Columnist Dean Juipe: Denton back, apologetic and changed

HE HEARD it all and he took names. He says he won't forget.

Twice suspended from the UNLV football team but quietly reinstated following spring practice, Jon Denton has something to prove to those teammates, coaches, fans and supposed friends who turned their backs on him as he was getting his life in order. As it is, he's in no position to gloat but that doesn't mean the day won't come when he feels like rubbing it back in the faces of those who dismissed him as too undisciplined for his own good.

"That's why I stuck around," he said Thursday, referring to his decision to remain at UNLV despite the inclination to transfer. "There were a lot of bandwagon riders who jumped off when I got in hot water. I know who they are and I'll always remember the things they said or the way they acted toward me."

Denton, a 20-year-old junior, is the Rebels' quarterback and their best player. He's at the center of the program's marketing campaign and he's clearly a player with NFL capabilities.

Yet his suspensions -- one during the season and one after -- altered not only his status with the team but the public's perception of him. Suddenly he was more outcast than hotshot.

"There was at least once where I had to restrain myself from letting loose with someone right in my face," he said of criticism directed his way. "People who I thought were friends were nowhere to be found once I was in trouble. That includes the treatment I received from other players and some of the coaching staff."

Even today, all is not entirely well for the Green Valley alum.

"You'd think everything would have blown over by now, but it really hasn't," he said. "I still hear a few things."

Denton, who was exiled for unnamed offenses but certainly not for anything too serious or too out of the ordinary for someone his age, is, however, back in the good graces of head coach Jeff Horton.

"He's had his best off-season ever," Horton said. "He's put on some good strength and he seems to be more focused and determined. I'm pleased with his efforts."

Before his reinstatement, which was never formally announced, Denton worked out on his own while his teammates labored in unison. The isolation, as well as the verbal abuse he was taking, had him thinking of bailing out.

"There were a couple of times when I almost went to Coach Horton's office to tell him I was going to leave," he said. "I was definitely going to do it. I didn't want to put up with that stuff anymore and was thinking of transferring."

His father, Rick, talked him out of it.

"What I needed all along was a swift kick in the butt and I got it from my dad," Denton said. "Coach Horton, too. And my mom more than any of them. But I would have left if my dad hadn't said 'Come back and show 'em.'"

Father knew best but it still hasn't been easy.

"There's only a handful of people I can trust," said a young man whose face has been plastered on billboards around the city.

If nothing else, he has learned of the trappings of fame. It's a rosy world as long as you never lose your luster.

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