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UNLV (1-2, 0-0 MOUNTAIN WEST)
vs.
TOLEDO (2-1, 1-0 MID-AMERICAN)
DATE: Saturday, Sept. 21, 2002KICKOFF: 4:07 pm PDTSITE: Glass Bowl (26,248/NeXturf) Toledo, OHTV: KFBT-Gold 33 (TBA & Charles Arbuckle)RADIO: ESPN 920 AM (Tim Neverett & Bruce Snyder)
GAME PREVIEW
UNLV (1-2) continues its non-conference schedule by staying on the road and traveling to Mid-American Conference defending champion Toledo (2-1) on Saturday ... The Rebels and Rockets face each other for the first time in 18 years and for the first time ever during the regular season ... Even with last week's 31-21 loss at Minnesota, Toledo boasts of a record of 22-4 since 2000, including winning last year's MAC title game and downing Cincinnati 23-16 in the 2001 Motor City Bowl en route to a final ranking of No. 23(AP)/22 ... Saturday's game will be broadcast in Las Vegas only by ESPN Regional at UNLV on KFBT-TV Gold 33 (Cable Channel 6) ... The game will mark the Rebels' only visit outside of the Pacific and Mountain time zones this season ... Toledo will be the furthest east UNLV has traveled since playing at Clemson in South Carolina on Sept. 4, 1993 ... UNLV did play in Ypsilanti, MI, in 1995 and Knoxville, TN, in 1996 but both are located just west of Toledo ... The Rebels are 6-6 all-time vs. teams from the MAC: (1-0 vs. Toledo, 2-1 vs. Central Michigan, 1-0 vs. Marshall, 1-0 vs. Ohio, 1-1 vs. Eastern Michigan, 0-1 vs. Akron and 0-3 vs. Northern Illinois) ... John Robinson has never faced a MAC team during his 15-plus years as a collegiate head coach ... The only other MWC school that has played the Rockets is CSU, which split a two-game series with UT in the 1970s ... The Rebels, who will compete on NeXturf Saturday, lost for the first time in four games played on a non-grass surface under Robinson last week at OSU ... Six of UNLV's 2002 opponents received votes in this week's coaches' poll: No. 17 Wisconsin, No. 25 Colorado State, Oregon State, BYU, Air Force and Utah.
ROCKETS vs. REBELS NOTES
The game will be returned when Toledo opens the 2003 season at UNLV on August 30 ... Although UNLV and UT have never met in Las Vegas, the Rockets have played at Sam Boyd Stadium as the 1995 MAC Champs downed Nevada, Reno 40-37 in Las Vegas Bowl IV in what went in the record books as the first overtime game in Div. I-A history ... The only other time UNLV has played in the state of Ohio was on Nov. 27, 1976, when the University of Akron ousted the Rebels from the Div. II playoffs, 27-6 ... While UT has no Nevadans on its roster, UNLV has one player from the Buckeye State: Ryan Heise, a freshman DL/LS from Port Clinton.
