Rebels basking in glory after win over Baylor on freak play

WACO, Texas -- When he finally got to bed in the wee hours of Sunday morning, UNLV cornerback Kevin Thomas had a companion with him.

Relax mom and dad. It was the game ball.

"I put it right on the corner of my bed," said Thomas, who ran a fumble back 101 yards on the final play of the game to give UNLV a stunning 27-24 victory over Baylor on Saturday night at Floyd Casey Stadium. "I wanted to keep that ball with me."

And why not? That ball and Thomas were the key ingredients in one of the most unbelievable finishes in college football history.

Just call it, "The Play." Or, if you're a Baylor fan, "The Blockhead Play."

In case you missed it, here's a brief recap of what happened.

Baylor, which held a 24-21 lead, had a first-and-goal at the UNLV 8-yard-line with eight seconds remaining. The Rebels were out of timeouts and couldn't stop the clock. All Bears quarterback Jermaine Alfred had to do was a quick kneel-down and then toss the ball to the referee as the final seconds ticked off.

Routine, right? Seen it done a million times at the end of a game over the years, right?

But in a move that defied logic, not to mention plain old sportsmanship, Baylor coach Kevin Steele ordered one more off-tackle run by tailback Darrell Bush.

The purpose? According to Steele, it was "to create attitude." In actuality, it was to run up the score.

Bush, whose nine-yard run with 6:01 left had given Baylor the lead, was met by UNLV defensive backs Quincy Sanders and Andre Hilliard at the two. Intent on scoring on the last play of the game, Bush tried to spin away and stuck the football out toward the goal line.

UNLV linebacker Tyler Brickell picks it up from there.

"I just reached over his shoulder and swatted (the ball)," Brickell said. "It bounced into K.T.'s hands and he was gone. ... We win!"

K.T. would be Thomas, who scooped up Bush's fumble a yard deep in the end zone, then easily raced 101 yards untouched up the left sideline for the game-winning touchdown as time expired.

As most in the crowd of 32,272 watched in disbelief, Thomas was buried by his teammates in the end zone. Final score: UNLV 27, Baylor 24.

"I just got lucky right there," Brickell said. "It was impossible to win right there. I mean, it was basically impossible, but we pulled it out."

"Obviously we thought we had lost the game," UNLV wide receiver Nate Turner said. "We thought it was a kneel-down. (Rebels' head coach John Robinson) was over there going, 'Hey, what are you guys doing, trying to rub it in?' ... But God don't like ugly."

"When you try and run it up on a coaching legend like that, you're going to get (expletive)," Rebel defensive coordinator Jeff McInerney said.

"It was greed," Rebel linebacker James Sunia, who had 11 tackles, said. "I heard (Baylor's players) going, 'Ohmigod! I can't believe it! No! No! No!' "

Added linebacker Jerrad Pierucci: "On the last play, I took on a blocker (tight end Brandon Thompson) and he was laughing during the play like, 'Ha, ha, ha, we're going to score again.' ... But we got the last laugh."

And Steele thought getting choke-slammed by Carolina Panthers' defensive end Kevin Greene on national TV last year was embarrassing.

"The million-dollar question is why did we do it, and it all falls on my shoulders," Steele said. "I've got an explanation, but it doesn't hold water. A one-in-a-million thing happened to us.

"We talked all week about creating an attitude, of fighting and hammering until the end," Steele continued. "We played with fire and we got burned. This will go down in history as the most one-in-a-million 'Why did you do it?' of all time.

"The flaming arrows are going to start coming from every direction imaginable. They're going to question me, question this football team and everything that has anything to do with this program. You guys (media) are going to write that it's the dumbest thing that ever happened."

If the shoe fits. ...

Robinson was asked if he had ever seen a comparable finish in his 40 years of coaching.

"Not one like that, not one that seemed to be all but over," he said. "We just happened to have good fortune."

Did he see Steele afterward?

"Yeah, he was shocked," Robinson said. "I think they were all shocked. And they knew they let one get away."

Had Steele and company gotten a little too greedy?

"It's not my place to say that," Robinson said.

Robinson, who tempered the post-game celebration by pointing out the numerous mistakes the team had made throughout the contest, said he also told his squad, "Don't pray to God for anything else. He gave us more than our share tonight."

* REBEL NOTES: The victory was UNLV's first against a Big 12 squad in eight tries. The Rebels will try to make it two in a row on Saturday night when they host Iowa State (2-0) at Sam Boyd Stadium. ... Senior wide receiver Len Ware had eight more catches to give him 143 in his career, good enough for fifth on the Rebels' all-time receptions list. Ware passed both Jacksonville Jaguars star Keenan McCardell (141) and Demond Thompkins (142) on Saturday. Ware needs to average five catches in UNLV's last nine games to pass Damon Williams (187) for first place. ... The Rebels earned their second nonconference road win in a season for the first time in school history. .. UNLV has won back-to-back games for the first time since 1997.

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