April 12, 2003
LAS VEGAS - Defense was the name of the game at UNLV Football's Kick Off 2003 event, which took place before a crowd of 800 fans at Ernie Becker Sr. Football Fields at Bill "Wildcat" Morris Rebel Park Saturday.
On a sunny but windy day, the only scoring during the controlled scrimmage format came from senior-to-be place-kicker Dillon Pieffer, who nailed all three of his field goal attempts (32, 42 and 44 yards).
New starting quarterback Kurt Nantkes hit nine of his 15 pass attempts for 93 yards but couldn't find the end zone. Starting tailback Larry Croom was also effective, leading the Rebels with 59 yards rushing on just seven carries. Earvin Johnson, who was a 2002 second team All-MWC pick, led the way in the air with three receptions for 28 yards.
Defensively, linebacker Zach Bell turned in a dominating day with six tackles while cornerback David Olsen led the squad with seven total takedowns. Olsen also forced the day's only fumble when he stripped Deon Burnett at the one-yard line. Another youngster, freshman defensive lineman Ryan Heise, added two the defense's pass breakups.
The team will now wrap up its annual spring practice with four more sessions: Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
The Rebels' 12-game season opens at home on August 30 vs. Toledo. Season tickets are now available by calling (702) 739-FANS.
UNLV KICK OFF 2003
SPRING GAME STATISTICS
April 12, 2003
Ernie Becker Sr. Football Fieldsat Bill "Wildcat" Morris Rebel Park
Attendance: 800
SCORING
Dillon Pieffer 32-yard FGDillon Pieffer 42-yard FGDillon Pieffer 44-year FG
RUSHING ATT YARDS AVG TD
Larry Croom 7 59 8.4 0Royce Boone 4 28 7.0 0Erick Jackson 3 14 4.7 0Deon Burnett 4 11 2.8 0Alvin Marshall 5 2 0.4 0Tyler Arciaga 1 -2 -2.0 0Kurt Nantkes 1 -9 -9.0 0JaJa Riley 6 -12 -2.0 0TOTAL 31 91 3.0 0
PASSING A-C-I YARDS TD
Kurt Nantkes 15-9-0 93 0Tony Paoli 4-2-0 26 0Scott Turner 4-3-0 14 0Tyler Arciaga 5-2-0 8 0TOTAL 28-16-0 141 1
RECEIVING NO YARDS AVG TD
Earvin Johnson 3 28 9.3 0Alvin Marshall 3 17 5.7 0Erick Jackson 2 23 11.5 0Adam Gajo 2 17 8.5 0Deon Burnett 2 8 4.0 0Greg Estandia 1 24 24.0 0Shelvion Williams 1 13 13.0 0Tremayne Kirkland 1 6 6.0 0Terry Furlow 1 5 5.0 0TOTAL 16 141 8.8 0
PUNTING NO YARDS AVG LONG
Gary Cook 1 50 50.0 50Bryan Cortney 1 Attempt BlockedTOTAL 1 50 50.0 50
FIELD GOALS ATT MADE
Dillon Pieffer 32, 42, 44 32, 42, 44
TACKLES TT PBU FF
David Olsen, DB 7 0 1Zach Bell, LB 6 0 0Jamaal Brimmer, DB 5 0 0Joe Miklos, DB 4 0 0George Morris, LB 4 0 0Ryan Claridge, LB 3 0 0John Andrews, LB 3 1 0Terrence Young, LB 3 0 0Steve Lawless, DL 3 0 0Adam Seward, LB 2 0 0Daniel Jones, DB 2 0 0Dietrich Canterberry, DL 2 0 0Sean Mackey, DB 2 0 0Ryan Heise, DL 1 2 0Reggie Butler, LB 1 0 0Ruschard Dodd-Masters, DB 1 1 0Allan Fanucchi, DB 1 0 0Brian Nicholson, DL 1 0 0Trent Williams, DB 1 0 0Reggie Turner, LB 1 0 0Ernest Gordon, DB 1 0 0Ryan Tolan, LB 1 0 0Joey Schmidt, LB 1 1 0TOTAL 56 5 1
