Knee injury ends season for UNLV safety Drew Tejchman

UNLV junior free safety Drew Tejchman suffered a non-contact left knee injury in practice Tuesday and will be out the rest of the season with a torn lateral collateral ligament.

Coach Tony Sanchez said Wednesday that Tejchman will undergo surgery next week.

Losing Tejchman is a major blow to the Rebels. He is fifth on the team with 15 tackles despite missing most of the game Sept. 14 at Northwestern after getting ejected for targeting in the first half.

The NCAA redshirt rule that went into effect last season will benefit Tejchman. Because he played in three games this season — he is allowed to play up to four without losing a year of eligibility— Tejchman will be able to redshirt and have two seasons remaining. He has not used a redshirt season.

Junior Greg Francis, who went to Bishop Gorman High School, will take Tejchman’s place when the Rebels play at Wyoming at 5 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ll be all right,” Sanchez said. “Wyoming has been dealing with injuries. We had some before the season.”

Also, junior backup quarterback Max Gilliam is back practicing after injuring his foot in summer conditioning. Sanchez said he expected Gilliam to be cleared to play in the next week or two.

Ex-UNLV QBs shining at FCS schools

Quarterbacks Dalton Sneed at Montana and Kevin Thomson at Sacramento State are making the most of their second chances at FCS schools.

Now a senior with the Grizzlies, Sneed has completed 69.4 percent of his passes for 1,214 yards and eight touchdowns, with four interceptions. He doesn’t run as much as at UNLV, having gained just 51 yards on the ground for the 17th-ranked Grizzlies, who are 3-1, having lost 35-3 at Oregon.

Thomson has quarterbacked the Hornets to a 2-2 record, with the two losses 19-7 at Arizona State and 34-20 at Fresno State. Thomson, a junior, has completed 62.5 percent of his passes for 1,160 yards and 13 touchdowns, with two interceptions.

Both left UNLV for different reasons.

Sneed was at UNLV for two seasons, redshirting in 2015 and starting five games the following year. He passed for 632 yards that year and rushed for 348, but moved to wide receiver late in the season. Sneed then transferred to a junior college for a year before moving on to Montana and playing for coach Bobby Hauck, who first recruited him to the Rebels when Hauck was at UNLV.

Thomson’s football days looked they might be done when he injured his elbow four years ago as a redshirt freshman at UNLV and required Tommy John surgery. But he received interest from lower-level schools and decided to transfer to Sacramento State.

Rebels, Cowboys renew competitive series

UNLV didn’t play Wyoming the past two seasons because of the two-year rotation with the Mountain Division.

The Cowboys lead the rivalry 12-11, and they have been especially difficult to beat at home. UNLV is 4-7 in Laramie, Wyoming, with the Rebels’ last victory there occurring in 2003.

But UNLV also has averaged 32.3 points per game in this series since the Mountain West began play in 1999. The Rebels won their last meeting 69-66 in triple overtime in 2016 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

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Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.