UNR’s secret weapon: Matt Ray?

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2000 | 10:01 a.m.

Don't be surprised if Nevada-Reno knows UNLV's offensive plays as well as some of the Rebels do when the two teams meet Saturday night at Sam Boyd Stadium.

That's because Chris Tormey's squad has a very detailed scouting report of the Rebels courtesy of Matt Ray.

It was only two months ago that Ray, who started three games at quarterback at the end of the 1999 season, was running UNLV's offense every day in practice in his battle with Jason Thomas for the starting quarterback job.

When Ray lost out as expected to the more-talented Thomas, he asked for and was granted his release from Rebel head coach John Robinson.

A couple of weeks later, he showed up in Reno where he is currently a walk-on scout team quarterback.

Now Ray, who made no secret of his bitterness of losing out to Thomas to UNLV players and coaches, can get back at his old team this week by giving the Wolf Pack an in-depth scouting report on the offense he ran while with the Rebels.

"It helps," Tormey admitted. "Matt has given us some insight in what (UNLV) is doing. But you still have to show up and stop it. We can see on film pretty much what they do anyway."

UNLV coach John Robinson said he was "unsure" if Ray could do that much to help the Wolf Pack.

"I don't think it makes that big of difference," he said. "We've been pretty flexible with our offense since the season started."

Ray did not respond to a Sun interview request this week.

"He's going to do some things (today) and if he feels good on Saturday, he'll go," Robinson said. "Other than that, he won't."

Greer, who has made no secret of the fact he wants to play in his final game against Nevada-Reno, would be replaced by junior Shane Wagers if he can't go.

Starting wide receiver Troy Mason also stood on the sidelines nursing a sore ankle.

Nevada-Reno, which lost 24 seniors from a team that went 3-8 last season, has only seven seniors on its roster.

"It's the only week you have a cannon in the locker room," Smith said.

Smith was referring to the Fremont Cannon, which the winning team in the yearly rivalry gets to keep until the next meeting.