Columnist Steve Guiremand: Youngsters at QB signal changing times in Mountain West

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Oct. 22, 2004 | 10:11 a.m.

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. He can be reached at steveg@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-2324.

Youth is being served when it comes to quarterbacks in the Mountain West Conference these days.

Because of injuries to Colorado State starter Justin Holand (broken leg) and San Diego State's Matt Dlugolecki (ankle) along with John Robinson's announcement that Shane Steichen will start for UNLV at 9th-ranked Utah, not one of the eight teams in the MWC will be starting a senior quarterback this weekend.

In fact, three teams --- Air Force (Shaun Carney), Colorado State (Caleb Hanie) and San Diego State (Kevin O'Connell) --- will be starting freshmen. Three others --- UNLV (Steichen), BYU (John Beck) and New Mexico (Kole McKamey) --- are starting sophomores.

Just call Utah's Alex Smith and Wyoming's Corey Bramlet, both juniors, a couple of graybeards.

"It's a changing of the guard," San Diego State coach Tom Craft said.

So far it's definitely not for the better.

Just two quarterbacks in the conference -- Smith and Carney -- have thrown more touchdown passes than interceptions. Steichen goes into Saturday's game even with three each.

"There's a lot of young quarterbacks trying to develop," New Mexico coach Rocky Long said.

If they need a good role model they need look no further than Smith, who started last season as a third-stringer for the Utes and now is being promoted for the Heisman Trophy.

Here's the scary part: Utah coach Urban Meyer thinks the best is yet to come.

"I can't wait to see him next year, because he just gets better," Meyer said. "He's better today than he was yesterday. He just gets better every day."

Coaching audition?

UNLV football fans may want to take a close look at the play-calling in Saturday's game at Utah.

Not by the Rebels but by the Utes.

Utah offensive coordinator Mike Sanford is considered one of the top assistant coaches in the nation and has already been mentioned as a possible candidate to replace Robinson as UNLV's head coach after the season.

Sanford has a lot of the qualities that Rebels athletic director Mike Hamrick said he was looking for in a potential replacement, including strong recruiting ties in Southern California. During his days as a USC assistant under both Larry Smith and Robinson he recruited and developed three wide receivers who went on to become No. 1 picks in the NFL draft -- Keyshawn Johnson, Johnnie Morton and Curtis Conway.

Utah comes into Saturday's game ranked sixth in the nation in scoring offense (39.2 ppg) and fourth in total offense (498.2 yards per game). The Utes rolled up 669 yards in total offense in last week's 46-16 thrashing of North Carolina, the second-highest total in school history.

Not so slick Rick

Speaking of potential college coaching candidates, the name of Rick Neuheisel is sure to begin popping up for some of the openings in the next few months. But don't expect UNLV to be one of them.

Although the NCAA imposed no penalties on Neuheisel for his partcipation in two high-stakes gambling pools at the University of Washington that eventually led to his termination with the Huskies, it did find that the school had commited recruiting violations during his tenure. That resulted in two years of reduced official recruiting visits and the banning of watercraft for two years during recruiting.

Washington was found to have committed multiple recruiting violations from 1999-2003 when football prospects were given boat rides to Neuheisel's house. The school was cited for undercharging for those rides and for impermissible contact with a booster.

Ironically, one of the reasons Neuheisel got off without any penalties in the Washington case was because he violated recruiting rules at his previous head coaching job at Colorado. The NCAA admonished him to always consult his compliance director instead of interpreting the rules himself after that investigation. Neuheisel produced two memos from then-UW compliance director Dana Richardson that incorrectly OK'd his off-campus participation in the betting pools.

The NCAA infractions committee said it was "very troubled" that Neuheisel didn't admit participating in the betting pools until his third interview. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the NCAA enforcement staff, when asked why it didn't charge Neuheisel for dishonesty, informed the infractions committee that "individuals will not be charged with unethical conduct if they ultimately provide truthful information the same day they provided the false information."

Hmmm. Two NCAA investigations at two schools. Not being immediately truthful with NCAA investigators. Taking part in high-stakes gambling pools.

Something tells me UNLV president Dr. Carol Harter and Hamrick don't want to open this can of worms.

Meanwhile, the team Neuheisel left behind is now 1-5 and in the midst of its worst start since 1969. And the Huskies will be 1-6 after they face No. 1 USC at the Coliseum on Saturday.

Once around the MWC