Rebels’ Robinson beaming over recruits

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003 | 9:33 a.m.

UNLV football coach John Robinson hit the recruiting road in full gear in December and January.

"I think there was a stretch where 24 of 30 days I was out visiting recruits," said Robinson, who somehow managed to also continue doing his athletic director duties at the same time. "I'd get home around midnight (from a home visit) and then get up the next morning and fly somewhere else."

But all those hours and frequent flier miles paid off in the end when UNLV unveiled its 28-person 2003 football recruiting class, Robinson's fifth since taking over for Jeff Horton in December of 1998.

"Overall this is our best class by quite a ways," Robinson said. "We have more size and just overall better guys."

The list includes 19 freshmen, eight junior college players and running back JaJa Riley, a transfer from Ohio State who must sit out the 2003 campaign but will have two years of eligibility remaining after that.

Two players who were expected to sign with the Rebels on Wednesday changed at the final moment.

Offensive lineman Phil Clark (6-6, 320) of Moorpark (Calif.) College switched to Arizona, a school he hadn't even officially visited, when the Wildcats offered on Tuesday night. And cornerback Roy Lewis of Harbor City (Calif.) Narbonne, who committed to UNLV last fall, switched to Cal and had trouble picking between the two schools as late as Tuesday night, signed late Wednesday afternoon with ... San Jose State.

Although disappointed by the last-minute defection of Clark to the Pac-10, Robinson was happy the Rebels had pulled a potential starting corner, Solomon Smart (6-0, 185) of Phoenix (Ariz.) Moon Valley, away from an earlier commitment to Arizona. And the late defections didn't come close to rivaling last year's mass exodus near signing day when everybody from Nebraska to Arizona State began picking off recruits at the wire.

"We're always vulnerable to being poached at the end," Robinson said. "We just kept scrapping when a kid told us he had committed and tried not to let out a sigh of relief."

That strategy seemed to pay off.

"We were able to target our needs and fill them very successfully," Robinson said. "This is a group of players that is physically impressive and has desirable size and speed but also seems to possess intangibles such as instinct and competitiveness."