Adam who?

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2003 | 9:57 a.m.

Adam Gajo took a ribbing from some of his UNLV football teammates following practice on Sunday night at Rebel Park.

"The smallest man in Division I-A football to catch a touchdown pass," one quipped about the 5-foot-6, 165-pound redshirt freshman wide receiver from San Diego's Mira Mesa High School.

But for most fans who watched Gajo score UNLV's first touchdown on a 15-yard pass from Kurt Nantkes in Saturday's 37-35 upset of New Mexico, a better trivia question would be, "Adam Who?"

Gajo, a former walk-on, wasn't even on UNLV's pregame two-deep roster and had never caught a pass in a game before. And it was only in the last couple of weeks that he even saw snaps with the first or second units in practice.

That's going to change now, however.

"There came a point last week where we made a decision that Adam was going to be our third wide receiver," UNLV coach John Robinson said. "He's very quick and fast and he's very smart and runs the right play. We've got some talented young wide receivers but they don't always run the right play."

Robinson said Gajo's size and the fact that he originally came to UNLV as a walk-on probably kept the Rebel coaching staff from promoting him sooner.

"All year we were saying this kid ought to be playing," Robinson said. "But sometimes when a guy is a walk-on or a backup you'll say, 'Oh, he's (too) short.'

"Adam is extremely fast and plays fast. He's zooop! He's done very well and he's going to play for us the rest of the year."

"We're hopeful he well play," Robinson told the Rebel Football Foundation luncheon audience. "I don't know and I don't have any expert information that he will."

Robinson will have a much better idea tonight when the Rebels, who take Monday off, return to practice. But Nantkes was still walking with a pretty good limp after Sunday night's brief workout at Rebel Park.

"We'll get both young quarterbacks (sophomore Scott Turner and true freshman Shane Steichen) ready to play in practice this week," Robinson said. "Shane would like to redshirt this year but he has to be ready to play."

Robinson was asked if Turner would get the starting nod if Nantkes isn't ready to go by Saturday.

"Don't have anything there," Robinson said. "I'm not going to rush into any of that. We're going to get Scott and Shane ready to play and then see what happens."

"I thought he had his best game," Robinson said. "His numbers might not have been as high as some other games, but he had to stay in and block a lot against their blitzes."

In fact, Robinson said he made it a point to show his team one block Croom made on Lobo defensive end Zach Rupp, who delivered the hit that knocked Nantkes out of the game and finished with a game-high 15 tackles, including 5.5 for losses.

"(Rupp) was coming in and Larry picked him up, knocked him on his back and then fell on top of him," Robinson said. "We showed the team the clip of that play to show how he took the fight to them."

Sophomore free safety Joe Miklos was named the MWC co-defensive player of the week for the first time after racking up seven tackles, a forced fumble, a pass interception and a 61-yard fumble return for a touchdown. He shared the honor with Utah safety Dave Revill who had 15 tackles in the Utes' triple-overtime win at Air Force.

Meanwhile, Rebels senior placekicker Dillon Pieffer was named special teams player of the week for the third time in his career after scoring 13 points in the New Mexico upset, including a career-long 50-yard field goal in the third quarter that upped UNLV's lead to nine points, 30-21.

He is currently ranked 11th in the NCAA with an average of 1.67 field goals per game.

Robinson said he didn't hestitate to call on Pieffer to kick the 50-yarder.

"No, no," Robinson said. "I'd have kicked it even if it was another six or seven yards further out because at that time we didn't have much alternative for scoring.

"It was a huge play in the game."

UNLV's previous record for conference players of the week came in 1994 when the Rebels had seven earn Big West Conference honors.