UNLV-CSU Notebook: Johnson learns from his predecessors, carries Rams

By Ryan Greene

Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008 | 10:08 p.m.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- If you look at Gartrell Johnson's career numbers at Colorado State, it's sort of all been building towards this.

Saturday, the fifth-year senior rushed for a career-high 191 yards on 33 carries, and scored three touchdowns and a two-point conversion as CSU squeaked by UNLV late in Fort Collins, 41-28.

The record-setting day was an early crowned jewel on what could be Johnson's first 1,000-yard season as a Ram. He's well on his way, with 491 yards now through five games played.

"I'm kind of an old guy on campus, me and (tight end) Kory Sperry," Johnson said. "I've seen a lot of the great players that I've learned from, like David Anderson, and all those guys that really put CSU on their back and had success. I don't mind putting the team on my shoulders. As long as we win, that's what it's really all about."

Anderson, the Ram's career leader in receptions and receiving yards, would have been proud, as both Sperry and Johnson came up huge on the game's final drive - a 12-play, 80-yard jaunt which ended with a 10-yard Johnson run with nine seconds to play. Johnson took the rock on a handoff nine times on the drive, while Sperry made a huge diving catch for a 30-yard pickup and a first down near midfield.

While UNLV now stumbles into a bye week at 3-3 and losers of two straight, CSU bounced back well from an embarrassing 42-7 loss at Cal, is 3-2 and riding a huge wave of momentum heading into the meat of its Mountain West schedule.

"This is great," Johnson said. "We get TCU at home, so we just gotta get back to practice Tuesday through Friday, and Saturday just come out and play a good game."

One streak continues, another comes to an end

Casey Flair caught a three-yard pass on the Rebels' opening drive, which gave the fifth-year senior a reception in 41 straight games, tying a school record held by Earvin Johnson.

While that stretch continued, Phillip Payne's consecutive games with a touchdown grab was snapped at five, which tied a school record. It was the first game in his career, in fact, in which Payne didn't find the end zone. He did come up big, though, stretching an intermediate pass for a 32-yard gain late in the fourth quarter. He had two catches for 37 yards on the afternoon.

Flair, Wolfe continue to climb the charts

Flair's improbably quest to the top of the UNLV career receptions list continued Saturday, as his five grabs gave the senior 27 for the season and 180 for his career. He's now seven catches away from tying Damon Williams' career mark of 187.

Right on his heels, though, is Ryan Wolfe, who surely will eclipse whatever mark Flair sets as a senior next season barring injury. Wolfe had four catches Saturday and now has 41 for the season. His career mark is 162 - just 18 behind Flair.

While two receiving careers continue to soar, another is taking off

Payne may not be the only UNLV wideout to come from almost nowhere and make a major impact before the season is done. Junior Jerriman Robinson has seen extended action as the weeks have passed, and had his biggest game yet in Saturday's loss with two catches for 44 yards and the touchdown grab which put the Rebels ahead 28-27 with just over six minutes to play.

"This past week in particular he did a great week in practice," quarterback Omar Clayton said. "He deserved his time on the field, and he's definitely taking advantage of that."

Big play Beau

Bishop Gorman product Beau Orth, who made multiple memorable big plays in the 23-20 overtime win at Arizona State in Week Three, came up huge again on special teams for the Rebels Saturday.

Following a 13-yard TD run by Ryan Wolfe in the first quarter, Orth put his helmet on the ball during a John Mosure kick return, sending the ball flying. It was recovered by Chris Brogdon just before going out of bounds, and set up UNLV's second touchdown of the game.

While Orth has just four tackles this season, he's recorded one for a loss, an interception, a pass breakup and now a forced fumble.

Clayton keeps on ticking

For the third straight week, Clayton was the victim of a late hit which drew a 15-yard flag. Sanford said that last Sunday Clayton was having trouble eating, after a small fracture from a late hit a week earlier against Iowa State had flared up some. Clayton put any questions about how he was feeling after Saturday's game to rest rather quickly.

"I'm fine," he said, responding quickly to the question.

Howard OK

The Rams and quarterback Billy Farris went after redshirt freshman corner Will Chandler, who was pushed into action once senior Geoffery Howard went down.

Howard went down with an ankle injury while defending a double move by CSU receiver Rashaun Greer and did not return. Sanford said the injury does not appear serious.

Local product makes good

Doing much of the damage in the passing game for Colorado State was junior receiver Greer, who is a product of Mojave High. On eight receptions, he posted the fifth-highest single-game receiving yardage total in Rams history with 211.

Sanford was asked after the game if his program ever pursued Greer when he was coming out of Mojave.

"We knew of him, yes," Sanford said. "We knew of him, and obviously he played very well today."

Early start had no effect

For UNLV, Saturday was the team's first true day game of the season. The wake-up call for the Rebels came at 7 a.m., which on the players' body clocks was more like 6 a.m.

"I don't think so," running back Frank Summers said when asked if it had an effect. "We were up this morning ready to go at our walk-hrough at 8:00. I think it was more just us not executing. We just didn't get it done."

UNLV's only other early kick off like Saturday's will be at BYU on Oct. 25. That game also kicks off at 11 a.m. PST.

Technically speaking

Defensive coordinator Dennis Therrell went a little more in-depth on just what went wrong defensively for the Rebels during the Rams' game-winning drive.

"I was still in position that because it was six minutes, they could still go play-action pass," he said. "We were trying to keep it contained."

The Rebels were trying to stay balanced as opposed to loading up the box. On one zone blitz, the result was the aforementioned 30-yard pass to Sperry, who was matched up one-on-one at the last second with linebacker Jason Beauchamp.

No strength of schedule help

Earlier non-conference wins against Arizona State and Iowa State both had the potential to be major boosters for UNLV's strength of schedule - Especially important if the Rebels can attain bowl eligibility with six wins.

Both of those earlier foes suffered defeats Saturday. ASU lost its third straight and fell to 2-3 on the season with a 24-14 loss at Cal, while ISU blew a 20-0 halftime lead and ultimately fell 35-33 at home to No. 16 Kansas.

What's next

The Rebels' week off will be followed by the first of four home games at Sam Boyd Stadium in the season's final six weeks. The first up after the bye is Air Force, who fell at home to Navy on Saturday, 33-27.

The Falcons are now 3-2 after a 3-0 start, and will travel to San Diego State next weekend before coming to Las Vegas.