Crook has high expectations as he steps in as UNLV's QB

MESQUITE -- Kevin Crook knows what a lot of UNLV football followers are thinking now that he has inherited the starting quarterback job from local favorite Jon Denton.

"Expectations, they're way down for us," Crook said following a workout at Virgin Valley High School. "I know. I hear it all the time."

Like when the 6-3, 205-pound senior decided to pick up a few last-minute groceries at a Las Vegas supermarket last week before heading off to two-a-day workouts here.

"This lady looked at my hat (which read Bayno-Horton Golf Tournament) and asked me, 'Are you a football player or a basketball player?'," Crook recalled. "I said, 'A football player.' And she said, 'God, you guys are going to be horrible without Jon Denton this year, huh?' And I said, 'Nah, I think we're going to be all right.' And she said, 'Yeah, yeah, we'll see.'

"So I get it everywhere," Crook said with a smile. "It doesn't matter if you know me or you don't know me. Thank God she didn't ask me my position. If she had, I probably would have told her I was a kicker."

Yes, Kevin Crook will try to fill some very big cleats this year. And the fifth-year senior from Westlake, Calif., says he's looking forward to the challenge of trying to take over for Denton, who recently transferred to Eastern Kentucky after serving two suspensions with the Rebels.

"It's a great feeling," Crook said. "I didn't want to get the starting job this way because Jon is a good friend of mine. I'm a big Eastern Kentucky fan now. I'm just hoping to do some of what Jon did here and that's throw the ball well to all of these guys."

Crook knows he'll be on the hot seat. If he has a good game, there will undoubtedly be some fans who will believe Denton would have done better. And if he has a bad game, there probably will be plenty of "That wouldn't have happened if Jon was at quarterback."

"It's a position where you get all the fame or all the blame," Crook acknowledged. "If that's what people want to talk about, that's OK with me. But they're going to see that we're a very multitalented team that doesn't depend upon just one player to do all the work. We have a lot of people who can take over a game here. It could be (wide receiver) Lenny (Ware). It could be (wide receiver) Damon Williams. It could be (running backs) Coury Hankins or James Wofford. You just never know."

UNLV head coach Jeff Horton believes Crook will be more than an adequate replacement for Denton.

"Kevin deserves it," Horton said. "He's been here five years now and he's worked hard all five of those years. He wasn't happy with the decision of not being the starting quarterback but he never complained. He always worked hard and waited for his chance. Now that chance has come. And I think he's going to surprise a lot of people."

One of Crook's biggest supporters is USC wide receiver Billy Miller, a good friend and former high school teammate of Crook's at Westlake.

"If I could tell the fans of UNLV anything, it would be to relax, Kevin's going to do a good job for them at quarterback," Miller said following a Trojan practice at UC Irvine recently. "Kevin has a strong arm and he's smart and makes good reads. I definitely think he could play in the Pac-10."

Crook says the timing of earning the starting quarterback job is similar to that of his prep career.

"I didn't start until my senior year in high school," he said. "I didn't have a lot of experience, but I ended up throwing for almost 2,800 yards and having a great season. Hopefully, it will happen again."

The big difference, of course, is that Crook will be playing against the likes of Northwestern, Wisconsin, Colorado State and BYU, not Newbury Park or Newhall Hart.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Crook said of UNLV's tough schedule. "I love watching a team like Northwestern. They're a great football team and their head coach (Gary Barnett) is one of the best in the nation by far. But to be able to go there and open our season gives us an opportunity to do something special."

And if UNLV does pull off the upset?

"This is a town that if you pull off a couple of big wins, they're going to reward you for it," Crook said. "I think this is the year we're going to start the tradition that UNLV has a good football program and people will want to start coming out to our games again."

If that happens, it might even be safe for Kevin Crook to go shopping again.

REBEL NOTES: There have been no major injuries of note yet, although Horton said linebacker Dusty Pearce, fighting for the starting middle linebacker job, has been slowed by knee soreness the last couple of days. And freshman tight end recruit DeJhown Mandley will redshirt after breaking his foot for the third time this year. "He broke it in January and then again in June," Horton said. "And when he got here, he started complaining about it again. We X-rayed it and it was broken again." Horton said Mandley, the son of former NFL wide receiver Pete Mandley, suffered the original injury running track. ... Players are wearing T-shirts which read, "UNLV Football ... The Time Is Now." On the back are the words, "Focused, Intensity, Nasty, Intelligent, Sacrifice and Hardworking ... FINISH."

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