Rebels begin to look at future

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2002 | 10:02 a.m.

NEXT UP

What: UNLV at Colorado St.

When: Saturday, noon

Where: Hughes Stadium, Colorado Springs, Colo.

TV: KLAS, Ch. 8

Radio: KBAD 920-AM

Line: CSU by 17 1/2

UNLV's 2002 football season officially comes to an end Saturday afternoon at Liberty Bowl-bound Colorado State.

But for Rebels' head coach John Robinson, the 2003 season begins first thing on Sunday morning.

Robinson said he will begin visiting prospective football recruits starting on Sunday, the first day college coaches can begin home visits with junior college and high school prospects.

Robinson said he hopes to fill some holes on the offensive line and in the secondary with mid-year junior college recruits who can enroll in January and take part in critcial spring practice drills. He could sign as many as six or seven junior college players this year.

One of Robinson's first stops could be Yuma, Ariz., where free safety Zeonte Sherman (6-0, 195) of Arizona Western JC plays. Sherman, who took an official recruiting trip to UNLV on Nov. 15-16 and attended the Rebels' game against Air Force, gave UNLV a verbal commitment over the weekend.

Sherman, a native of St. Petersburg, Fla., originally committed to Virginia out of high school but failed to meet NCAA minimum freshman eligibility standards. He choose the Rebels despite interest from Arizona, Nebraska and Arkansas State.

"I told them that they're my number one team," Sherman said. "I was really impressed with the team chemistry they had there as well as Coach Robinson and (Academic Adviser) Janice Henry. When you're a junior college player you want to go some place where everybody likes each other and gets along. And I came away with that feeling after my trip to UNLV.

"I want to be the kind of player for them that the guy that's with the Broncos (Sam Brandon) was. I want to go to a bowl game and get a ring and win a conference championship. I think they already have a lot of the big pieces to that puzzle there. I'd like to be one of the smaller pieces that helps to get that done."

Sherman had 70 tackles, two interceptions and four pass breakups this past season at Arizona Western, which finished 6-4. He has two years of eligibility remaining and will likely compete in the spring for the job vacated by Connie Brown.

The contest will be shown live in Las Vegas on Channel 8 starting at noon. If the game had been picked up by ESPN, which exercised a six-day TV window on the contest, it would have started at 10 a.m. MST. There also had been talk of playing at 4 p.m.

Robinson was glad the game would kick off in the early afternoon in what could be very chilly Fort Collins. Although early weather projections call for highs in the low 40s and partly cloudly skies, forecasts have been known to change quickly on the Front Range.

"If we get a decent break on the weather, it should be nice," Robinson said. "I think decisions to play in cold weather at night to accomodate TV are crazy."

"We're going there to win the game," Robinson said.

Senior Jason Thomas will start at quarterback, but Robinson said likely 2003 starter Kurt Nantkes will also see action.

"Kurt will play," Robinson said. "But our main objective is winning this game."

One of the reasons for the delay is that CSU officials hope it will spark a larger turnout for Saturday's game. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, most of the school's students will not be on hand for the game. A crowd of only 15,000 is expected.

The 16th-ranked Rams (10-2, 6-0) also can become the school's first team in 77 years to finish a conference season with an unblemished record. And CSU could finish the year with 12 wins if it can defeat the Rebels and win the Liberty Bowl.

"We can't relax just because we are the champions," quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt told the Fort Collins Coloradoan. "UNLV comes in with nothing to lose, and we have everything to lose."

"We're going to win next week," linebacker Drew Wood told the Denver Post.