UNR hopes not to be spread thin

Depending on how you look at it, the UNR football team’s opponent today is either the evolution or the devolution of the spread offense.

What the UNLV Rebels truly are, though, is the third straight Wolf Pack opponent that runs the spread. But that doesn’t mean experience will provide any advantage for UNR.

“Everybody (who runs a spread offense) has a different way of attacking,” said Wolf Pack assistant head coach Ken Wilson, whose team takes on UNLV in the Battle for the Fremont Cannon at 7 p.m. today at Sam Boyd Stadium. “Some are pass-first, some are run-first.”

There is a simplicity to the spread offense that makes one wonder why so few teams used it until Urban Meyer made it famous as coach at Utah in 2003 and 2004, leading the Utes to an unbeaten season in ’04. Meyer has since moved on to Florida, and his offensive coordinator at Utah, Mike Sanford, became the head coach at UNLV in 2005.

Sanford’s version of the spread, which takes a lot from Meyer and some from others, is among the simplest in design: Set four receivers wide to draw as many defenders away from the box as possible, then use a big, powerful running back — in the Rebels’ case, 5-foot-10-inch, 230-pound Frank Summers — to try to take advantage of numbers.

“It really is (that simple),” Wilson said. “And if you put more guys in to tackle him, they’re going to throw it. That’s what a spread offense does.”

Spread offenses are possibly known more as passing attacks, but that isn’t the case with the Rebels. The Wolf Pack’s first game against a spread offense this season was in Week 2 against Texas Tech, which threw 46 passes and rushed 22 times. The following week it was Missouri, which had a 36-29 ratio. The Rebels average 36 rushing attempts — Summers is averaging 21.5 carries — and 30 pass attempts per game.

“Summers is a really good back,” UNR coach Chris Ault said. “He does a great job running the ball, and that’s the heart of their attack.”

The Wolf Pack has in the span of four weeks seen three teams that have gone from the air to the ground with the same formation.

“The difference is UNLV likes to run the ball more, Tech not at all, and Missouri would rather throw it,” Ault said. “The routes are very similar, but they run the ball better than those other two teams. That’s the difference.”

Summers is the workhorse, but it is sophomore quarterback Omar Clayton who pushes the buttons, and he hasn’t missed much yet this season. He’s completing 63 percent of his passes and has nine touchdowns and no interceptions.

“He runs that offense really well,” Wilson said. “He’s an adequate runner, and he’s much better (than recent UNLV quarterbacks) passing.”

Sanford, too, thinks Clayton is the biggest reason why the Rebels’ offense has taken such a big step. UNLV is 3-1, which includes back-to-back overtime victories over Arizona State, ranked 15th at the time, and Iowa State.

“The way I look at it, we’ve had kind of a difficult journey at the quarterback position since I’ve been here. That’s the best way to say it,” Sanford said. “I think we finally have the kind of quarterback we need to run the kind of offense we want to run. I’ve got to give tremendous credit to Omar Clayton. No. 1, I think he’s very smart. No. 2, I think he’s a very high-character person. He’s a tough guy, mentally and physically tough. I think he’s a good combination of being able to throw and run, and obviously throw on the run.”

Clayton started three games last season.

“I think it was too early for him to play, and he struggled a bit,” Sanford said. “But I think it helped him. It’s helped us progress.”

A key factor in the Rebels’ passing attack has been the consistency and big-play ability of their receivers. Casey Flair and Ryan Wolfe were preseason All-Mountain West Conference picks by various media, and freshman Phillip Payne has made a couple of highlight-reel catches. His one-handed touchdown catch in the closing seconds sent the Arizona State game into overtime, and he had the game-winning catch in overtime against Iowa State.

The key for UNR will be to wrap up when tackling Summers and to disguise its defenses well, which can sometimes lead to big plays. Big plays have been a problem for the Wolf Pack defense, which allowed five touchdown plays of 25 yards or more in a 69-17 loss to Missouri.

“We’ve got to eliminate the big plays,” Ault said. “And we’ve got to make some plays. We didn’t do that in the Missouri game.”

Fail to do that, and the Fremont Cannon, which has been in UNR’s possession since its win in 2005, could get a coat of red paint.

“When I first came up here, that was one of my goals, to get the cannon back,” said UNR senior linebacker Joshua Mauga, 3-0 in in-state rivalry games. “And once we got it back, the goal was to maintain keeping it. It’s been great keeping it. We want to keep it that way.”

“The whole time I’ve been here we’ve never had it,” said UNLV senior defensive tackle Jacob Hales, a Las Vegas High graduate. “It would be nice for us to get it back.”