Dec. 15, 2003

LAS VEGAS - UNLV head football coach John Robinson will lead the West squad in the 79th Annual East-West Shrine Game, the college all-star event's executive director, Jack Hart, announced Monday.

Robinson and Pittsburgh head coach Walt Harris, who will oversee the East team, agreed to fill in for two coaches that had previously committed but instead will prepare to face each other for the BCS championship: Oklahoma's Bob Stoops and LSU's Nick Saban.

"I am so pleased for Nick and Bob that they will be playing for the national championship," Hart said. "John Robinson is one of football's most respected people. When I called him to see if he could coach in our game, there was no hesitation on his part."

Robinson, who is college football's all-time winningest bowl-game coach by percentage, is 130-68-4 in his 17-year college career at USC and UNLV. He won the national championship with the Trojans in the 1978 season and was named national coach of the year in 1979. Robinson will be inducted to the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame the day before USC and Michigan square off on New Year's Day.

The East-West Shrine Game, featuring many of the nation's top senior players and benefiting Shriners Hospitals for Children throughout North America, will be played at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2004.

Kickoff time is 11 a.m. Pacific Time and ESPN will broadcast the game live nationally.