Weekend was truly troublesome for WAC

September 19, 1998, won't exactly go down in the WAC history books as a day to remember.

A day to forget, yes. Just call it Black Saturday.

WAC teams played eight nonconference foes that day. Care to guess how many WAC teams ended up of the left side of the score ledger?

Try a big fat zero.

The folks around Las Vegas are well aware of Wisconsin's 52-7 thumping of UNLV. But that was somewhat expected.

However, San Jose State, which upset Stanford only a few weeks ago, was supposed to put up a much better fight than the 58-3 thrashing the Spartans suffered at Oregon. And Rocky Long's New Mexico Lobos were 18-point favorites to take care of in-state rival New Mexico State, but lost in the final seconds, 28-27.

BYU (20-10 loss at Washington), Wyoming (respectable 16-9 defeat at Georgia), SMU (44-17 loss at Arkansas), Rice (23-14 loss to visiting Northwestern) and Fresno State (34-28 defeat at Texas Tech) also came home empty-handed.

"It certainly was (disappointing)," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said Monday. "Regardless of the breakup, to go through a weekend with no wins, nothing to hang your hat on but a couple of so-called good performances, it was disappointing."

Especially for a conference still searching for a bowl game for its champion.

Benson still is negotiating with the Cotton Bowl and Holiday Bowl to take the WAC champ. The Liberty, Independence and Aloha Bowls, he says, are also possibilities.

But with the conference's two marquee teams, Colorado State (2-2) and BYU (1-2), having taken their share of lumps out of the gate, Benson figures to have a very tough sell with the major bowls.

"Obviously, if we had had a successful weekend it would have energized some of the negotiations with potential (bowl) partners," Benson said. "But I think everyone realizes that the season is a 12-week season. There will be plenty of opportunities for the WAC to prove itself."

Don't look, Jeff

UNLV head football coach Jeff Horton supposedly doesn't read the newspapers during the season, which is probably a good thing.

But Horton also may want to avoid checking out the NCAA statistical leaders this week.

The Rebels (0-3) rank dead last among 112 Division 1-A squads in two major catagories and aren't far behind in several others.

UNLV's rushing offense average of 17.3 yards per game and scoring defense average of 48.3 points are the worst in the country. The Rebels' rush defense, which is allowing an average of 292.7 yards per game, is 111th ahead of only mighty Kent (340.0).

UNLV also finds itself near the bottom in total offense (213.3 yards per game, No. 109), total defense (478.3 yards, No. 106) and scoring offense (8.0 points per game, No. 108).

As they say, there's only one way to go.

Wild blue yonder

BYU lost a key interconference matchup at Washington Saturday, 20-10, but at least the Cougars lived to tell about it.

The Cougars' charter to Seattle was forced to make an evasive dive to dodge a military jet while getting ready to land in Boise, Idaho for a refueling stop.

The pilot of the WinAir 727 told the team that a cockpit alarm ordered him to dive 500 feet to dodge an A-10 Warthog. Several players said they could see the plane approaching out their windows.

"This is the closest I've ever seen two planes," defensive tackle Dennis Yancey said.

BYU coach LaVell Edwards, however, said Monday that the incident was blown out of proportion.

"Coming into Boise the ride was a little bumpy anyway," Edwards said. "It felt like we hit a little burp and then leveled out. I just thought we had hit a very severe weather pocket. But when we landed the pilot said a military plane had apparently caused an alarm to go off in the cockpit. Whether it was real dangerous or whatever, I don't know. It happened so suddenly.

"Obviously it makes a great story," Edwards continued. "Initially, I heard that we dropped 200 feet, then it was 500. Then someone said it was 700. Next week it'll probably be 1,500."

Edwards did say several of his players, including Yancey, claimed to see the plane out their windows.

"I think they said they saw it turn off or turn away," Edwards said. "How close it was, I don't know. All those stories start popping up afterward. But from my standpoint, it was blown out of proportion."

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