The long journey from Normal

By Ryan Greene

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 | 2:15 a.m.

For the UNLV football team, hope came practically from out of nowhere. About 1,700 miles away, to be more specific.

It came in a 6-foot-1 package labeled as “undersized” two years ago by recruiting “experts” and college coaches.

Hope has ascended through the depth chart in a manner so fast and so forceful that it could be considered as inspiring as a Disney-produced sports flick.

But most important is that hope is a big reason why a 3-5 team getting ready to face its toughest opponent this season on the heels of four straight losses still believes a 7-5 record and a bowl game are within reach.

Hope is sophomore quarterback Omar Clayton.

"Hope's a powerful thing for a football team," said UNLV offensive coordinator Todd Berry, a key figure in getting Clayton to campus. "You can get past the past. Guys get tainted by the past sometimes, and we're kind of past that now, I think, in terms of our guys think that he's gonna lead them to a score every time we take the field. And that's a powerful thing."

Clayton's had UNLV so close to getting over the proverbial hump in its last three games that the Rebels can practically see the grass on the other side. Of these last four consecutive defeats, the Rebels have had fourth-quarter leads in the last three, including last week's 42-35 setback at nationally-ranked BYU. That game and the one before -- a 29-28 home loss to Air Force -- have come down to Clayton and his offense having the ball at game's end with a chance to alter the outcome.

But still, hope remains. It stems from the fact Clayton has thrown for an unexpected 1,849 yards, 17 touchdowns and just three interceptions so far through eight games this year. He's the nation's 27th-highest rated passer, and is fourth in the country among sophomore quarterbacks, coming in behind only Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, Houston's Case Keenum and Iowa's Richard Stanzi.

It also stems from the fact that those blowout losses of recent years for UNLV appear to be mostly a thing of the past. The Rebels now have an offense that can keep them neck-and-neck with just about anyone.

In other words, everyone believes in what Omar Clayton is capable of.

This is the case just two years after Omar Clayton himself was one of just a few people who thought he could possibly get this far.

From Texas, back to Normal

Clayton is full of pride. He puts on a strong, silent face most of the time in public. Hud Venerable, though, is one of the few people who can claim he's seen the other side.

"I can still remember the day he came into our weight room and was crying and told me that -- he was pretty emotional -- that he'd be moving to Texas," said Venerable, who retired from coaching at Normal (Ill.) Community High last year but still teaches at the school. "We contacted the coach at Plano East, and were letting them know that they were getting what we thought was a pretty special kid."

Clayton didn't have much say in the matter, and didn't try to change things when his dad told him after his freshman year of high school that they’d be moving to the Dallas area for a job transfer.

"So there it was -- I never really asked him about it," Clayton said. "He felt like it was one of those things that he had to do. And my dad, he's a single parent. He's done a lot for me, so I really didn't put up too much of a fight because I didn't want to put too much stress on him."

Socially, Clayton was just fine in Dallas. He still talks to several friends from there. He was away from those he grew up with in Normal, but stayed in regular contact. He also had chances to get to St. Louis to visit his mom and two youngest brothers.

Football was another story. Even though he'd taken over the starting quarterback job midway through his junior season and led East to a playoff win, the decision for another change of scenery shortly followed.

"We got second in the state in what would have been his junior year, and he came back and watched the game," Venerable recalled. "I can remember after the game we had a little get-together with our team. Tough loss, it was 14-9. A lot of juniors and sophomores were on the field that day. And there he was, and he was with his dad. And I can remember his dad telling me 'We're going to do everything we can to get Omar here. He wants to graduate with his original class.' Obviously that was good news."

And the buzz for the 2006 season around Normal Community began.

"'Omar's coming back' -- I don't know how many times I heard those words," Venerable added. "And then he was back, and brought with him some of his highlights from his junior year, and you saw him playing in Texas Stadium against some of the top teams in that league, and he was doing it all by himself. His team wasn't great, but he was doing some pretty special things. It was pretty exciting."

Clayton moved in with family members in Normal in time for the fourth academic quarter of his junior year, then spent the summer getting reacquainted with old friends and teammates. While most juniors who hope to play ball at the next level spend much of that summer traveling around the country to one-day combine after one-day combine, Clayton chose to put all the focus on his senior season.

"I think there was a little bit of him getting lost in the shuffle, with what the transfer did to him recruiting-wise, and he didn't do too many one-day camps," Venerable said. "I drove he and Marcus (King) to the Nike combine in Columbus in May before his senior year. There were 200 college coaches there. They all had a chance to watch him throw. They all had a chance to evaluate him and look at him, and he only had one offer coming into his senior year, and that was from Eastern Illinois."

And a stellar senior season did little to change that. Clayton went from playing in a spread offense in Plano, much like the one he currently orchestrates, to more of a power-running style back in Illinois.

But it was hard to complain during the midst of a perfect 14-0 season, which secured the Ironmen a Class 6A state title. Clayton threw for 250 yards in the state championship game against Batavia, and only two of the games all season were even close. Clayton typically would play for two quarters, then watch the rest of the action safe and sound on the sidelines.

"That was a fun year of football," Clayton said with a smile. "Not just going 14-0 and winning state. Just being back home after being gone for so long, playing with all my childhood friends."

It was a great time for everyone involved. But, of course, life doesn't end at high school graduation.

"You want to talk about going from euphoria after our season and then the disappointment with Omar's recruiting," Venerable recalled. "The whole recruiting story is a story in and of itself."

The path to Vegas

No matter how many DVDs Venerable and his staff sent out, no matter how many phone calls they made, the perfect scenario just wouldn't present itself.

"I thought this is a can't-miss kid," he said. "You name a school, I thought they'd be in on him. You start hearing all the criticism. 'Oh, he's not tall enough, his arm's not strong enough, his stats aren't impressive enough.' It just made you sick to your stomach, because you knew they were missing on him.

"We're sitting around here in February, just frustrated. And Omar handled it a lot better than we did."

Added Clayton: "At first it was kinda bothersome. But after awhile, you just pray about it and hope something ends up working out."

Some schools offered walk-on spots, some made offers pending a position switch. Clayton declined them all.

Then the staff worked a connection with a familiar face in Berry, then heading into his first season as the UNLV offensive coordinator.

Berry was the head coach at Illinois State -- just down the road from Normal Community -- from 1996-99, and had cultivated friendships with Venerable and his line coach, John McIntyre.

McIntyre and Clayton flew out to Las Vegas, where Berry had rolled out the red carpet for the two. It was during NBA All-Star weekend when Berry and UNLV coach Mike Sanford made their pitch: A preferred walk-on spot, a chance to compete for a scholarship, no guarantees.

"I think a lot of the thing with that was just feeling comfortable that the people you're talking to are telling you the truth," Clayton said. "I'm pretty sure there's coaches who tell walk-ons that they'll have a fair chance when they really don't. I hear stories about other walk-ons and people I know who are trying to walk on at other schools, and it's nothing like what it is here, where you actually get a chance to actually play football."

The longer path to campus

The day would start typically at 5:15 a.m. for Clayton, who as a UNLV walk-on freshman quarterback was living north of campus with his grandfather. That early alarm was in an effort to assure he made his way to the bus stop an hour later.

"You kind of turn into a zombie," he said of the one-hour bus ride to campus. "Of course, everybody's gonna have those mornings where they do not want to get up. You've just got to do what you've got to do."

Some days he'd hitch a ride to campus from Casey Flair, a veteran receiver who'd traveled the same path of walk-on to standout.

Flair was also one of the first to take note of the strides Clayton made from Day One in fall camp. The coaches saw, too, as Clayton shined in limited reps behind the likes of Rocky Hinds and Travis Dixon.

"About the fourth, fifth day I talked with the other coaches on staff and said ‘I know we don't know a lot about him, but he might have something that we're looking for,’" Berry said.

Clayton had experience running the spread, which was what Berry coached. That was a big part of what helped Clayton to the No. 3 slot on the quarterback depth chart as the season began and what got him on the field by season's end in seven games. In three of them, he started.

"Omar just went in there and said 'this is going to be my job,'" Flair recalled. "He didn't make a big scene in front of the team or anything, but he knew that he wanted it."

Clayton finished with 618 yards through the air and another 179 on the ground in those seven appearances before a fractured hand ended his season. But that, and a second summer as a Rebel that mirrored his first, helped land him the No. 1 spot on the depth chart on the first day of camp this past August.

"A guy that's very determined to be a Division-I college quarterback," Sanford said. "I think he knew what he wanted, he knew how good he was, and he was going to do whatever it took to go out and prove it. I think that's what he did."

Far from the end

Every Saturday back in Normal, Venerable and some of his former coaching pals gather at the house to watch Clayton and the Rebels, thanks to DirecTV. A group of parents from Clayton's senior class do the same down at Buffalo Wild Wings.

He's still a pretty popular guy.

"He's got a big following of kids back here -- he's legendary," Venerable said. "He came back last Christmas, kids just mobbed him, teachers just love him.

"He's charismatic. He's charming. He's genuine. He's sincere. He has that rare combination of being tough -- he's just a tough, hard-nosed player. But off the field, a very caring, warm, sensitive person. Special qualities that you don't often see in high school kids. And I think kids just follow that."

So far this year there's been plenty for the folks in Normal to keep tabs on. The Rebels now welcome 12th-ranked TCU to Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday, then finish the season against three opponents in the lower half of the Mountain West standings.

What gets some even more excited, though, is the thought of what could develop down the road. As it is right now, an offense that struggled to find consistency in 2007 is posting 27.9 points per game this time around, and it's paced by a passing game that ranks third in the Mountain West.

See, Clayton is just part of a steady offensive unit, and several of the other key pieces will be back for the 2009 season and beyond. He's already formed a great connection with stud freshman receiver Phillip Payne, he's learned just how reliable junior receiver Ryan Wolfe can be and he's building bonds with several underclassmen in the backfield who will vie to replace senior Frank Summers next year.

"It's real exciting," said freshman running back C.J. Cox. "Thinking that Omar is a sophomore and a lot of seniors do what he's doing now, he's got two years, four more games, there's no telling where we can go."

It's even got some of the seniors thinking.

"It makes me kind of jealous because of the inconsistencies that we've had at that position since I've been here," Flair said. "There's been I think six or seven different quarterbacks now, and even my true freshman year when I wasn't playing, I saw our starting quarterback disappear in the middle of the season and not come back. Not only is he gonna be able to make that spot consistent for him, but the guys under him see what it's supposed to be now.

"When you look at any offense, it doesn't matter if they have playmakers at the wideout spot, the running bad spot, the o-line. If they don't have confidence in their quarterback, they're not going to be successful. When he steps in the huddle, you can look in his eyes and you know that what's about to happen on the field is a good thing. And that he knows what he wants to do and that we're going to drive down and score. And that's hard to find in a player. He has a little bit of that charisma that it takes to play quarterback."

Clayton has gained some attention around campus, around the league and even a bit around the national college football scene.

More important than the attention, though, is the respect he's garnered just from being himself. Everyone within the program knows his story at this point. Last year, he was the freshman walk-on who, despite being a starter for games, couldn't eat meals at the training table with his teammates who were on scholarship. Now, his path towards law school is being paid for.

They've also taken note to how he's taken shot after shot after shot from opposing defenders this year and continued to lift himself off the turf.

He's played much of the season with a small fracture in his jaw. It flared up following a helmet-to-helmet hit from BYU's Iona Pritchard last week, but didn't keep him sidelined for long. He came back after missing a series to complete passes of 38 and 24 yards en route to the score that tied things up, 21-21, at the half in a hostile road environment.

"He's got my respect," said Sanford, who called Clayton the toughest quarterback he's been around in 30-plus years of coaching. "We respect him very much because that position isn't always that tough, and he's a very tough guy."

But what's helped Clayton the most is humility. Success hasn’t gotten to him, and don't count on it ever happening if it hasn't yet.

"Having those early mornings every morning and having to go the long way to get to the same point everyone else is going to, not necessarily just getting to campus, but with football in general," Clayton said. "Having to struggle through things makes you appreciate the things you get."

What he got was a chance. What he's given is hope.

So far, it looks like a fair trade.