lou Holtz, three guys who went back to football starter schools after combining to win four national championships at three different football factories.

Funny how expectations change.

Erickson assumed the legacy at Miami and was almost obligated to win two national titles in Jimmy Johnson’s wake.

Robinson won a 1978 championship after he inherited John McKay’s vaunted program.

Holtz claimed his 1988 trophy at Notre Dame, college football’s title town.

But winning big games at Oregon State, UNLV and South Carolina, well, that’s a different animal.

“It’s as high as I’ve ever been,” Erickson said after Saturday’s win over USC.

Robinson understood.

“At a school that has expectations of winning, everything gets tempered,” he said. “The only wins that are euphoric are the championship wins.

“It’s more fun for everybody when you say, ‘Oh, my God, we won.’ ”

Let’s face it: Building something from scratch is much more gratifying than taking over daddy’s company.

UNLV was 6-39 in the four years before Robinson’s arrival.

Oregon State was 11-33 in four seasons before Erickson.

South Carolina? The next bowl game the Gamecocks win will be their second.

This year, schools coached by Robinson, Holtz and Erickson are a combined 10-3.

Robinson, fired from his last two jobs, says he’s having a blast.

“But I think the fun is the people around you,” he said. “Seeing the elation of, ‘Oh, boy, we can do this.’ I tried to tell our guys after the game: ‘Hey, that win is the beginning. It’s the beginning of something.’ ”

Robinson, Holtz and Erickson have moved gracefully from the hunter to the hunted.

“The perennial winner kind of shrugs his shoulders and gets ready for the next one,” Robinson said. “He probably doesn’t enjoy it as much as the guy that’s not used to it.”

Everyone wants to know why there are so many upsets in today’s college game. The 85-scholarship limit is a significant factor, but there are also more quality coaches downsizing from top powers to traditional doormats.

“History doesn’t mean as much in football now as it used to,” Robinson said. “History is last year.”

And, in some cases, last week.

POLL WATCHING

So how does Michigan, after a three-point, fluke-play victory over Wisconsin at home, jump three places in this week’s AP poll, from No. 9 to No. 6?

And how does UCLA, after a dramatic, come-from-behind victory against 3-0 Arizona State, drop from No. 15 to No. 16?

Blame it on late-night television.

Poll voters have to call their weekly votes into the AP’s New York offices by 9 a.m. Pacific time on Sunday morning. The UCLA-Arizona State game did not end until almost 2 a.m. in the East.

A lot of writers went to bed thinking UCLA, which trailed 21-0, had lost.

“I was stunned when I saw the final score,” one East Coast AP voter said of UCLA’s victory. With little time to rework his entire top 25, the writer kept the Bruins in his No. 16 slot.

Meanwhile, in Ann Arbor, Michigan (4-1) took advantage of a daytime victory and top 10 losses by Florida, Washington and USC to vault back into national title contention.

“If UCLA played at noon on the East Coast, no way they drop,” said a Midwest AP voter, who did rework his final poll and moved UCLA to No. 12. “You can’t underestimate the benefit of seeing highlights.”

No one said this was a pretty process.

TITLE CHASE

The race for the two national title game slots is heating up. Consider this: Before season’s end, the top eight teams in this week’s AP poll will play at least one game against a team currently ranked in the top eight: 1. Florida State (Clemson, Miami); 2. Nebraska (Kansas State); 3. Virginia Tech (Miami); 4. Kansas State (Nebraska); 5. Clemson (Florida State); 6. Michigan (Ohio State); 7. Miami (Florida State, Virginia Tech); 8. Ohio State (Michigan).

The school with the clearest shot to the Orange Bowl?

Virginia Tech. The Hokies’ toughest remaining game is Nov. 4 at Miami and Virginia Tech is riding a five-game winning streak in the series.

No. 1 Florida State still has to play Miami, Clemson and Florida.

No. 2 Nebraska plays at Kansas State on Nov. 11 and, if it wins the Big 12 North Division, will likely face Texas in the Big 12 title game.

Kansas State is always a wild card, but we’re eager to see how much the team’s hilarious nonconference schedule will cost the Wildcats when the first bowl championship series rankings are released later this month.

The combined record of Kansas State’s five opponents this year is 1-21. The win was Louisiana Tech over Mississippi Valley State, a Division I-AA school.

Kansas State’s schedule ranks 131st among all schools in Jeff Sagarin’s ratings this week. New Haven, a Division II school, has a ranking of 123.

Sagarin’s is one of eight computer polls used in the four-pronged BCS rankings. The other three components are the AP and coaches’ polls, losses and strength of schedule.

HURRY-UP OFFENSE

A sentence we never thought we’d write: Northwestern is 4-1 but its chances of winning the Big Ten are hurt because the Wildcats miss Penn State on the schedule.

David Rothman’s early-season rankings are always entertaining, and this week is no exception. Texas Christian and Northwestern are 1-2 in Rothman’s poll, one of eight the BCS factors into its ratings formula.

Hermann Matthews’ ratings system, also used in the BCS formula, has Kansas State ranked 27th overall.

Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer, on his sensational quarterback, Michael Vick: “We basically have two plays. The one we call and the one Michael turns it into.”

Oregon and Oregon State are both ranked in the AP poll for the first time since Oct. 20, 1941. Oregon was No. 16 that week; Oregon State was 18th. Both schools dropped out the next week.

Oregon and Oregon State have never finished in the AP’s final rankings since polling began in 1936.

Oregon State isn’t out of the woods yet. The Beavers ended a 26-game losing streak to USC last week, but play at No. 13 Washington this week. Washington has won 11 in a row in the series and 22 of the last 23.

The Southeastern Conference, generally considered the best in college football, has no school ranked in the top 10 for the first time since Oct. 17, 1988.

There are a number of reasons why some schools are better than others; here are some numbers. There were 20 pro scouts at Florida State’s game at Maryland last week because 17 Seminoles are projected as first- or second-round NFL picks.