Bradeson aims to beef up run ‘D’

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Aug. 21, 2000 | 10:15 a.m.

John Robinson has had some top-notch secondary coaches during his college coaching career.

Folks like Norv Turner, now the head coach of the Washington Redskins, current UCLA head coach Bob Toledo and longtime USC assistant Dennis Thurman, a two-time All-American with the Trojans who went on to play in the Pro Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys.

But to hear Robinson tell it, none did a better job of coaching defensive backs for him than UNLV's Mike Bradeson did last season.

"What he did with our secondary (in 1999) was as good a coaching job as any I have seen in my career," Robinson said of a UNLV secondary that ranked 23rd nationally in pass efficiency defense.

So when defensive coordinator Jeff McInerney decided to leave the Rebels to join close friend Keith Burns at Tulsa last winter, Robinson didn't have to look far for his replacement.

He only had to look down the hallway on the second floor of the Lied Athletic Complex.

"I didn't know Mike at all when I came here," Robinson said of Bradeson, who along with since-departed Del Vaughn Alexander (San Diego Chargers) were the lone holdovers from Jeff Horton's coaching staff. "But I had some recommendations about him being a good guy and a good coach. Then once I got him on my staff, he seemed to be the guy who was on the front edge of everything. He was there to do whatever it took to get it done."

After 19 years as a college assistant that also included stops at Cal, Boise State and Nevada-Reno, the hard work finally paid off in a promotion for Bradeson.

"Oh, it's wonderful," Bradeson said following a recent practice at Rebel Park. "It's kind of the next step in your progression in coaching. You're always looking to move ahead and coach gave me a great opportunity. Now I've got to take advantage of it."

If he fails, it won't be for a lack of effort.

"Since he's taken the job, I'm not sure he's slept," Robinson joked.

The last night the energetic Bradeson got eight hours of sleep?

"Oh, Lord," he says. "I guess probably not since January."

But the 41-year-old Bradeson, who recently got engaged to April Harrold, isn't complaining.

"It's been a heck of an eight months," he said. "But in this job it's not work. It's fun. You love getting up and going to work each day."

Bradeson, praised by Robinson for his inventive defensive schemes, said his first priority as defensive coordinator will be to try to tighten a Rebel run defense that surrendered a dismal 234 yards per game last season.

"That's the No. 1 goal of fall camp," he said. "We've brought in some junior college players up front to help solidify things with the guys we have. And we've got some young kids who are going to have to rise up and play. But run defense is everybody. It's defensive backs as well as the defensive line. We're not real big, so we'll have to utilize our quickness."

Bradeson's promotion was a popular one with returning UNLV players.

"He's a guy who deserves it," said senior strong safety Randy Black. "I respect him a lot. He demands a lot out of you, but ... he treats you like a man. And he's a great coach. I've been here five years now and I don't think I've ever seen him on a day where he's like, 'Oh, I don't want to be here.' "

Black was back on the practice field a day later with a cast on the finger and will probably have a splint on the finger for UNLV's season opener on Sept. 9 at Iowa State. However, Wilson said that if there had been a larger fracture, or if part of the broken bone had shifted slightly, Black could have been sidelined "for several months."

"If that had happened, Randy would have had to have surgery to place a pin in the finger to stabilize it," Wilson said. "Then we would have had to have gone back in there in a couple of months to take the pin out."

Black suffered a similar injury as a true freshman out of Clark High School which required him to redshirt that season.