April 27, 2002
LAS VEGAS - The UNLV football program not only showed off its new $1 million practice field on Saturday, but also its new talent at the team's final spring practice.
Kick Off 2002 was the public's first look at the Ernie Becker Sr. Football Fields, which feature a recently installed $1 million AstroPlay synthetic surface. More than 1,600 Rebel faithful turned out to inspect the new facility and catch a glimpse of the 2002 squad. The players quickly stole the show, highlighted by the efforts of several new transfer players.
Offensively, running backs Deon Burnett and Larry Croom joined last year's 1,000-yard man, Joe Haro, in helping the Rebels turn out 102 yards on the ground. Burnett and Croom, transfers from Washington State and Arizona, respectively, sat out last season while practicing with the team.
On the other side of the ball, Iowa State transfer Tyrone Tucker and former Marshall defender Trent Williams dazzled onlookers by seemingly covering the entire field. Tucker recorded a game-high six tackles with the Rebels' first-team defense, and Williams intercepted one pass and broke up another while making two stops.
Senior signal-caller Jason Thomas looked sharp in limited work, connecting on seven of 12 pass attempts for 72 yards, including a 9-yard scoring strike to DeJhown Mandley. Thomas was one of five quarterbacks to direct UNLV's offensive unit on the day.
Mandley was the team's leading receiver on a rare day where the Rebels moved the ball more through the air than on the ground. The senior-to-be tight end grabbed three balls for 32 yards and the lone passing TD.
The scoring opened with a 25-yard field goal by Dillon Pieffer that capped a 12-play, 53-yard opening drive engineered by sophomore QB Kurt Nantkes. Nantkes ran for 12 yards and threw for 34 in his only series of action.
The only other score of the day came on a three-yard punch by Johnny Graham that concluded the day's play and the Rebels' spring practices. They will now lie idle until fall practice begins before a season-opening home game against Big Ten power Wisconsin on August 31.
Season tickets are now available by calling (702) 895-UNLV.
UNLV KICK OFF 2002SPRING GAME STATISTICSApril 27, 2002
SCORINGDillon Pieffer 25 yard FGDeJhown Mandley 9 yard pass from Jason Thomas (Pieffer kick)Johnny Graham 3 yard run
RUSHING ATT YARDS AVG TDJoe Haro 6 24 4.0 0Deon Burnett 8 16 2.0 0Kurt Nantkes 2 12 6.0 0Royce Boone 3 14 4.7 0Steven Costa 1 14 14.0 0Troy Mason 1 11 11.0 0Larry Croom 1 6 6.0 0Dyante Perkins 1 6 6.0 0Johnny Graham 7 2 0.3 1Jason Thomas 2 0 0.0 0Terry Furlow 2 -3 -1.5 0TOTAL 34 102 3.0 1
PASSING A-C-I YARDS TDJason Thomas 12-7-0 72 1Kurt Nantkes 4-2-0 34 0Tyler Arciaga 5-2-1 33 0Scott Turner 5-3-0 22 0Terry Furlow 1-1-0 19 0TOTAL 27-15-1 180 1
RECEIVING NO YARDS AVG TDDeJhown Mandley 3 32 10.7 1David Relf 2 43 21.5 0Andrew Faga 2 14 7.0 0Earvin Johnson 1 21 21.0 0Deon Barnes 1 20 20.0 0Derrick Barnes 1 19 19.0 0Troy Mason 1 14 14.0 0Aaron Spencer 1 13 13.0 0Michael Johnson 1 6 6.0 0Steven Costa 1 4 4.0 0Johnny Graham 1 -6 -6.0 0TOTAL 15 180 12.0 1
PUNTING NO YARDS AVG LONGGary Cook 4 131 32.8 35Ryan McDonald 2 80 40.0 40TOTAL 6 211 35.2 40
FIELD GOALS ATT MADEDillon Pieffer 25,17 25
PUNT RETURNS NO YDS AVG LONGDeon Burnett 1 22 22.0 22Larry Croom 1 7 7.0 7Troy Mason 2 10 5.0 21TOTAL 4 39 9.8 22
TACKLES TT PBU INT SACKSTyrone Tucker 6 0 0 0Adam Seward 4 0 0 0Terrence Young 4 0 0 0Ruschard Dodd-Masters 3 0 0 0Sean Mackey 3 0 0 0Jamaal Brimmer 3 0 0 0Joe Miklos 3 0 0 0Trent Williams 2 1 1 0Bill Cofer 2 0 0 0Alonzo Freeman 1 0 0 1Leon Moore 1 1 0 0Daniel Jones 1 0 0 0Gary Cook 1 0 0 0David Olsen 1 0 0 0Lacy King 1 0 0 0Michael Freund 1 0 0 0Allan Fanucchi 1 0 0 0Marcus Crawford 1 0 0 0Brian Adams 1 0 0 0Zach Bell 1 0 0 0Ross Dalton 1 0 0 0Jason Ramirez 1 0 0 0Ahmad Briggs 1 0 0 0Dietrich Canterberry 1 0 0 0Phil Reed 1 0 0 0Garrett Brassington 1 0 0 0Shaun Siaki 1 0 0 0TOTAL 48 2 1 1
