McCallum excited for Navy-UNLV series … despite the wait

By Ryan Greene

Friday, Oct. 3, 2008 | 1:02 p.m.

Finally, Napoleon McCallum will get to see his alma mater play football in Las Vegas. The only downside is that he'll have to wait a little while.

But at least he knows it'll happen.

The UNLV football program recently inked a four-year deal to play Navy, though the series won't begin until the Midshipmen come to Las Vegas in 2014.

"Either way, it's pretty cool," said McCallum, a former Navy running back who now lives and works in Las Vegas. "We've got a lot of (alumni) in San Diego, and we've got a lot of people from the Navy who are here in Las Vegas."

McCallum, now the Director of Community Development for the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, is also a member of the Las Vegas Bowl committee. He said it tried to get the Midshipmen in town for the bowl game two years ago, but Navy already had committed to face Utah in the Poinsettia Bowl in -- makes sense -- San Diego.

The chances are good that McCallum will be in Las Vegas long enough to see the Midshipmen play at Sam Boyd Stadium, as he's pretty satisfied with his life's work at the moment. His six-year NFL career -- spent entirely with the Raiders -- was cut short due to a nasty knee injury in 1994.

"It's all in the past," McCallum said of the injury several football fans remember. "People bring it up every once in awhile. It's a good story."

Nowadays most of the people who encounter McCallum are too young to have heard the tale. He helps organize events such as one a couple weeks ago that brought 1,700 at-risk kids from the Vegas area to the Venetian to see the Blue Man Group perform. Events such as those are rewards for kids who succeed in school, thanks to a program with the Clark County School District.

"We were watching those kids and how they enjoyed the Blue Man Group, and it just hits you," McCallum said. "Sometimes events hit you right in the heart."

Fist bump of the week: This one's pretty easy. It goes to Green Valley High kicker Nolan Kohorst.

High school kickers who can accurately drill the ball 50-plus yards are about as rare as a playoff win on the north side of Chicago, which makes Kohorst a nice commodity for the Gators to have as league play kicks into high gear in Southern Nevada.

Last week, Green Valley won a game at Coronado in which it turned the ball over seven times. That almost never happens. But, then again, a kid kicking two 50-plus yard field goals hardly ever occurs, either.

Kohorst connected from 51 and 54, and missed a 53-yarder by mere inches.

After the game, I asked him which schools were looking at him (he's just a junior), and the only Division I program he listed was Boise State.

The twist is that his father, Keith Kohorst, was an offensive lineman at UNLV from 1981-82. It sounds like if the Rebels were to make a push, they'd have the younger Kohorst's attention.

Plus, the timing of it is pretty solid from UNLV's standpoint. The two kickers on the roster right now are Kyle Watson (a junior) and Ben Jaekle (a sophomore). If the Rebels were to somehow land Kohorst, they could redshirt him and have him be the four-year replacement for the current two-man tandem.

Now, let me slow this down, since it's all speculation.

But speculation's just so much fun.

At the window this weekend: 1-1 last weekend in the debut, and I'm convinced that if Carson Palmer played, it would have been a clean sweep. And if the queen had ... well, better not finish off that saying.

-In college, I'm just going to continue to go against Penn State. Are they the best team in the Big Ten? Hands down. And the Nittany Lions finally played someone last week ... but failed to cover the spread. They should win again this weekend at Purdue, but that 13-point dish is hard not to go with. Plus, how can you bet against a mustache like Joe Tiller's?

-Until someone gives me a good reason to, I'm riding Jeff Haney's coat tails in terms of NFL picks. In case you haven't seen our weekly sports show, "All In," the in-house guru is a clean 4-0 this season with his pro selections. It's just insane. He likes Baltimore +3 at home against Tennessee this week. I can't argue against that.

Until next week, ciao.