University of Nevada Las Vegas

Football Athlete (1995-98)

A prodigious pass rusher for the Rebels who went on to a half-decade NFL career, Talance Sawyer is one of two UNLV football players being inducted tonight along with Hunkie Cooper. The Louisiana native took head coach Jeff Horton’s offer to pack up and move West and lettered his freshman campaign as a talented tight end, even catching a touchdown on his first career reception in college. The Rebels, however, needed help on defense and Sawyer changed jersey numbers from 85 to 9 and quickly converted into a nearly unstoppable force at the end spot. He logged 50 tackles and 4.5 sacks on his new side of the ball as a sophomore and the numbers just went up from there. He stopped 85 ball-carriers with seven sacks and 18 tackles-for-loss en route to First Team All-WAC honors in 1997. He would lead the conference in TFL again as a senior after being named a preseason All-American and ranked the No. 15 DE in the country by The Sporting News. Sawyer’s 86 tackles included an eye-popping 22 TFL as he earned team MVP honors and an invitation to the Hula Bowl all-star game. Drafted in the sixth round by Minnesota, Sawyer played five seasons for the Vikings, including starting 32 straight games in 2000-01. His pro career including 11 quarterback sacks, 21 TFL and an interception while wearing the proud purple. Still ranking sixth in UNLV history with 15.5 career sacks, he was named a starting end on the UNLV Football All-Time Team and the program’s seventh-best NFL pick by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Now, he becomes the fourth defensive lineman in Rebel history to reach the Hall of Fame.

SAWYER’S UNLV CAREER STATS
YEAR    UT    AT    TT    SACKS    TFL-YD    
1998       41    45    86    4.0             22-66    
1997       61    24    85    7.0             18-95    
1996       29    21    50    4.5              6-22    
1995       PLAYED AT TIGHT END    
TOTAL    131  90    221  15.5           46-183