Butterflies?

"Yeah, I had some before the game when they told me I'd be starting (for the first time) Dorsey said.

"But my teammates helped settle me down and I was OK after that," Dorsey said of a night when he rushed for 111 yards and a touchdown.

Filling in for Larry Croom, who was slowed by a strained thigh muscle, the 5-foot-6, 165-pound Dorsey got the bulk of the work (25 carries) and enough first downs to help the Rebels take advantage of six turnovers in a 33-22 non-conference victory.

Dorsey said he didn't know until "just a couple hours" before game-time that he would start and, when he did, "I was a little nervous. It was the shock of it, I guess. But my teammates can tell when somebody is nervous and they told me to relax."

Having seen video of how the Southern California running backs fared against UH — 164 yards and four touchdowns — "I felt pretty good, " Dorsey said. "Looking at the films it wasn't like Hawai'i was real terrible or anything, but we felt we could basically run the ball on them.

"The runs that USC made, we felt we were capable of doing the same things against them," Dorsey said.

• Pac-10 officials made errors: Verle Sorgen, supervisor of Pac-10 officials, said his crew erred on both of the controversial calls in last week's Southern Cal-Hawai'i game.

He said the fumble call that allowed the Trojans' Ronald Nunn to score on a 38-yard fumble return should have been ruled an incomplete pass since the intended receiver, Gerald Welch, never had control of the ball.

In addition, Sorgen said UH's contention that USC held receiver David Gilmore on a fourth-and-nine play in the first quarter was, indeed, a hold. But Sorgen said pass interference should have been called on both the intended receiver and the defender resulting in offsetting penalties and the down replayed. He said because Gilmore engaged his man and did not look back for the ball the UH receiver was also guilty of interference.

Sorgen said the errors would be reflected in the assessments of the officials.

Hawai'i coach June Jones said: "It was clearly evident what happened and there's nothing you can do about it. It isn't gonna change anything. They're not gonna penalize them for it. They'll have a beer on Friday, rewind the tapes and say, 'Yeah, we were wrong.' "

• Injury report: Linebacker Anipati Mailo suffered a sprained right knee and is questionable for next Saturday's game against Rice, a UH spokesman said.

Mailo's injury was the only one deemed serious enough to keep any of the players who participated in the UNLV game out against Rice, UH said.

• More UH-UNLV possible: UH athletic director Herman Frazier said he and his UNLV counterpart have entered talks aimed at extending the series between the two schools.

Frazier said they are looking at possibilities between 2005 and 2007. "The talks were preliminary and we'll talk again," Frazier said.

• Third-largest crowd: The crowd of 34,287 — including thousands of Hawai'i fans who made the trip to Las Vegas — was the third largest home attendance in UNLV history.

It took a backseat only to two games involving Wisconsin (42,075 in 2002 and 40,901 in 1996), which brought more than 15,000 fans, necessitating additional seating at Sam Boyd Stadium, where capacity is listed at 36,800.

• Passing fancy: Hawai'i quarterback Tim Chang's 61 pass attempts and 37 completions were Sam Boyd Stadium records. The previous attempts record was 56 by Cody Ledbetter of New Mexico State (1995), who also held the completions record with 34 in the same 1995 game.

• Robinson perfect: UNLV coach John Robinson is 3-0 against UH (1978, 2000 and '03) and 2-2 against June Jones, including their NFL days.

• Scouts abound: Fifteen NFL scouts representing 16 teams — Baltimore had two — were in attendance at Sam Boyd Stadium yesterday, the most at a UNLV game, the Rebel sports information office said.

• Quick return: The Warriors were scheduled to have returned home about 3 a.m. this morning on their Aloha Airlines charter flight that was to have left about midnight from Las Vegas.