Ex-UNR quarterback continues play at Central Missouri St.

RENO, Nev. (AP) Zack Threadgill, the senior starting quarterback at Nevada last year, is getting an unexpected chance to play another season of college football.

Threadgill, who ranked seventh in the nation in total offense last year and threw for more than 3,000 yards, is taking advantage of an NCAA rule that allows him an extra season of eligibility at the Division II level.

He's vying for the starting job at Central Missouri State in Warrensburg, about 30 miles east of Kansas City.

``I feel like a little kid again because here I am getting another chance to play football,'' Threadgill, 23, told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

``But I also feel like an old man because I've been around a bit and I see how young these freshmen are,'' he said.

The connection to the school is no fluke. The CMS Mules' new offensive coordinator hired in the offseason is Chris Klenakis, who was Nevada's offensive coordinator for 1996-2000.

Klenakis sat in Threadgill's living room in December of 1997 and lured the star from Apollo High School in Glendale, Ariz., to Reno to play for Nevada.

``I was just learning the (NCAA) rules at this level (Division II) and started thinking about Zack,'' Klenakis told the Gazette-Journal.

Klenakis said he first contacted Nevada to get permission to talk to Threadgill, and then called the quarterback himself.

``I thought he was kidding,'' Threadgill said of the call from Klenakis. ``Then he called again and I still thought it was a joke. But the more he talked about it, the more I started thinking that he was serious.''

By that time, Threadgill was selling bank loans in Reno and rehabbing his shoulder after surgery following the 2002 season. He went to his parents for advice.

``We talked about it and there is just a lot of upside to it for me,'' Threadgill said. ``I get a year of graduate school paid for. I get another chance to do what I love to do. And I can take advantage of this opportunity and maybe get a chance at the next level, which would be a dream come true.''

At the Division I level, an athlete gets five years to play four seasons.

Threadgill redshirted his first year at Nevada and played as a redshirt freshman the next year before a knee injury sidelined him all of his sophomore year. He came back and played as a junior before a stellar season last fall for the Pack.

In Division II, athletes get 10 semesters of eligibility.

Because Threadgill missed one season of competition due to injury and because he graduated from Nevada in December, he still has one semester of eligibility left by transferring to the Division II level.

Nevada Coach Chris Tormey said he encouraged Threadgill to take the opportunity.

``The only question about Zack is if that shoulder is recovered from the surgery. But this is an opportunity for him to show what he can do,'' Tormey said.

``He knows where to go with the football and he certainly knows that offense.''

The offense is the wide-open aerial attack that Klenakis ran as the offensive coordinator at Nevada.

``We are running the same exact system,'' Klenakis said of the Mules, who went 10-2 last year and finished second in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association before losing to Northern Colorado in the first round of the Division II playoffs.

``Zack has been removed from the system for a while, but what (Tormey's staff) has done the last three years there is very similar,'' said Klenakis, who also coached at Fallon High. ``They did a fantastic job last year with Zack.''

Threadgill completed 61 percent of his attempts last year, tallying 3,418 yards and 26 touchdowns against 17 interceptions. He had an efficiency rating of 136.1 (21st in the nation) and had 294.5 yards of total offense (seventh in the nation).

That was despite struggling the final two games of the Western Athletic Conference season for the Wolf Pack (5-7) with that shoulder injury a partial tear of the rotator cuff and a torn labrum.

The surgery didn't allow him to work out for NFL scouts this spring so there weren't any NFL teams willing to take a chance on an injured quarterback from a mid-major school with only one year of starting experience.

``I think that was the hardest thing just watching and not being able to work out,'' Threadgill said. ``It would be one thing to work out and then for them to pass on me. I can be a man and take that. But to sit out and watch, it was just a frustrating time for me.''

He is essentially getting back the year of eligibility he lost with a torn anterior cruciate ligament his sophomore season.

``When the Division I level said I was done, I didn't necessarily feel cheated,'' he said. ``But that year, I didn't suit up at all. I didn't practice. I didn't do anything but go to school. To have that year back now is nice.''

Threadgill has a good shot at the starting job at quarterback as the Mules have a senior with limited experience and three freshmen on the roster.

``It is exciting to have a guy with experience (who) has been around the block,'' Klenakis said. ``He always did well in this system and we've known each a while now.''

Threadgill said he's enjoying life in the Midwestern college town of 16,340.

``It is different from anything I have ever experienced,'' he said. ``But it is great here. The people here love the Fighting Mules. This town is gung-ho for football.''

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)