Spotlight still shining on J.T.

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, July 31, 2002 | 10:51 a.m.

CORONADO ISLAND, Calif. -- The subject at Tuesday's Mountain West Conference football media day was pie. Only you can't get this flavor at Marie Callender's.

"I had a big slice of humble pie," UNLV quarterback Jason Thomas said about his disappointing 2001 season. "It was tough. There was pressure from the media. Pressure from my family. There was the (impending) birth of my daughter. A lot of things. It was a very tough season, both mentally and physically."

Thomas once again found himself surrounded by a group of reporters, just as he was at last year's MWC Media Day in Las Vegas. But instead of talking about a Heisman Trophy campaign, he was trying to explain what went wrong during UNLV's disappointing 4-7 campaign last year. And how a player once touted as the No. 1 quarterback prospect for the NFL Draft completed just 42.8 percent of his passes (83 of 194) and threw more interceptions (12) than touchdowns (8).

Yes, he said his throwing motion was affected by June arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder. Baseball pitchers routinely rehab six months before throwing after such surgery.

Thomas, who was told to wait until October by physicians, was back in less than two months for the start of fall camp.

Yes, he wasn't in nearly as good of shape as he is now. But who would be had they broken a foot and been in a cast for two months following UNLV's Las Vegas Bowl upset of Arkansas?

Yes, his throwing mechanics were off. Scar tissue from the shoulder surgery hurt the range of motion in his throwing arm and caused him to throw more sidearm. He also didn't have a fulltime quarterback coach to tutor him on fundamentals like footwork and ball grip like he does now, in former Las Vegas Outlaws offensive coordinator Vince Alcalde.

And yes, all that preseason hype came back to blow up in his face, especially in the locker room where some teammates resented the attention he was receiving.

"It definitely divided the team," Thomas said. "It didn't bring anything positive to the table."

So Thomas, who is ready to begin the senior year of a highly publicized college career, says he doesn't miss seeing his face staring down at passing drivers from billboards around the UNLV campus.

"It was just one of those things I'd always tried to downplay," he said. "It wasn't like I drove by it every day and said, 'Look! It's me up there!'

"Hey, I'll do whatever the program needs me to do to promote the program. That's why I did it last year, to try and promote our program. And if they asked me to do something like that again this year because it was for the good of the program, I'd do it. But I think it had a negative effect on our team, putting one individual up there like that. I think team promotion is more important than individual promotion."

The good news is Thomas is in his best shape since arriving at UNLV from USC four years ago. And he thinks the bad experiences of 2001 should help him this year.

"The mental pain was definitely worse than the physical pain last year," Thomas said. "Those wounds heal. The mental ones you carry with you for the rest of your life.

"I remember being out there on the field against Utah (a 42-14 Rebel loss) and the crowd was booing. It was terrible. But the thing about that is how you respond to that adversity. That shows what kind of person you are and what kind of character you have. I'm looking forward to responding very well."

Coach John Robinson said Thomas is facing a challenge.

"I think this year will be one of the most significant years of his life," Robinson said. "We all go through adversity. He's gone through it from an ego standpoint and a physical standpoint. It was all a shock to him. But I think he's fought back from that disappointment dramatically.

"I think Jason is much more aware that for him to succeed, it's the group. He's always been a team guy but he's always been, 'I'm the leader, I'm the guy.' Then when things go bad he thinks he's letting everybody down. We're trying to get him to see himself as one of the group, not the one out front dragging the group."

To that end, Thomas seems to have gotten the message.

When told he was passed over for the preseason all-conference team released Tuesday in favor of Colorado State's Bradlee Van Pelt, Thomas just smiled.

"The main thing is winning," Thomas said. "I want to win. He can have all those preseason awards. I'd rather play in the Liberty Bowl.

"When you're a quarterback, it's wins and losses. That's all that matters."