They’re Rolling Sevens in Reno : Football: Former Carson, Hawthorne High standouts Gatlin and Taylor are making names for themselves at Nevada-Reno.

Fred Gatlin and Treamelle Taylor have been winners. Both had successful high school football careers--Gatlin as a quarterback at Carson High and Taylor as a wide receiver at Hawthorne.

But until last season, when they teamed up at the University of Nevada-Reno, the two South Bay natives had never found the respect they were looking for.

Since then, Gatlin and Taylor have became two of the best-known athletes in Reno, a dynamic pass-catch combination that helped the Wolf Pack to a 7-4 record in 1989 and third place in the Big Sky Conference.

And judging by their performances Saturday in this season’s opener, they don’t intend to slow down. In a 55-14 victory over Northern Arizona, Gatlin passed for 266 yards and three touchdowns and was named conference player of the week. Taylor caught five passes for 103 yards, including a 78-yard touchdown.

After one season plus one game, Gatlin, a sophomore, is already sixth on the school’s all-time passing list. Taylor, a senior, is in the top 10 in career receptions.

Until they reached Reno, though, both were largely ignored by college scouts.

As a prep player, Taylor led Hawthorne to a league title. At El Camino College, he helped the Warriors to a 20-1-1 mark over two years and a mythical national championship as a sophomore in 1988. But the 5-foot-10, 170-pound receiver was overlooked by NCAA Division I-A colleges.

He accepted a scholarship to play for Division I-AA Nevada, determined to prove that he was a legitimate college receiver. Without the benefit of spring practice, Taylor earned a starting position by the third game last season and wound up with a school record-tying 64 receptions.

He earned all-conference honors as both a receiver and a return specialist and was named a 1990 preseason All-American by The Sporting News and Street & Smith.

Gatlin too suffered from a lack of interest from Division I-A schools and enrolled at Reno looking for redemption. But although Taylor went to the Silver State hoping for a football jackpot and a chance to showcase his explosive skills, Gatlin’s goal was a simpler one: to earn a starting job.

Despite helping Carson to the L.A. City Section 4-A title in 1988, Gatlin had to share time at quarterback with Perry Klein, now a redshirt freshman at UC Berkeley.

At Nevada last season, Gatlin, like Taylor, was a starter by the third game. By the end of the year, the 6-2, 180-pounder ranked 11th in the nation in passing efficiency, completing 55.8% of his passes for 2,522 yards and 19 touchdowns with only 12 interceptions.

Taylor and Gatlin have roomed together throughout their time at Nevada. Although they never met in the South Bay, their roots there give them a special bond.

“We have a lot in common since we came from basically the same area,” Taylor said. “We talk a lot about our high school days and what’s going on at home.

“And we’re in the same boat in the sense that we never had the opportunity to show what we could really do before. We always shared (playing) time with other people.”

Gatlin said their friendship has been important on the field too.

“Being roommates, we spend a lot of time talking about the game,” said Gatlin. “We’ve been able to develop our own little audibles and codes that we can use at different times. We’re always thinking the same thing.”

Indeed, almost nothing has stopped the two. In the nine games they started last season, Nevada-Reno averaged 33.4 points.

Taylor and Gatlin actually hooked up even before they cracked the starting lineup. In relief duty in a 41-3 opening-day win over Southern Illinois, Gatlin connected with Taylor on 28-yard and nine-yard touchdown plays.

In fact, all eight of Taylor’s scoring receptions last year were thrown by Gatlin, including a 98-yarder in a 40-22 loss to Montana in which Taylor set a school single-game record with 299 receiving yards.

That effort helped Taylor finish with 1,033 receiving yards, the third-best season in school history, and a 16.1-yard average. He also averaged 24.1 yards on kickoff returns and 13.7 yards on punt returns, including a 74-yard touchdown in a 45-7 victory over state rival Nevada-Las Vegas.

The highlight of the 1989 season for Taylor, Gatlin and the entire Wolf Pack squad was the season finale at Northern Arizona. After trailing 31-10 midway through the second quarter, Nevada rallied to win, 52-45.

Gatlin finished with 420 yards and five touchdowns, both Wolf Pack single-game records. Taylor had nine catches for 188 yards, including touchdowns of 31 and 75 yards.

It was a magical ending to Taylor’s and Gatlin’s breakthrough season. But they’re hardly resting on their laurels.

Nevada plays host to Sacramento State on Saturday.

Taylor and Gatlin know that they won’t be able to sneak up on anyone this season. Big Sky Conference defenses will be gunning to shut down the South Bay passing combination.

Nevada-Reno, ranked 19th in the nation after finishing the 1989 season with three consecutive victories and barely missing the Division I-AA playoffs, returns a whopping 20 starters.

Reno averaged 32.9 pass attempts per game last year. Taylor and Gatlin expect the Wolf Pack to throw just as much this season. On Saturday, he completed 17 of 28 passes and did not play in the fourth quarter.

Coach Chris Ault, who in 15 years with the Wolf Pack has produced such NFL players as Washington Redskin defensive lineman Charles Mann and former Raider fullback Frank Hawkins, is open to new ideas about getting more production from Taylor.

“Treamelle was phenomenal last year as a new player for us,” Ault said. “(He was) a one-in-a-hundred transfer student.

“We plan to take full advantage of his talent this year by getting the football in his hands as often as possible.”

Taylor said he’s just hoping that Nevada has a successful season. As for following Mann and Hawkins into professional football, he said he isn’t letting himself think about that.

“I’ve got team goals, but nothing individually now,” he said.

And, if things go according to most preseason projections, Taylor will be running those routes in search of Gatlin’s passes in the 1990 Division I-AA playoffs. That means even more winning for a pair of winners.