UNLV to face game-breaking Prairie View running back
When UNLV coaches and players watch video of Prairie View A&M this week, they can be excused of thinking they’re looking at their own Lexington Thomas.
Prairie View has a game-breaking running back short on stature and tall on athleticism, and junior Dawonya Tucker is someone the Rebels will have to make a priority in defending when the teams meet at 7 p.m. Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium.
Tucker (5 feet 6 inches, 165 pounds) has rushed for more than 200 yards in each of the past two games, and he leads the FCS with 542 yards through three games. He averages 10.2 yards per carry, with 19 runs of 10 or more yards.
UNLV senior Lexington Thomas (5-9, 170) has rushed for 263 yards through two games, averaging 8.5 yards. He has rushed for touchdowns of 55 yards or longer nine times since 2016, including one for 71 yards in the season opener at Southern California.
“(Tucker is) probably a little smaller than Lex from what I’ve seen, but he’s really shifty,” UNLV coach Tony Sanchez said Monday. “He’s dynamic. If he gets out in open space, he can cause some problems. We’ve got to do a really good job of corralling him.”
UNLV’s defenders face not only Thomas in practice, but also his capable backups.
Charles Williams averages 7.3 yards per rush, Xzaviar Campbell 6.9 and Evan Owens 5.1. And that group doesn’t include quarterback Armani Rogers, who is second on the team with 166 yards, averaging 6.6 per attempt.
“(Tucker is) a real electrifying back,” Rebels defensive end Jameer Outsey said. “He finishes runs and he runs hard every play. So I think going against that every day in practice and having that type of work and that type of opponent in practice, I think gets us better.”
Rice, in the season opener, was the only school to hold Tucker to less than 200 yards. But Tucker received only 10 carries in the 31-28 loss and still finished with 73 yards.
He followed with 224 yards on 22 carries in a 40-24 victory over North Carolina Central and 245 yards on 21 attempts in a 41-32 loss to Sam Houston State, which is ranked fourth in FCS.
UNLV has been susceptible against the run, allowing 219 yards to USC and 265 to Texas-El Paso.
But the numbers in Saturday’s 52-24 victory over UTEP are a little deceiving. The Miners attacked UNLV early, rushing for 123 yards on its first two drives in scoring 10 points. Later, when the Rebels had largely backups in the game, UTEP gained 110 yards.
In between, though, when the game was still in the balance, UTEP ran for 32 yards. In that time, the Rebels increased their lead from 14-10 to 45-10.
UTEP had a dual threat in quarterback Kai Locksley, and he rushed for 119 yards and touchdowns. Prairie View’s Jalen Morton has rushed for 147 yards, though that includes 74 yards in losses due to sacks.
“Schematically, we need to do a good job of attacking, and there are couple of different things we can do to adjust,” Sanchez said. “This guy (Morton) is a good runner. When you have a quarterback who’s going to give you 80 positive yards a game, that puts a lot of stress on a defense.”
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Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.