Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

UNLV FOOTBALL:

Flair’s run on the record books nearly complete

Senior wideout continues to take advantage of a once-uncertain scholarship

UNLV football

Steve Marcus

UNLV’s Casey Flair heads for the end zone after catching a pass over the middle against UNR at Sam Boyd Stadium.

UNLV Roundtable

Report Card Time! Alex and Ryan Greene grade the Rebels on their performance from the first half of the season.

The Rebel Room

Guess what? It's another ground challenge

Ryan Greene and Alex Adeyanju take a look at UNLV's first test out of the bye week against Air Force, which means the Rebels have to again try to find a cure for one of their greatest ills - stopping the run.

It may be this weekend, it may be the next. Or even the one after that. But one thing is for sure - Casey Flair is on the verge of proving even further that the risk he took on the UNLV football program five years ago was the right choice.

Flair, a fifth-year senior receiver, enters Saturday's 7 p.m. tilt at Sam Boyd Stadium against Air Force just seven catches away from tying the school's all-time receptions mark of 187, held by Damon Williams.

Not bad for a kid who made quite the trek to Las Vegas when not much, if anything, was guaranteed.

"They said they'd give me an opportunity," Flair said. "I was No. 105 out of 105 guys (on the roster). It just came down to taking that chance and it worked out for me."

John Robinson and his staff brought Flair in from Anchorage as a walk-on with the understanding that a scholarship could be available a year in, but he'd have to play his way into it.

"Practice to me was the game," Flair said, recalling his redshirt season. "Every day it was me fighting with the corners, the safeties. You've got to earn your respect, especially when you're a walk-on."

Robinson was never able to personally fulfill his pact with Flair, and when a new staff came in the following year, receivers coach Kris Cinkovich informed Mike Sanford of the situation.

"I told him I would honor that commitment," Sanford said. "And he's been nothing but good. He's been an extremely hard worker, very committed. He's improved himself and gotten better every year, a very team-oriented guy, a very good leader on our team, a very good student.

"He's everything that you want in a player, as far as the whole gamut is concerned."

On top of that, he'll ultimately leave UNLV as a guy who did nothing less than take full advantage of everything his scholarship has to offer.

Besides developing into one of the Mountain West's more precise, reliable receivers, he's already finished his undergraduate studies, earning a degree in psychology, and is on his way to a master's degree in public administration.

"I'm a realistic person, so when I came here I realized if I got a scholarship that'd be great, and if I don't, then realistically, I wouldn't be able to stay here - I would have had to go home," Flair said. "My goal was to graduate in four years, I wanted to be the first person from my family to graduate college, and that's something I took pride in."

No one can take away the degree he already has, and the one he's on his way to obtaining. The receptions record, however, isn't likely to stand for very long. While his 27 grabs for 330 yards this season have him on the verge of topping the list, not too far behind him - 18 catches behind, to be exact - is junior teammate Ryan Wolfe.

He's been an example for younger receivers, proving that being a walk-on upon arrival doesn't mean the next four to five years are guaranteed to be spent on the scout team.

"He was one of those guys that was a receiver who could catch anything. He didn't have great speed, but was athletic," said Robinson, who is now semi-retired, working as a college football radio analyst and as an assistant to John Madden on NBC's Sunday night NFL broadcasts. "You can't predict the future, but I think everybody involved knew he was an ambitious guy, serious about himself and confident enough."

Added Sanford: "He tended to be a guy in the past who kind of did the route he was supposed to, but kind of did a little bit of improvising his own deal. He's become more accountable to run his route. The other thing he's improved on, that I'm looking forward to continuing in the second half, is being a guy not getting personal foul penalties. That's a very positive improvement on his part."

Flair's showing more restraint has resonated throughout the team, to the point where the Rebels are the third-least penalized team this season in the Mountain West, while their opponents lead the league in flags. UNLV is drawing an average of 63.5 penalty yards per game.

The decreased penalties have helped UNLV become one of the Mountain West's more consistent offenses, and that unit is a large reason bowl talks are still alive as the Rebels come off of the bye week at 3-3.

No one has spoken with more confidence regarding the potential of postseason play for the first time under Sanford than Flair.

He's just as defiant when talking about his plans following this season. Sanford has already put out the possibility of the senior working as a graduate assistant, as he will need one more year in school to finish up his master's studies.

More than likely, that opportunity will be put on hold. That is if Flair has anything to say about it.

"I'm not done playing ball," he said. "I believe that I have a chance to play somewhere, and I believe that I'm gonna play somewhere, just like I believed out of high school that I was gonna play D-I somewhere.

"That's my passion. I want to go play football and I'm going to go play football."

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