Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.
It worked for the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the National Football League. Why not for the UNLV Rebels in the Mountain West Conference?
"It" is a 3-4 base defense that features linebackers who can really run, blitz and cause havoc all over the field. Then throw in some zone blitzes and zone pass coverages to make things easier for the secondary.
That strategy seemed to pay big dividends for UNLV in its season-opening 28-18 victory against MAC power Toledo on Friday night at Sam Boyd Stadium. Although greatly outsized by a Toledo offensive line that averaged almost 320 pounds per player, the smaller but much quicker Rebels held the Rockets to just 239 yards in total offense and 94 yards rushing.
"Our defense is based on speed," UNLV coach John Robinson said. "We've got good speed and we need to use it. We've got to give our fast guys a chance to make plays. To put fast guys on the field and not give them a chance would be crazy."
Robinson and his staff spent part of the summer studying films of Tampa Bay with Bucs defensive line coach Rod Marinelli, who was Robinson's defensive line coach at USC in 1995 and also coached for a number of years on staffs under current Rebels assistant Bruce Snyder, and Tampa linebacker coach Joe Barry, who played for Robinson at USC and was an assistant coach at UNLV in 1999.
"They have the best concept of speed and intelligence on defense in football," Robinson said.
The Rebels are starting two outside linebackers, John Andrews (6-foot, 210 pounds) and Reggie Butler (6-foot, 220 pounds), who might have been better suited for strong safety in the past. But both run the 40 in 4.5 seconds and, combined with slimmer inside linebackers Adam Seward and Ryan Claridge and reigning MWC defensive player of the year Jamaal Brimmer at strong safety, give UNLV five players capable of making the big play from anywhere on the field.
"We tried to put speed on the field and then move it and stunt it," Robinson said. "We want to give those players a chance to be free to make a big play."
It seemed to work well against Toledo. Although Andrews registered the only sack for the Rebels, UNLV was constantly in Toledo's backfield either harrassing quarterback Bruce Gradkowski or stopping a Rockets back shortly after he got a handoff.
"I'm excited," Seward, who had eight tackles and broke up three passes, said. "We blitzed a lot and made a lot of big plays. It's all about speed these days. The defense we have now has players who all have good speed."
For Seward and Claridge, both of whom topped the 250-pound mark in previous seasons, that meant slimming down to the 235-pound range.
"If you look at the linebackers in the NFL now they no longer weigh 260 pounds," Claridge said. "They're more in the 230 to 240 range. You've got to be able to run sideline to sideline now."
"Coach (Robinson) tells us about Tampa Bay and how Derrick Brooks weighs just 227 pounds," Seward added. "I don't want to look like the guy with lead feet out there."
Both Andrews and Butler were impressive in their Division I debuts, according to Robinson.
"I loved them from the day I saw them," he said. "I think they're both pretty darm active players."
Andrews was named the Mountain West's defensive player of the week for his eight tackle performance that also included a quarterback sack which resulted in a fumble that was returned by Rebels defensive end Leon Moore for a touchdown. He also recovered another fumble and broke up a pass.
Estandia, an imposing target at 6-foot-8, caught two touchdown passes in his Division I debut, but picked up the MWC special teams player of the week award for blocking a 33-yard field goal attempt by Toledo's Jason Robbins in the second quarter.
BYU freshman tight end Daniel Coats (two touchdown catches against Georgia Tech) and Utah running back Brandon Warfield (173 yards rushing in a win against Utah State) were named co-offensive players of the week.
The Rebels drove 94 yards in 10 plays with Nantkes connecting with Estandia for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown on fourth-and-7 at the Toledo 19 with 5:52 remaining.
In UNLV's final game of the 2002 season, Nantkes drove the Rebels 80 yards in the final four minutes without any timeouts and hit tight end DeJhown Mandley with a game-winning 29-yard touchdown pass with 46 second left to upset 13th-ranked Colorado State, 36-33, in Fort Collins.
"I was really disappointed in our running game," Robinson said. "Our runners didn't run hard enough. There were too many times that our backs didn't bust a tackle and go up the field like they could have."
Robinson said part of the problem is that more is expected from his backs in the team's West Coast passing game.
"Our backs go out for passes more, they block more, we ask them to do more things than just run the ball now," Robinson said.
Croom, in fact, caught a game-high nine passes for 66 yards and is currently tied for ninth nationally in pass receptions per game.
Heise's loss was potentially a key one. A Port Clinton, Ohio, native, Heise is the Rebels' starting long-snapper.
Sophomore tight end Jason Luxenberg filled in for Heise, who, like Johnson, will be back for this week's game at Kansas. The Rebels also used a new punt formation with three blockers in front of punter Ryan Cook to help slow Toledo's punt rush.
UNLV officials wanted to get the game on TV but were twarted in their efforts by the Big 12 Conference and Fox Sports which own the broadcast rights and didn't want the game to conflict with other games being broadcast on that network.
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