Friday, Sept. 11, 1998 | 11:18 a.m.
STEVE GUIREMAND is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. His college football column appears each Friday.
As one of his reasons for leaving UNLV this past summer, Jon Denton said he had tired of the spotlight that was constantly following him as the star and sometimes troubled player on the Rebels football squad.
But in just his second game for Division I-AA Eastern Kentucky on Saturday afternoon, Denton will once again find himself under the microscope.
Only this time the folks dissecting Denton won't be the Las Vegas media or people hanging around the Hard Rock Hotel bar. It will be scouts from the National Football League.
About a half-dozen are expected to be on hand at the University of Kentucky's Commonweath Stadium when Denton's Colonels (1-0), rated No. 9 in Division I-AA following an impressive 43-13 win over Kentucky State University last week, face Heisman Trophy frontrunner Tim Couch and the Kentucky Wildcats (1-0), coming off an impressive 68-34 victory over in-state rival Louisville.
ESPN draftnik Mel Kiper Jr. rates Couch the No. 1 junior quarterback in the nation followed by Washington's Brock Huard (he'll get no argument from Arizona State fans on that one) and Denton.
There's an excellent chance that all three will make themselves available for next spring's NFL draft, with the 6-5, 225-pound Couch the overwhelming favorite to be the No. 1 pick overall.
So Denton's stock could really soar with a big game against the Wildcats Saturday.
"I've read a lot about him," Kentucky strong safety Jeff Zurcher said. "They say he's one of the top quarterbacks in the nation. But we respect all our opponents. We just have to prepare for the game."
Denton was named the Ohio Valley Conference Co-Newcomer of the Week after completing 10 of 13 passes for 194 yards and four touchdowns in Eastern Kentucky's opener. The former Green Valley High star also scrambled five times for 48 yards and another touchdown and left after just two series in the second half.
"Jon did a great job," Eastern Kentucky coach Roy Kidd. "We like him, not only for what he can do with the football, but because he has become a leader on our offensive unit.
"In seeing him throw in person these last four weeks, I believe he has better touch on the ball than John Sacca (an ex-Colonel who transferred from Penn State) and he threw it pretty good."
However, Denton could put on his best Johnny Unitas performance Saturday and the Colonels could be in for a long afternoon. For one thing, his top receiver, Division I-AA All-American Rondel Melendez, will miss the game with a seperated shoulder. For another, Couch and company are clicking, rolling up an amazing 801 yards in total offense last week at Louisville, the second best offensive output in SEC history.
Dead man passing?
While Couch figures to pad his already glossy Heisman Trophy figures Saturday, two other top contenders for the Heisman, Texas running back Ricky Williams and UCLA quarterback Cade McNown, square off before a Rose Bowl crowd of about 85,000 in a nationally televised game.
It's a rematch of last year's "Rout 66" when UCLA handed the Longhorns a 66-3 spanking in Austin -- the second worst defeat in 105 years of Texas football. It probably also is the major reason you see John Mackovic doing analysis on ESPN2 these days instead of still pacing the Texas sidelines as head coach.
You'd think after the Longhorns suffered such a humbling loss that they'd be smart enough to keep their mouths shut heading into Round Two. But UCLA offensive linemen found this quote from Texas defensive end Aaron Humphrey tacked to their lockers before practice Tuesday: "Cade McNown is a dead man."
Oops!
Seems Humphrey didn't realize his comment, which he now claims was "a joke", would end up in one of those Texas fan publications.
McNown, who trampled over Humphrey and company for five touchdowns last year, didn't seem the least bit amused.
"What are we, in high school?" he said.
Elsewhere
Kudos to Ohio State AD Andy Geiger for publicly ripping his own head football coach John Cooper, after Cooper suggested that players' classes, meals and practices be set up at the team's practice facility to help overcome the team's recent academic shortcomings.
"Yeah, we could have the dorms and the dining halls and the classrooms and study hall all at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center," Geiger, a former Stanford athletic director, said sarcastically. "We could be the University of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center football team."
Once around the WAC
* AIR FORCE: The 42-0 win over Wake Forest upped Fisher DeBerry's record to 13-2 in opening games with the Falcons.
* BYU: The Cougars, who host Arizona State on ESPN2 on Saturday night, snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Pac-10 with last year's 13-10 win at Tempe.
* COLORADO STATE: Running back Damon Washington needs just 25 yards Saturday at Nevada-Reno to move pass Lawrence McCutcheon (2,917 yards) into third place on the Rams' all-time rushing list.
* FRESNO STATE: Four players --- wide receiver Rodney Wright, defensive end Ramsey Venner, defensive lineman Thabiti Lockhart and wide receiver Jermaine Brooks --- will not make the trip to Boulder for Saturday's season-opener with Colorado because of academics. Wright and Lockhart were potential starters.
* HAWAII: With a bye week following a season-opening 27-6 loss to Arizona, head coach Fred vonAppen decided to hold full contact scrimmages on both Monday and Tuesday to try and find solutions to his team's many problems.
* UNLV: The Rebels will not wear WAC patches on their new uniforms this year but will have a WAC emblem on their helmets. "It's not a sign of disrespect," UNLV head equipment manager Paul Pucciarelli said. "It's just that those patches would discolor the uniform. We use the same jerseys for two years, so we decided not to put the patches on. Even if we had stayed in the WAC, we would have embroidered the WAC logo on the uniform so it would not discolor it."
* NEW MEXICO: New head coach Rocky Long's 3-3-5 blitz scheme held Idaho State to just 146 yards in total offense and 18 yards rushing in a 38-9 win. It was New Mexico's best defensive effort in 23 games.
* RICE: The Owls, who upset Northwestern 40-34 last year in a nationally televised game, will try to make it two in a row over the Big Ten on national TV when they travel to Purdue for a ESPN game Saturday.
* SAN DIEGO STATE: Ted Tollner's Aztecs, who travel to the Los Angeles Coliseum for a Saturday night date with USC, have lost 23 straight nonconference games on the road over a 17-year span.
* SAN JOSE STATE: If the Spartans, 35-23 winners over Stanford last week, can beat visiting Idaho Saturday night, it would mark the first time since 1987 that San Jose State opened a season with a 2-0 mark.
* SMU: David Ellen, one of the Mustangs' prized linebacker recruits and regarded as one of the state's best last year, has been moved to tight end at his request.
* TCU: Tailback Basil Mitchell, the WAC's Mountain Division Offensive Player of the Week, matched his entire 1997 touchdown total with three in last week's 31-21 win at Iowa State. Mitchell, who gained 186 yards, scored on runs of 30, 29 and 43 yards.
* UTEP: How bad are things in El Paso these days? Even though a quality Pac-10 team --- No. 24 Oregon --- is in town this weekend, only 15,000 seats in the 51,118-seat Sun Bowl have been sold, 1,000 of which went to Duck fans.
* TULSA: Dave Rader's staff spent time during spring drills at Purdue to try and pick up tips on how the Boilermakers handled Oklahoma State (33-20) in last year's Alamo Bowl. Purdue had 454 total yards and 325 yards passing in that contest. The Hurricane hosts the Cowboys Saturday night.
* UTAH: The Utes open new Rice-Eccles Stadium Saturday night against Louisville. The 45,634-seat stadium will be used for the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
* WYOMING: Saturday's game with old Skyline Conference rival Montana State will be the first meeting between the schools since Sept. 16, 1950, when they helped open War Memorial Stadium. The Cowboys won that one, 61-13.
Once around the nation
* ACC: North Carolina State wide receiver Torry Holt caught an ACC-record five touchdown passes and had 168 yards in receptions in last year's loss to Florida State. However, most of those came against the 'Noles reserves, who once again figure to see plenty of action Saturday when the schools meet in Raleigh.
* BIG TEN: Illinois (0-1) figures to end its school-record 18-game losing streak Saturday when it hosts Division II cupcake Middle Tennessee State. Illinois' last win was a 46-43 overtime victory over Indiana on Oct. 5, 1996.
* BIG 12: Don't look now but Nebraska's Big Red Machine is throwing the football almost as well as it runs it. The Cornhuskers (2-0), who travel to Cal this weekend, have completed 28 of 34 passes (82 percent) with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Quarterback Bobby Newcombe is due back from minor knee injury, but I-back DeAngelo Evans (knee) is out.
* BIG EAST: With Syracuse blowing a 34-33 season opener to Tennessee and West Virginia getting hammered by No. 1 Ohio State, the Big East once again looks like the weak link among the six conferences with automatic links to the four Bowl Championship Series bowls.
* BIG WEST: Nevada-Reno, known for its high-scoring offenses, was outscored by a reserve Oregon State defensive end named Toalei Talataina in last week's 48-6 loss to the Beavers. Talataina returned a blocked punt for one touchdown and also ran a fumble back 60 yards for another score. Points don't figure to come any easier Saturday when the Wolf Pack host Colorado State.
* CONFERENCE USA: New Louisville coach John L. Smith won his last two games against Utah as head coach at Utah State. He's hoping for the hat trick with the Cardinals Saturday night in Salt Lake City.
* MAC: Miami of Ohio is rated No. 43 in this week's coaches' poll despite a 13-10 win at North Carolina last week. The Tar Heels are ranked No. 24. Huh? And coaches complain the media doesn't know anything about football.
* PAC-10: Good news, bad news department: Cal is expecting its largest nonconference crowd Saturday since 68,509 watched Notre Dame in Strawberry Canyon in 1959. Bad news is about 30,000 of the expected 70,000 or so will be wearing Nebraska red.
* SEC: Auburn (0-1), trying to bounce back from a season-opening 19-0 loss to Virginia Saturday at favored Ole Miss, is 11-1 following a loss under Terry Bowden. The Tigers haven't started 0-2 since 1984 and have never lost to the Rebels under Bowden. This is not the time for that to change. Auburn's next four games after Saturday: LSU, Tennessee, at Mississippi State and at Florida. An 0-6 record is a real possibility with a loss to Mississippi.
* WAC: With heavyweights Colorado State and BYU both losing big nonconference games last weekend, the conference finds itself in the embarrassing situation of not having one team ranked in either Top 25 poll this week.
* INDEPENDENTS: More off-the-field woes for Notre Dame. Former defensive back Stan Smagala, a key member of the 1988 national championship team that was honored before last Saturday's upset of Michigan and now a president of a bank in Bridgeview, Ill., was arrested Sept. 5 after punching a police officer in the nose at a South Bend night spot.
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