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On the map Charismatic QB may put Mountain West in spotlight
Updated: Monday August 20, 2001 5:02 PM
By Michael C. Lewis, Special to CNNSI.com Going into its third season, the Mountain West Conference is still struggling with an identity crisis. But a charismatic and elusive young quarterback might change all that. UNLV's Jason Thomas is being heralded as one of the best quarterbacks in the country, a potential All-America and Heisman Trophy candidate who could do for the MWC what Ty Detmer and Jim McMahon did for the old Western Athletic Conference. But unlike such classic drop-back passers, the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Thomas is another example of the new breed of versatile college quarterbacks -- think Daunte Culpepper and Donovan McNabb -- who can beat teams on the ground as well as through the air. "He's the most talented quarterback I've ever had," head coach John Robinson says. And he is clearly the key to what could be a breakout season for UNLV. With Thomas' ability to do just about everything -- he threw for 1,708 yards last season and rushed for 599 despite missing nearly two games with a sprained foot -- the Rebels are hoping to challenge for the conference championship and break into the Top 25 not even three years after finishing 0-11. And talk of Thomas' winning the Heisman Trophy is only a slightly hotter topic under the desert sun than whether he will leave school after this season and become one of the top picks in the NFL Draft. "Right now, it's all talk," Thomas says. "If I don't play, it's just talk." Yet nobody seems to think Thomas will have much of a problem improving on the impressive season he had a year ago, even though a rough early schedule could make it hard for him to stay healthy. The Rebels start the season with a rematch against Arkansas, which they beat in the Las Vegas Bowl last season to complete an 8-5 record and start the bandwagon rolling toward this season. Then they play home games against Big Ten Conference favorite Northwestern and two-time defending MWC champion Colorado State before heading to Arizona. Survive that, and the Rebels might have something. Thomas has battled back from the foot injury that plagued him during the second half of last season. (Not coincidentally, the Rebels suffered their worst loss of the season -- 38-16 at Utah -- in the only game Thomas missed last season.) He also says he has improved his throwing accuracy, after completing a respectable 106-of-201 passes for 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions last year. Frequently described as the most important recruit in UNLV history, Thomas would not have wound up in Las Vegas but for Robinson, who became the Rebels' head coach after his second stint at USC. With his legendary history -- he won a national championship with USC in 1978, finished second twice and coached two Heisman Trophy-winning running backs while compiling a sparkling record in both college and the NFL -- Robinson immediately began attracting dazzling players when he replaced Jeff Horton following a winless season in 1998. A native of Compton, Calif., Thomas spurned Nebraska, Syracuse, Kansas State and Miami to sign with the hometown Trojans, and he redshirted the '98 season after Robinson was fired. Once Robinson landed at UNLV, though, Thomas transferred and sat out a season while his coach began the rebuilding effort. The Rebels were 3-8 in Robinson's first year, before Thomas took over and starting impressing everybody. "The best thing about Jason may be his competitiveness," Robinson says. "He wants to do whatever it takes. The great players I've had the good fortune to coach were all ambitious and curious and willing to do anything if it was going to help them get better. This man has all of that." He's starting to get a lot of attention, too. Not only has a local radio executive committed $20,000 to help promote Thomas' wide array of talents -- he was also a star basketball player at Dominguez High School and considered playing for UNLV last season before suffering his foot injury -- but the school also has put up several promotional billboards featuring Thomas' picture. Several media outlets have tabbed Thomas as the best quarterback in the country, and the Rebels are expecting to have every one of their games on television for the first time ever. Most important, ESPN will televise their first three games nationally. But Robinson hardly worries that his star pupil will get caught up in a media frenzy. The coach says Thomas is well suited to handle the pressures that come with high expectations, and the handsome Thomas clearly is at ease with the media and fans. "The thing about all of this is that it's fun for him," Robinson says. "Hey, when you're 9 years old, every one of us dreamed about being a star of some kind, you know? And that's good." UNLV has never been ranked in either of the major polls, but CNNSI.com is among the magazines and Web sites that have made the Rebels a preseason Top 25 pick. And if the Rebs can find a star replacement for a departed trio of running backs and keep Thomas healthy against that murderers' row during the season's first month, they might put the Mountain West on the tip of everyone's tongue. Michael C. Lewis covers the Mountain West for the Salt Lake Tribune. His "This Week in the Mountain West" column will appear weekly during the season.
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