Post by RebelRobert on Apr 19, 2014 0:26:19 GMT
www.omaha.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140414/PREPZONE/140418961
Away from the spotlight of his playing days, Jon Denton is beginning a second football career.
The Las Vegas native and former record-setting quarterback from UNLV will make his prep debut as a head coach this fall in the small town of Essex, Iowa. The Trojans, of the Corner Conference, play Eight-Man football. Denton has never before seen an Eight-Man game.
“Once a week, I still have to go back and read the Iowa high school rules regarding Eight-Man football just because it hasn’t sunk in of yet that those are the dynamics of our game,” he said. “I didn’t expect to be in this position a couple of years ago when I said I was going to be a coach. Never did I think I’d be down in this little corner (of Iowa) here.
“I haven’t come in here with 100 victories in Eight-Man football in some other state. I’ve come in here with playing accolades and knowledge of the game.”
Denton was a phenom at UNLV. As a redshirt freshman in 1996, the product of nearby Green Valley High School in Henderson, Nev., threw for 3,591 yards and 25 touchdowns. He had the top two passing days in Rebel history (503 yards versus San Diego State and 486 against Wyoming) that season while playing in 12 games and setting 10 NCAA freshman records.
His sophomore year was also impressive. Denton amassed 6,177 passing yards through his first 21 games at UNLV, a total that is still third on the school’s career list. But he was suspended late in the season for violating team rules and then again in the following spring.
Denton’s actions off the field drew nearly as much attention as his play on it. He was the 1990s version of Johnny Manziel, the headline-stealing Heisman winner from Texas A&M.
“I told my wife the other day, I should’ve coined ‘Johnny Football,’ ” Denton said. “Now, this guy’s going to get millions and millions of dollars for trademarking the phrase.
“I was a true rebel, I guess you could say. I did some things I probably shouldn’t have. Don’t most college kids? I never got arrested. I was never on the front page of the paper for a DUI or anything like that. It was more being a knucklehead within the program than anything else.”
Read the rest of the story here: www.omaha.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140414/PREPZONE/140418961