MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The UNLV football program rarely creates more than a ripple nationally. It holds a much more special place in the hearts of the Vereen family.

The family will have a homecoming of sorts on Thursday night when Minnesota opens the season against the Rebels.

Golden Gophers junior Brock Vereen will be playing his first game at safety, and his parents will be in the stands, watching their son play in very familiar surroundings. Vereen's father Henry was a standout, do-it-all kind of player for the Rebels in the late 1970s before being drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His mother, Venita, was a tennis player at UNLV.

Redshirt freshman Nick Sherry will be making his first career start for UNLV, and Vereen and the Gophers' secondary hope to capitalize on that inexperience.

---

Follow Jon Krawczynski on Twitter: http://twitter.com/APKrawczynski