BYU QB proving himself on field

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Oct. 22, 1999 | 10:10 a.m.

While starring at Los Alamitos High School in Southern California, Kevin Feterik dreamed one day of playing for the USC Trojans.

Feterik, who would earn all-state and Orange County player of the year honors after passing for 3,205 yards and 29 touchdowns as a senior for the Griffins, said he "went to a bunch of Trojan games. I went to one of their academic days before my senior year."

The coach of USC at the time was John Robinson. His assistant recruiting the north Orange County area, Mike Sanford, had a daughter, Lindsay, who was a cheerleader at Los Alamitos and was in several of Feterik's classes. Sanford rarely missed a Los Al game.

The table seemed set for Feterik to become a Trojan.

"But they never offered me a scholarship," Feterik said. "They decided to take Mike Van Raaphorst instead."

There were concerns among some college scouts about Feterik's size (listed at 6-0) and arm strength. So USC passed for the bigger (6-4) and stronger Van Raaphorst. UCLA, which already had a freshman lefty named Cade McNown, also backed off at the end.

So Feterik signed with a college that ran a similar wide-open passing game as he had run in high school, BYU.

There are no longer any questions about his size or arm strength.

Feterik, who leads 19th-ranked BYU (5-1, 2-0) into Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday night to play UNLV, leads the Mountain West Conference and is fifth nationally in total offense (328.33 yards per game) and is seventh nationally in pass efficiency (149.2). He has completed a pass to 16 different receivers and has thrown 17 touchdown passes in just six games.

BYU began a publicity campaign this week promoting Feterik for postseason awards. And Sports Illustrated sent a writer to Provo this week to do a piece on him.

"He's a very accurate passer," UNLV defensive coordinator Jeff McInerney said. "He's got a nice touch. He's got great escapability and can throw on the run. He has a knack for making the big play. He's a winner."

Feterik says he holds no grudges against Robinson for passing on him at USC.

"I remember that me and Tony Hartley (a wide receiver who now starts at Oregon) were kind of surprised when they didn't offer us," Feterik said. "But I'm kind of glad the way the things have worked out here. I'm not going to get into (revenge)."

"He does an excellent job of running their offense for them," Robinson said. "He's having a very good year for them."

* TICKET UPDATE: UNLV went over the 30,000 mark on Thursday afternoon in presale tickets for Saturday night's game with the Cougars.

It's only the fourth time in school history that the Rebels have passed the 30,000 ticket barrier for a home game.

* NO TIME CHANGE: BYU contacted UNLV athletic director Charles Cavagnaro on Thursday morning about the possibility of pushing Saturday night's 7:30 kickoff back another half hour to 8 p.m.

Reason? KLS-TV in Salt Lake City, which is televising the game back in Utah, is also obligated to show Saturday night's opening game of the World Series which begins at 5 p.m.

That means if the baseball game goes past the 2 1/2-hour mark, fans in Utah will miss the start of the BYU-UNLV game, a very likely possibility. And if the game goes into extra innings or is played at a slow pace, they could miss a large portion of the football game.

"We looked into it, but logistically, we just couldn't do it," UNLV senior associate athletic director Jerry Koloskie said.

Part of the problem is that UNLV already has a number of homecoming activities planned for the evening.

* ALL'S WELL: Trainer Kyle Wilson reported that no players will miss the game because of injury.