Friday, Nov. 9, 2001 | 11:38 a.m.
Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. His Around Campus column appears on Friday during football season. Reach him at 259-2324 or [email protected].
My, how soon they forget.
A year ago Jason Thomas could do no wrong for UNLV. Despite playing the final half of the season on a foot that was later determined to be broken, and required eight weeks in a cast to repair, Thomas led the Rebels to four straight season-ending victories that culminated with an MVP performance in a stunning 31-14 Las Vegas Bowl rout of Arkansas.
Anyone who watched Thomas painfully limp through practices knew at the time that the foot was more severely injured than the company line of "sprained foot" that went on the injury list, just as Anton Palepoi's "sprained knee" this year was worse than people around the program were letting on.
But Thomas sucked it up, played through a lot of pain and led the Rebels to something almost unthinkable two years earlier -- a bowl game victory over a storied SEC program. Even more unthinkable, Las Vegas became more excited about football season than basketball season for a change.
A number of blue chip recruits that wouldn't have given UNLV a second look two years ago saw the former Southern California prep legend excelling in a glamorous city like Las Vegas and decided to join John Robinson's squad.
Thomas was one of the school's biggest ambassadors with recruits, many of whom will be starring for the Rebels long after he has graduated.
Robinson, no dummy when it comes to promoting, took this as an opportunity to really sell his up-and-coming program. So he agreed to an "awards campaign" for Thomas, who felt a little uncomfortable in the spotlight.
Billboards, highlight CDs, posters and the like were put out. If Thomas somehow could get invited to New York in December for the Heisman Trophy ceremonies, that would really establish credibility with major recruits on the West Coast and give Robinson a chance to make UNLV into a Kansas State-like success story in the next few years.
But lost in all the preseason hoopla, the Mel Kiper Jr.'s of the world rating Thomas the No. 1 NFL quarterback draft prospect in the nation and the countless national media stories pumping up Thomas and the UNLV program, was the fact Thomas still had a lot of major obstacles to overcome heading into only his second real season of major college football.
Among them:
Robinson has indicated that he will likely name a full-time quarterback coach at the end of the season, which can only help in Thomas' progress for 2002. And Thomas' father, Charles, plans to open his own pocketbook after the season to send his son to a quarterback coach who can straighten out his fundamentals even before spring drills start.
"I think people expected too much, too fast," said San Diego State head coach Ted Tollner, who helped groomed the likes of Steve Young, Jim McMahon, Jim Kelly and Rodney Peete. "He's a very talented player, but I'm not surprised that he's going through a quarterback learning curve. A year ago all those close games went their way and I think they may have gotten a little ahead of themselves about where they were. ... They got in a bowl so fast and people lost track that he had really played just one year of college football.
"(Thomas) will have to respond. John will know how to handle that. He's been in that situation before and doesn't need my advice."
Tollner was asked his reaction to fans booing Thomas at the end of UNLV's 42-14 loss to Utah last Saturday, and that some media in town are campaigning to give backup Kurt Nantkes the starting job for the rest of the season.
"Well, you don't need my opinion on that," Tollner said with a loud chuckle.
Actually, what happened to Thomas and his UNLV teammates last Saturday is not funny, it's sad. Booing overpaid, pompous professional players is one thing. Booing college kids who have busted their butts to try to turn around UNLV's once-laughable football fortunes is another.
They should be ashamed. Hopefully the door hit them in the fanny when they were jumping off the bandwagon.
But it should come as no surprise to Robinson followers that he is sticking behind Thomas.
The man knows talent when he sees it. And he'll take the heat while Thomas works things out and becomes the player he's projected to be.
The current controversy reminds me of Robinson's 1980 season at USC. A lot of knuckleheads at Trojan games early that season -- I think this reporter might have been one of them -- thought Robinson had lost it by staying with a converted fullback with average speed who had early problems as Charles White's replacement at tailback.
That converted fullback -- Marcus Allen -- went on to have a pretty fair career.
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