Aug. 23, 2006

UNLV football concluded its off-campus workouts with one practice Wednesday morning in full pads that saw Rebel head coach Mike Sanford lead his charges through 24 five-minute periods.

Sanford said that the team met the three reasons he stated for having camp off campus. Those were developing team camaraderie, practicing in cooler weather and improving the team's conditioning.

"This has been a great camp for us and I feel like it has pulled us together as a team. But that is an ongoing thing that needs to continue from here," Sanford said. "We are also in much better shape, it is obvious how we have improved."

The Rebels will return to practicing at Rebel Park and those will be close to the public and then on Saturday the team will hold a sneak peak dress rehearsal for fans at 7:00 p.m. (PT) at Sam Boyd Stadium.

POSITION UPDATE: QUARTERBACK

A year after quarterback was one of the Rebels' leanest positions, this year's squad is stocked at the position with sophomore starter Rocky Hinds and senior Shane Steichen leading the group under the direction of quarterbacks coach Noah Brindise. Hinds, a highly touted transfer from USC, was recently named the starter and backing him up will be the veteran Steichen.

"We have two really good quarterbacks in Rocky Hinds and Shane Steichen who can win games for us," Brindise said. "We are also fortunate to have Jarrod Jackson as well, since he has a lot of experience and is a leader. Overall we have a good, deep group of quarterbacks."

Senior signal caller Jarrod Jackson, who started six games last year, provides even more depth at the position. Dack Ishii, a sophomore transfer from Tennessee who sat out last year due to NCAA guidelines and freshman Travis Dixon are two other developing quarterbacks in the Rebel system.

REBEL CAMP NOTES:

UNLV staff and personnel in many different offices spent countless hours making the off-campus practices run smoothly over the 13-day period, and head coach Mike Sanford expressed his gratitude to everyone involved.

"All of the organizational and support staff, equipment, training, media relations and administrative support staff did a great job," Sanford said.