Kansas University football fans making the trip to Las Vegas for Saturday night’s football game might want to review their checklists of items they need to pack.

“Just bring a flashlight,” UNLV coach John Robinson said with a chuckle. “If everybody brings a flashlight “

In a city known for its bright lights, UNLV’s season-opener against Wisconsin was called because of darkness Saturday when an electrical transformer blew near Sam Boyd Stadium.

With 7:41 left in the fourth quarter of the Badgers’ 27-7 victory, the lights went out. A crowd of 42,075 the largest ever to see a team sporting event in Nevada was left in the dark and a national ESPN2 broadcast was knocked off the air.

After emergency lighting kicked in, Robinson met with Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez and officials and agreed to call the game but not before the Rebels coach had some fun.

“I went across the field and met Barry and the referee at midfield and said, ‘We have a Mountain West rule that if a game isn’t completed it’s an automatic draw,’ and Barry just about fainted,” Robinson said. “But then he realized I was kidding.”

Robinson said players cooled down during the delay and calling the game was “the right thing to do.”

“Whenever anything like that happens,” he said, “the safety of the players is the biggest issue.”

Good seats available: KU, apparently, is not quite as big a draw as Wisconsin. After a state-record crowd turned out for the Badgers, a crowd of 23,000 to 25,000 is expected Saturday night.

It’s no L.A.: While Vegas is often referred to as Sin City, Robinson said he wasn’t overly concerned with the distractions the Strip offers to college students.

“I thought my players were in more danger, in more jeopardy in Los Angeles than they are in this town,” said Robinson, who coached at Southern California from 1976 to 1981 and 1993 to 1997 with a nine-year run with the Los Angeles Rams in between.

Robinson, who also is UNLV’s athletic director, said the Vegas casinos do a good job of keeping underage visitors out.

“First of all, there are no players or coaches on our team who have enough money to gamble,” Robinson said with a laugh. “You have to be 21. If you’re not 21, the control that the casinos have over people who aren’t 21 is shocking almost.”

Running back update: KU coach Mark Mangino hinted on his Thursday night radio show that red-shirt freshman running back Clark Green might have moved ahead of junior starter Reggie Duncan, who struggled in the season-opener at Iowa State.

“Clark Green has had a big week,” Mangino said. “There’s a possibility he might even start.”

Recruiting: Mangino was asked during “Hawk Talk” if Kansas was on level playing ground with Kansas State and Oklahoma two schools where he was an assistant when it comes to recruiting junior college players.

“They are able to take some junior college players that we are not,” said Mangino, whose first recruiting class included seven junior college players. “Our academic standards are a little higher. That’s OK. We will find athletes who meet our requirements.”