UNLV coach mourns death of former player

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Aug. 22, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.

UNLV head football coach Mike Sanford was checking his phone messages early Sunday morning when he came across a text message from an old coaching colleague, University of Florida offensive line coach John Hevesy.

This wasn't one of those "How's practice going?" messages. Rather, Hevesy was passing on the news that a player both had coached at the University of Utah two years ago, offensive guard Thomas Herrion, was dead at the age of 23.

Herrion, an honorable mention all-Mountain West Conference pick in 2003 with the Utes, died shortly after playing in a NFL preseason game with the San Francisco 49ers in Denver against the Broncos on Saturday night.

"Stunning," Sanford said.

Sanford was the offensive coordinator and Herrion was a team captain for a Utah team that won the 2003 Mountain West Conference championship and blanked Southern Miss, 17-0, in the Liberty Bowl.

"So I spent a lot of time around Thomas that year," Sanford said. "He was a great guy with a great personality who always had this great big smile. He was a great leader and a great kid."

Sanford was asked if there was any one play or moment that came to mind when he thought about Herrion.

"Not really," he said. "The thing I'll think of more was his personality. He had such a great one and he was so much fun to be around. And he was a really good singer, too. It's just such a shame this has happened."