Quarterback Thomas will sign Saturday

Steve Guiremand

Friday, April 30, 1999 | 11:40 a.m.

Highly regarded quarterback prospect Jason Thomas said he will make his long-rumored transfer to UNLV official Saturday when he holds a press conference announcing he will become a Rebel.

"I'm coming up there to make it official," Thomas said Thursday afternoon from his dorm room at Southern Cal, where he was preparing for his last week of final exams. "I'm glad to get this out of the way and move on with my life."

Thomas and his brother, Charles, were looking into the prospect of holding the press conference on Saturday afternoon, perhaps at the new Four Seasons Hotel at Mandalay Bay, where he stayed on his official recruiting visit to UNLV two weeks ago.

Thomas said he still has been getting frequent phone calls from schools such as Kansas State, Syracuse and Miami. However, he said his mind is made up and he wants to play for the man who originally recruited him to USC, new UNLV coach John Robinson.

The 6-5, 230-pound left-hander was considered the crown jewel of USC's 1997 recruiting class after becoming only the fourth player in the 23-year history of the Long Beach Press-Telegram's Best in the West poll of college coaches to earn first-team honors in both football, where he was a rare unanimous 10-vote choice, and in basketball, where he helped lead Compton's Dominguez High School to back-to-back California State Division II titles in 1996 and 1997.

But Thomas redshirted at USC as a freshman because of complications from a dislocated ankle suffered while playing football his senior year. That put him behind another highly touted Trojan freshman quarterback, Carson Palmer, in new coach Paul Hackett's pecking order.

Thomas thought he would get a chance to compete with Palmer for the starting job in spring practice this year. However, he was switched to wide receiver and returned punts on the second day of spring drills and concluded that chance would not be forthcoming. He asked for and was granted his official release from USC a few days later.

Student Sports Magazine named Thomas its California Sophomore Athlete of the Year in 1996 and its California Junior Athlete of the Year in 1997. An explosive leaper who has been timed at 4.52 in the 40-yard dash, he attended the prestigious Nike All-American Basketball Camp in Indianapolis before his sophomore and junior years and was regarded as one of the top 20 prospects at both camps. He declined to attend before his senior year to concentrate on developing his quarterback skills.

"Jason's best attribute is the mental part of the game," Dominguez football coach Keith Donerson said. "He feeds off competition and gets better the bigger the game. He's a team leader who knows what it takes to win. All people talk about is his running ability (Thomas rushed for 894 yards and 22 TDs as a junior), but I've seen him throw the ball 70 yards in the air off his back foot."

Although he is attempting to obtain an eligibility waiver from the NCAA, Thomas likely will have to sit out the 1999 season. He would then have three years of eligibility remaining.