Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003 | 9:31 a.m.
Kurt Nantkes has nobody but himself to blame for this.
If Nantkes, a 6-foot-4 junior quarterback from Aurora, Colo., hadn't played so well as a late replacement for the injured Jason Thomas in UNLV's season-ending 36-33 upset at No. 13 Colorado State last November, maybe the expectations wouldn't have been so high this season for someone who had started a grand total of two football games in five years since leading Hinkley High School to the Colorado 4-A championship in 1997.
Instead, Nantkes completed 16 of 26 passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns, including a game-winning 29-yarder to tight end DeJhown Mandley with a little more than a minute to play to propel UNLV to its biggest Mountain West Conference victory in school history.
Forgotten in all the excitement was a very simple fact: Nantkes had thrown only 109 passes in his college career and he hadn't began a season as a starting quarterback since 1997.
Saturday night's Battle for the Fremont Cannon game at Nevada-Reno will mark only the seventh start of Nantkes' college career, barely half-a-season.
Combine that lack of game experience with the fact Nantkes developed a mechanical flaw toward the end of fall camp because of a tired throwing arm and maybe, just maybe, the expectations were a little too high entering the 2003 season.
Nantkes ranks just sixth in the Mountain West Conference in passing efficiency behind the likes of Air Force option specialist Chance Harridge and New Mexico's Casey Kelly, the object of the wrath of many Lobos fans this season. He has completed just 53 percent of his passes (70 of 132) for 758 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions and has had a problem overthrowing open receivers throughout the season.
"No, I don't think the expectations were too high," Nantkes said before practice on Wednesday afternoon at Rebel Park. "That's because I expected more out of me. It's not anybody else but me and what I expected out of myself. I've got to go out there and perform.
"We're winning, so it's easier for me to make some of the mistakes I've made. But I've got to definitely go out and fix what I've been doing. As soon as I start clicking with our passing, as strong as our running game is, we'll be a scary offense."
Remarkably, despite a sluggish passing game so far, UNLV takes a 3-1 record with it to Reno including impressive wins against then No. 14-ranked Wisconsin, Toledo and WAC preseason favorite Hawaii.
UNLV coach John Robinson says Nantkes deserves credit for that valuable won-lost stat because of his leadership and the way he has been able to run the offense.
"He's playing within himself," Robinson said. "He hasn't had any real screwups but I don't think he's played his best football yet. We're potentially a better offense than we've been. Obviously expectations were high (after the Colorado State win). I think he'll have some of those games. Hopefully they're ahead of us."
Robinson said the fact Nantkes has started just six college games in his career could be a factor for his slow start.
"The cast around him and the using of those weapons ... all of that takes time," Robinson said. "Next year we'll get off to a faster start because of the experience he's gained."
The bye week couldn't have come at a better time for Nantkes, who completed just 14 of 36 passes for 180 yards, no touchdowns and one interception in the Hawaii win.
Besides resting his arm with a trip to Lake Havasu, he has had time in practice to work on his throwing fundamentals with quarterbacks coach Vince Alcalde.
"I think what happened is as we went through camp and got into the early part of the season Kurt's arm got a little tired," Alcalde said. "Because of that he was short-arming the ball. Basically he was dropping his elbow and therefore the ball was starting to go high on him. You saw from some of the games we watched that he would have the right aim and he'd have the right timing but the ball would sail over the receivers' head. He missed a few throws.
"We went back and examined the last two games and we looked at his throwing motion and we said, 'I think he needs to get his elbow up.' So we've been working on that. It's been a focus of ours the last couple of weeks. Having a bye gave us more time to go back and work on his individual techniques and skills."
Has Alcalde noticed any improvement?
"Yes, this week especially," Alcalde said. "With the time off that he's had the arm is no longer tired and he feels like he has a snap to it again. He's been throwing the ball much better this week."
Nantkes agrees.
"The last couple of practices I felt really good and I've thrown the ball really well," he said. "If I can just use this as a building point for the rest of the season it will be good."
Nantkes is the first to admit that he's far from the quarterback he expects to be before he's done at UNLV.
"I've got a lot of work to do," he said. "I'm glad that I'm not making crucial turnovers and those types of things. But my completion percentage and touchdown percentage is not where I'd like them to be right now. I've still got a lot more work to do."
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