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Friday, September 17, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
UNLV cornerback now a big-play man
By Mark Anderson
Review-Journal
UNLV's Kevin Thomas already had established himself as one of the Mountain West Conference's top cornerbacks before this football season.
But that was mostly for his solid work in keeping wide receivers in check.
Now, Thomas, just a sophomore, is turning into a big-play maker. This after not scoring at all last season.
Besides the 100-yard fumble return for the game-winning touchdown Saturday at Baylor, he returned an interception 49 yards for a score the week before that all but clinched the victory at North Texas.
Put the ball in Thomas' hands, and he has a chance to score. Having 4.4 speed in the 40-yard dash certainly doesn't hurt.
"This man's going to be a big-time player,'' UNLV coach John Robinson said.
Thomas said he isn't worried with trying to find another way to score.
"I'm just trying to concentrate on my assignments and my alignments,'' he said. "Hopefully, I can put myself in that situation where I can make the play like I have been. Then, I'll take it from there.''
-- MORE PUBLICITY -- This week's Sports Illustrated writes about Thomas' play in its college football notes.
-- TAKING THE BUS -- Fans can take the Citizen's Area Transit (CAT) to games this season.
For Saturday's 7 p.m. game against Iowa State at Sam Boyd Stadium, buses to the game will run from 5 to 8:30 p.m. They leave the stadium from 10 to 11:30 p.m.
One loop, Route 201A, runs from Boulder Highway and Tropicana Avenue to the stadium. The other, Route 201B, is an express between the Thomas & Mack Center and the stadium.
Each run is in about 30-minute intervals.
The fare is $1 each way.
-- LACK OF BIG PLAYS -- Although the Rebels are playing much better defensively in limiting opponents to 303.5 yards a game -- down from 429.2 a year ago -- UNLV's defensive front has been lacking with big plays.
The Rebels have made just four tackles for losses and one sack. Two of the tackles for losses and the sack were by middle linebacker James Sunia.
"Pass rush is nonexistent,'' Robinson said. "We're not very good at that. We wound up trying to stunt James Sunia in to mix up the pass rush. We are not possessed with Deacon Joneses out there where it's a simple man-on-man to rush the passer. We're concerned about it and need to face that issue.''
-- KEEPING IT BASIC -- Don't look for the Rebels to start imitating Florida State and run all sorts of trick plays.
"Trick plays don't work unless you're a dominant football team, and the (opponent) overplays just to stay even,'' Robinson said. "Then when you trick him, he's dumbfounded. We need to spend a long time saying we're going to beat you physically.
"We're going to have some stuff, but you're going to have to hang around a couple of years to see it. We're not going to use a trick-play mentality. We ran a reverse last week, and it looked so bad out on the practice field, I threw it out.''
-- DOING BETTER -- UNLV has scored 53 points so far this season.
Last season, the Rebels didn't reach 50 points until the fifth game.
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