Columnist Steve Guiremand: Rebels may be fun to watch in 2000

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Sept. 8, 2000 | 11:31 a.m.

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. His Around Campus column appears Friday during the football season. Reach him at steveg@lasveggassun.com or 259-2324.

A word to the wise.

If you've been contemplating buying UNLV football season tickets this year but just haven't had the time to get around to do so, snap to it.

You should actually get your money's worth for a change.

Unlike two years ago, when some of the nation's top junior college programs probably had better talent than UNLV, this year's squad should be competitive and fun to watch.

You no doubt have heard all about new quarterback Jason Thomas, a transfer from USC. Take it from someone who has watched Thomas play both football and basketball since the ninth grade. He is the real deal.

"I'd pay to watch him play," UNLV coach John Robinson said this week.

So would I. And when was the last time you heard of a sportswriter paying for anything?

Robinson also called Thomas the most talented quarterback he had coached.

Considering he had longtime NFL players such as Vince Evans, Sean Salisbury and Paul McDonald during his USC glory days, that's a mouthful.

"There's no doubt that Jason Thomas is the best athlete I've ever coached at the position," Robinson said. "Vince Evans also was pretty athletic, but he wasn't 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds like Jason.

"Jason has that shiftiness that reminds me of Roger Staubach and Steve Young. He also has an extremely powerful arm."

But there will be a lot more to watch than just Thomas.

Running backs Kevin Brown and Jeremi Rudolph, wide receivers Nate Turner and Bobby Nero, cornerback Kevin Thomas and defensive ends Anton Palepoi and Scott Parkhurst all should be rich young men one day when they get drafted by NFL teams. A handful of other players also could be playing on Sundays soon.

And the offense, which was drab and bland last year by design, will be much more wide open and entertaining this year with Thomas at the controls.

It should actually be fun to watch the Rebels play this season.

Will UNLV play in a bowl this year? Probably not. Will the Rebels and Thomas still experience some growing pains? Probably so. But the Rebels have come a long way since that pathetic 0-11 squad that played at Sam Boyd Stadium just two years ago.

Yes, there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel.

It was by four USC football players outside a campus apartment last week.

Defensive linemen Bernard Riley and Malcolm Woolridge, wide receiver Steve Stevenson and safety Kyle Matthews helped comfort and attend to fellow USC student Danielle Dauenhauer after she fell backward out of her second floor apartment window and become impaled on the prongs of two wrought-iron security bars while dangling six feet above the ground upside down.

The four players, who heard Dauenhauer's screams from their nearby apartment, broke down a jammed door to get outside to shoo away gawkers and hold up Dauenhauer until paramedics arrived.

Riley and Woolridge took turns supporting Dauenhauer's 165-pound frame so the metal rods wouldn't sink deeper into her buttocks. Eventually, paramedics arrived and Dauenhauer was transported to the hospital with the bars still intact and about four inches deep into her body.

Surgery and stitches eventually fixed the wound. Dauenhauer was back on campus early this week hobbling across campus where she thanked the four Trojan football players for their help.

"Reaching out like a team ... nothing makes me prouder than this," USC coach Paul Hackett said.

Once around the MWC

Once around the nation

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