Jordan rules the ground game

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004 | 10:21 a.m.

Long before Eric Jordan led Las Vegas with 1,500 rushing yards his sophomore year, he was practicing with another local legend who was a college junior at the time.

"If I practice with older guys, I get better," Jordan said of the time he spent with former Eldorado star Steven Jackson, who's a St. Louis Rams rookie this season after a stellar career at Oregon State in which he rushed for 3,610 yards.

Halfway through his junior year, Jordan has 1,030 rushing yards in guiding the Las Vegas High Wildcats to a 4-1 record.

"From the standpoint of rushing yards, he's definitely overachieved," Las Vegas coach Chris Faircloth said. "We know everybody's going to key on him, that everybody's going to put as many guys as they can in the box."

It's not that Jordan beats them every time. Many of his yards are for shorter gains. But he slowly wears down defenses.

"The first couple of plays I look for the holes," Jordan said. "Every team has two ends ... once they leave, I find an open hole and break out."

His progress has attracted nationwide attention. Jordan's talent played a large part in USA Today ranking the Wildcats seventh-best in the West until Las Vegas lost to Cheyenne 27-6 last week. The colleges that Jordan lists as schools that have contacted him about his availability in two years reads like any given week's Top 25 -- USC, Michigan, Arizona State, Wisconsin and Notre Dame.

"As the word travels, it'll be many more," Faircloth said. "He's still somewhat of an unknown commodity, but he won't be much longer."

One school that hasn't recruited Jordan is UNLV, doubly surprising not only because of the proximity but also because one of the Rebels' assistants, Kris Cinkovich, was Vegas' head coach from 1995 to 2003.

"I know Coach Cink's got enough things to worry about right now," Faircloth said, referring to last weekend's announcement that UNLV head coach John Robinson will retire at the end of the season. "I'm sure they will recruit him. I don't have any doubt, but they're trying to get their season turned around."

Despite all of the attention he has received, Jordan said he's more concerned about helping his team to a state championship. The Wildcats lost in the state final last year to Reno, 26-23.

"After this season, I'll worry about college," Jordan said. "Right now I focus on the team and winning a state championship."

Las Vegas appeared to be on a beeline toward a strong postseason before falling to Cheyenne last week. Faircloth said after last week's game that the team allowed itself to be beaten.

"We probably could have prepared ourselves better emotionally," he said Thursday. "I think we're a little full of ourselves."

After Tuesday afternoon's practice, several players ran up and down Frank Nails Field, diving at each yard line on the northbound trip up the grass, then doing a somersault every five yards heading back south. Long after everyone else had left, Jordan was still at it.

"Punishment," he said. "I had a fumble."

Actually, he had two, he said later. But if last week served a purpose for the Wildcats, it was a wake-up call before league play sets playoff seeding. Las Vegas plays Chaparral this Friday in its Northeast opener.

"We had a team meeting without the coaches on Friday," quarterback Ryan Seabolt said. "We're worried about focusing on the games ahead, and we were focusing on the state championship instead."

Wide receiver Christian Vidal, the Wildcats' No. 2 offensive threat, said that his team has to focus on the season with a different attitude from everybody else.

"Every time we play teams, they step up to play us," he said.

Even against teams that weren't of Las Vegas' caliber, particularly the three out-of-state teams on the Wildcats' non-league schedule, the team was behind or in a close game until a late surge.

"We got ourselves in a hole against a team as talented as that, we're not going to get back in it," Faircloth said.