UNLV preparing media blitz for QB Thomas

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, May 17, 2001 | 10:53 a.m.

Drive north down Paradise near the Hard Rock Cafe these days and you'll come across a billboard featuring UNLV quarterback Jason Thomas.

If UNLV associate sports information director Mark Wallington has his way, you'll be seeing a whole lot more of the extremely talented 6-foot-4, 235-pound junior left-hander in the coming months.

Wallington, a University of Florida graduate who is about to begin his ninth year as an SID at UNLV, has been busy putting together an outline for a national multimedia blitz on the talents and accomplishments of Thomas, the 2000 Las Vegas Bowl MVP who figures to vie for All-America honors -- and maybe even the Heisman Trophy -- in 2001.

"We're calling it an awards campaign, an awareness campaign," Wallington said. "We aren't going to refer to it as a Heisman Trophy campaign. That's up to the voters and media to decide."

Still, it doesn't hurt to have a good publicity machine behind you, especially when you're playing for an up-and-coming football school that plays in the sometimes overlooked Mountain West Conference.

Although Thomas' enormous talent has been well-chronicled back in Southern California, where he was a prep All-American in both football and basketball at Compton's Dominguez High School before signing with local favorite USC, he still needs to draw the attention of media in the East, Midwest and South if he is going to have a chance to garner All-America or Heisman attention.

BYU sent out ties to get Heisman Trophy voters' attention for Ty Detmer and it worked. Other schools send out weekly postcards with statistical updates. Others use posters. Some, mainly major powers like Florida or Florida State, just sit back and let the wins and stats do the talking.

Wallington won't be sending out any gimmicks like "Ty's Ties", but he has plans for a number of other things that could garner some attention for Thomas.

Among them:

There's one not-so-small roadblock in the way of Wallington getting the word out on Thomas, however. Because of the athletic department's budget problems, a corporate sponsor needs to be found to pick up the costs.

Tina Kunzer-Murphy, general manager of ESPN Regional at UNLV, has talked to two potential sponsors and said she hopes to have one lined up by July 1.

Meanwhile, even Wallington admits the best publicity for Thomas may come courtesy of ESPN, which will televise the first three Rebel games this season against Arkansas, Big Ten favorite Northwestern and defending MWC champ Colorado State.

"And not only are they three nationally televised games, they're three stand-alone games against quality competition on Thursday and Friday nights," Wallington said. "If you want to watch a college football game those nights, ours will be the one. So it would really help if Jason and our team can play well in those games because a lot of people nationwide will be watching."

And nothing -- not even CDs, mailers or posters -- can get a Heisman Trophy voter's attention quicker than a big victory on national TV.