Aug. 6, 2007
LAS VEGAS - UNLV football reached day four of its acclimation period and after the Scarlet Team went in the morning, the Gray Team took the field on a gorgeous Southern Nevada summer evening at Rebel Park Monday.
The final day of the split-squad format was completed without incident as the players await pulling on full pads Tuesday.
"Just fantastic weather for us tonight," said head coach Mike Sanford. "These kind of practices are good teaching opportunities but we are excited about our first day in pads tomorrow."
Asked to name a couple of early camp standouts among the new wave of players, Sanford mentioned one on each side of the ball. Grayshirt defensive back Quinton Pointer (Cape Coral, FL/Mariner HS) is regularly showing why he would have been a national recruit had it not been for a major injury during his senior year of high school in the Sunshine State.
"Quinton is doing some really nice things out there and he is defenitely one of the fastest players on our team right now."
Offensively, former Arizona transfer Gerold Rodriguez (Los Angeles/Venice HS) has continued the strong effort he exhibited at receiver in the squad's spring game earlier this year.
"Gerold is playing up to the level of talent we knew he had when we watched in back in high school."
Tuesday's lone practice is scheduled to run from 8:45-11:05 a.m. and is open to the public.
REBEL CAMP NOTES:
-GEMINI IN DA HOUSE... True freshman Shane Horton (Chatsworth, CA/Notre Dame HS) has been wowing onlookers at safety and the group of fans keeping an eye on the prized recruit included his father, Myke Horton, on Monday night. The elder Horton, who played football at UCLA, is recognizable in his own right as he played Gemini on the syndicated television show "American Gladiators" from 1989-92.
-SILVER STATE ON THE UPSWING... No less than 22 of the current 99 players in camp with the Rebels as of Aug. 6 are products of Southern Nevada high schools. The new talent-infusion from area schools includes DL Ronald Boone (Sierra Vista HS), OL Justin McCrory (Las Vegas HS), OL Samuel Tuala (Canyon Springs HS), P/PK/WR Zach Davis (Moapa Valley HS), LB Mark Seward (Bonanza HS), and OL Matt Kravetz (Durango HS).
