UNLV football loses bid for linebacker prospect

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2001 | 10:23 a.m.

UNLV's bid to land arguably the top linebacker prospect on the West Coast this year, Long Beach (Calif.) Poly High School's Marvin Simmons, apparently has come up short.

The 6-0, 220-pound Simmons, a member of the Sun's Super 11 team, recently passed his SAT exam and will likely sign a letter of intent with USC sometime in the next week, according to his mother, Kathleen Simmons.

"Marvin spoke with (UNLV recruiting coordinator) Joe Hubbard and told him that he passed the test and will be signing with USC," Kathleen Simmons said on Monday afternoon.

Simmons had visited UNLV in January when it looked doubtful that he would garner the necessary test score needed to compete under NCAA freshman eligibility guidelines. USC, where Simmons had verbally committed last fall, does not accept partial or non-qualifiers.

But Simmons learned recently that he had garnered an SAT score of at least 840 needed to meet NCAA minimum freshman eligibility requirements. He had previously had taken the ACT and scored just a 13, five points short of the minimum 18 needed to meet NCAA freshman guidelines.

One Internet site reported Simmons garnered a 960 on the SAT while others had him scoring over 1,000. If true, that huge jump -- an ACT score of 13 is considered to be equal to about 620 in the SAT -- could catch the eyes of the NCAA Clearinghouse which could ultimately discard the score and force Simmons to retake the exam.

Kathleen Simmons refused to disclose what her son scored on the SAT saying only "What is important is that he passed."

She also refused a Sun request to talk to her son on Monday.

"He's had a lot of bad press lately and that's caused him quite a bit of anxiety," she said. "But we plan on having a press conference in the near future when he does sign with USC."

However, late Monday night Marvin Simmons was interviewed by Internet site PacWest Football from the Rivals.com network.

On the subject of the SAT score, Simmons said, "When you call ahead to get your score over the phone, they don't tell you what you got. All they say is whether or not you passed.

"As soon as I get my score back (in the mail), I have to send that into USC's admission's office for them to look things over. At that time, they'll clear me and allow me to sign. It should be within about two weeks."

A Long Beach Poly source said that Simmons also still has quite a bit of work to do to garner a 2.5 GPA in core subjects as required for NCAA freshman eligibility.