UNLV receivers coach has strong backround

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Aug. 20, 1998 | 10:56 a.m.

MESQUITE -- DelVaughn Alexander knows a thing or two about wide receivers.

In his senior year at USC, he played behind a future NFL first-round draft pick in Johnnie Morton.

Two years later as a graduate assistant for the Trojans, he helped mold fellow West Los Angeles College alum Keyshawn Johnson into the first pick of the 1996 NFL draft.

And during the last two years at Troy, he has worked with the likes of future NFL first-rounder R. Jay Soward as well as All-Pac-10 candidate Billy Miller.

Now the former two-sport athlete from USC will try to work some of his coaching magic in his first full-time college coaching job at UNLV.

The 27-year-old Alexander replaced Eric Yarber as the Rebels' wide receivers coach last February when Yarber decided to take a coaching position with his old college coach, Dennis Erickson of the Seattle Seahawks.

Enter Alexander, who came highly recommended.

"I talked to John Robinson about him and he was very high on DelVaughn," UNLV head coach Jeff Horton said. "I talked with (Notre Dame assistant) Mike Sanford and he was, too. I valued their opinions."

New UNLV offensive coordinator Buzz Preston knew of Alexander from his Washington State coaching days. And current Trojans assistant Hue Jackson also called on Alexander's behalf.

Alexander inherits a veteran wide receivers corps led by Damon Williams, Lennie Ware and Carlos Baker that is arguably the WAC's best.

"I wanted a young, energetic guy who could pick that group up," Horton said. "He also had good recruiting ties to Los Angeles."

So Horton decided to give Alexander his big break in the college coaching profession.

"I look back when I was a young coach in his same shoes and (Nevada) Coach (Chris) Ault gave me an opportunity," Horton said. "I don't mind doing the same as long as I know that person is going to work hard."

That won't be a problem according to Sanford, who helped coach and groom Alexander as USC's wide receivers coach before leaving two years ago to become quarterback coach at Notre Dame.

"He'll do a great job there," Sanford said Wednesday night from South Bend. "He's a very bright and classy person. He's really good working with people. I felt all along that he would be a good coach one day."

It was Sanford who convinced Alexander, who came to USC on a track scholarship, to try out as a wide receiver for the Trojans. A former all-L.A. City performer at University High and also an all-conference performer at West L.A., Alexander saw action in 14 games during the 1993 and 1994 seasons for the Trojans as a reserve wide receiver and special teams player. He caught just one pass in his career but made it count, grabbing a 13-yard touchdown pass against Oregon State in 1993.

"I was strictly a track guy at USC at first," said Alexander, who had bests of 6-11 in the high jump and 48-7 in the triple jump. "But Coach Sanford had known about me as a football player and got me to go out. I was a project. But he took a lot of time with me and showed me a lot of respect."

Alexander, only a few classes short of obtaining his master's degree in education, was a good student of the game according to Sanford.

"He was very studious," Sanford said. "He was one of those guys who always did everything right and even did the meticulous things to get better. He always was prepared to play."

Now Alexander is hoping to pass on that same type of work ethic to UNLV's talented receiving corps.

"They've responded very well," Alexander said. "Anything I've asked them to do, they're willing to do it. They understand I've been around the receivers at SC, which has a pretty good wide receiver tradition."

And how would Alexander compare UNLV's group of wideouts with USC's, which was recently rated the nation's best by Lindy's College Football Magazine?

"They're definitely comparable to SC's," Alexander said. "Of course, SC has R. Jay, who is a special talent. But with the mixture of guys we have here, they do things just as well as the guys they have at SC."