Feb. 7, 2007
OVERALL ON THE 2007 CLASS
"We feel great about this class. We have been working really hard as a coaching staff to achieve our goals. This is our third class recruiting class since I have been here at UNLV and I believe it takes us one step further toward our goals of turning this program around."
"Another thing about our class that is very important was that we were able to meet needs that we had. The first need was a big running back and we were able to bring in a junior college, mid-year, big running back in Frank Summers from Laney College in Oakland. In the defensive secondary we were able to recruit several defensive backs and defensive end was another need of ours and we did very well at defensive end."
ON THE EMPHASIS IN RECRUITING FRESHMEN
"Something that is really important is that we are building with freshmen. We are recruiting junior college players for specific need, but we are building this program with freshmen. We expect to get this thing going and have it going for the long term and the only way you do that is recruiting freshmen."
ON RECRUITING AGAINST 'THE TEAM UP NORTH'
"One of our goals each year is to beat the 'Team Up North', and to do that you have to beat them in recruiting. You have to get the players both teams are going up against and in head-to-head battles we got four out of five guys."
ON WHAT HIS STAFF LOOKS FOR IN A RECRUIT
"There are six things that we look for when recruiting. Number one we want guys that love the game of football. Number two is that we want guys with high character. We want guys that are mentally and physically tough. We also want guys that understand winning and there are a lot of guys here that have been on championships teams. We also want guys with great work ethic, great attitude and great effort, which is all one category. It isn't in the least amount of importance, but the last thing is academics. Obviously it is important for us to recruit young men who are good academically and who will be successful academically."
ON RECEIVING TWO LETTERS OF INTENT AT THE LAST MINUTE
"As it always goes on signing day, there are some last minute, exciting things that happen and that is what happened today. We ended up with two guys that are outstanding players that made commitments to us and we have gotten their letters of intent faxed to us and verified by the conference office."
"First of all Shane Horton who will be a defensive back from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif., is an outstanding football player. We beat Oregon, Washington and UCLA for him, which is a big thing."
"The other one we received just before I got in here (to the press conference) is from Larry Dennis, who is a defensive end from Lakeland, Fla., who played junior college football at Compton Community College."
"We feel really good about those two and that they add a little extra pizzazz to this group. We knew it was going to be a good class but we feel that what we did at the last minute puts us over the edge."
