Small wonder

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2004 | 10:11 a.m.

Dominique Dorsey is 344 yards from achieving the seventh 1,000-yard rushing season in UNLV history.

The six 1,000-yard rushing seasons in UNLV football history:

Dominique Dorsey wears No. 10 for the UNLV football team. But Dorsey, an explosive 5-foot-7, 170-pound senior from Tulare, Calif., knows there's something else located in the middle of his red-and-white jersey these days.

A bull's-eye.

"I'm a target now," said Dorsey, who leads the Mountain West Conference in rushing average with 109.3 yards per game. "Everybody in the conference knows about me. I'm definitely going to have to step my game up a little bit more knowing that there are guys who are going to be coming after me."

Dorsey has rushed for 656 yards on 111 carries, an average of 5.9 yards per attempt. He needs just 344 yards to post the seventh 1,000-yard rushing season in school history and the third in six seasons under retiring Rebels head coach John Robinson.

"It feels good for me and I'm pretty sure it feels pretty good for the rest of the players on our offense as well," Dorsey said. "I'm just thankful to have the opportunity to go out there and do the things I've been doing to help the team out. I just want to contribute as much as I can out there so we can win more ballgames."

Dorsey is quick to credit an improving offensive line that features sophomore tackles Marco Guerra and Chris Bowser, guards Joe Critchfield and Zach Gorham and senior center Marcus Johnson for much of his success so far this season.

"They're definitely jelling," Dorsey said. "We had a different offense this year so we had to learn to execute our new plays. But now everything seems to be coming into place.

"I'm doing the running but I give them all the credit because they've worked so hard in the offseason to prepare for these games. I'm just grateful that they're giving it their maximum effort out there and I'm going to keep giving them mine."

Dorsey has started just nine games in his UNLV career but already has eight 100-yard games to his credit, including three this season at Tennessee (18 carries, 121 yards, 1 TD) and against Utah State (18 carries, 189 yards, 1 TD) and Nevada-Reno (21 carries, 141 yards) at Sam Boyd Stadium.

"He's just been a really outstanding player for us," Robinson said. "What has been impressive about him is that he's been such a solid runner in terms of the number of carries he's had. People would assume (because of his size) that he's just a third-down or getaway back. But he's been a hard runner for us, too. He doesn't push the pile on inside runs, but if you don't stay in there he's going to pop something right down the middle."

UNLV (2-4, 1-1) plays host to New Mexico (2-4, 0-2) in its homecoming game at Sam Boyd Stadium at noon on Saturday. The Lobos are led by defending Mountain West Conference rushing champion DonTrell Moore, who ranks second in the rushing race this season with an average of 93.2 yards per game.

When asked if he was fired up to go against Moore this week, Dorsey just shook his head and smiled.

"No, I'm just fired up because we have won two games in a row," he said. "I want us to continue winning. I don't care who we're playing as long as we go out there and continue to give the same effort that we've been giving."