SELECT COMMENTS FROM HEAD COACH Tony Sanchez AT THE MEDIA CONFERENCE ANNOUNCING UNLV FOOTBALL'S 2015 RECRUITING CLASS:

Opening Remarks

It's been a fast and furious process, I can't believe we hit the road January 15. A lot of people to thank. First I want to thank (UNLV AD) Tina Kunzer-Murphy for believing in me. You've been fantastic. Our whole staff is excited about working with you. President Len Jessup -- it's great having him here with his new energy, it's a great time to be a Rebel.

Our staff, Jimmy Morimoto, Justin McCrory and Katie Schulte have been fantastic helping through the whole process as well. And obviously the football staff, I've hired a bunch of quality guys with a bunch of years of experience and they've just gone out and turned over every leaf and guys I really appreciate you and I have to clap for you guys.

One of the things we wanted to do, we wanted to make sure we talked about taking care of locals. One thing that we did, we hit every single school in Las Vegas, we shook hands, we met all the coaches, we got early offers out for next year's class and there's more to come. We are going to do a really good job of finding the guys that we feel can help us win. That's the most important thing, there are kids in this Valley that can help us win. We have to find out who they are, identify them and recruit them and we're going to do that. I'm happy with the kids we got in this year's class.

We talked about the areas we wanted to hit -- Houston, Texas, was a great area for us with four kids coming in. We did a good job in California with bringing in some quality kids. We got two players out of Hawaii which was big for us, and the two locally as well (to go with a four-year transfer our of Las Vegas).

It's a great class and I'm excited about it, and to be done at 10 a.m. this morning and have all the faxes in and done, it was a big relief. You didn't know how it would turn out. When we first got here it was Cedric (Cormier) and Jimmy and Coach (Ron) O`Dell -- we we're trying to figure out how to do this. Cedric was the lone wolf out there visiting schools, then the rest of the staff got here and they did a great job of sweeping it up and getting the guys we wanted.

When we trip kids here, I believe we brought in 29 kids, and we made 26 offers and got 22. The families that we brought in, it was important to bring in families and show them Las Vegas, let's show them what the city is about, show them the UNLV experience, show them the Las Vegas Strip experience, show them life off of it. It's a great place and very easy place to show. You just have to let them know there is a lot of heart and soul and great people here.

On the Offensive Linemen

We brought in four linemen. From Snohomish, Washington, is Nathan Jacobson. We're excited about him, 6-5 kid, one that can come in and compete. There will be a big transition but he brings in a toughness we want. Alex Neale, played at East Side Catholic, comes from a championship program and that's what we need -- guys that know how to win. Justin Polu, local kid from Silverado, he had lots of offers and we got into the game late. But we showed him what we had to offer and our belief, he believed in it to and jumped on board. And Will Kreitler from Arizona, Scottsdale JC. I love Will, one of the first that decided to jump on and he had to sign sight unseen. He was one of those leaps of faith. He had an offer from Southern Miss but decided to go with us and is on campus already.

Running Backs

We had a couple of goals. We had to get an electric, energetic guy that can run around and play in space and we wanted a big guy that physically could come in and help us with some depth and we got that. We got two kids out of Houston, Texas - Xzaviar Campbell, 6-0, 210 guy that can carry the rock right away. Lexington Thomas is an electric type of kid I'm extremely excited about his ability to play in space, play making ability -- that's two great gets.

Quarterbacks

We wanted to bring in an older guy and a younger guy to give us some competitive depth, so Kurt Palandech from Laney College, where I played, we're excited about him. He's a competitive guy and he has three years to go -- that's big with him having three years. Dalton Sneed, he's an athlete. He can sit back there, do some things with his feet. We'll have to groom him but feel he can be a great player for us down the road.

Wide Receivers

Brandon Presley, lucky for us he was under-recruited, had 1,000 yards, great player. I know a bunch of teams jumped in late and for us to get him to stick with us was great. He'll make an impact early. Darren Woods, his upside is huge -- 6-0, 210 pounds, fast, big, strong physical kids with great football hands.

Defensive Players

We signed two kids from Kahuku High School in Hawaii. Ff you know Hawaiian football, if you're getting a player from Kahuku you're getting a tough kid. Soli Afalava, he's a big kid. A safety coming in but could be an outside linebacker for us and eventually a defensive end. Evan Austrie out of Vallejo, California. Great young man and we loved what we saw on film. What I love is his competiveness. Jericho Flowers, out of Hamilton High School, extremely explosive and will progress into a good football player. Will be a safety for us. Darius Mouton, probably one of our biggest gets, he had a lot of other opportunities, with the Pac-12 and Mountain West schools that were after him. We wanted to make sure other schools didn't know too early that we got him.

Jay'Onn Myles is another that had a lot of opportunities but coming out of junior college he felt here is where he could make an impact. Javin White has a huge upside, and McClymonds High School has produced outstanding football players for years. Getting a player of his size and pedigree, it's going to help us in the years to come. Melvin Johnson, local player from Canyon Springs, he's 250 now, we're going to get some weight on him and in a couple of years we'll have people in the stands cheering for this local player. Salanoa-Alo Wily -- getting his papers was a big relief, the most impressive thing was watching him play running back in high school. Not many 285-pound players have his type of athletic ability.

Mark Finau, a JC player from LA Valley College and on campus now, we expect him to play right away. Zack Singer, I coached him at Bishop Gorman and he went to Kent State before transferring here, it's good to get him here. Bailey Laolagi, we were done with our class but we had a hiccup at the linebacker spot. Coach Christian wanted to go to Sacramento and good thing he did. He sent the whole staff a picture and said you have to look at this guy. We looked at the film and the program he came from, and sometimes you're just blessed to be in the right place at the right time. We didn't find a diamond in the rough -- we found a player.

On if it's a philosophy for freshman to be able to play right away, if that's a coaching style

There's not philosophy, we need to win. We need to go recruit kids that can add depth and play immediately. I'm not going to talk about a 4-5 year building process, not sure if that's a luxury that we have. Some of these kids, are they ready to play right away? We'll see when they get here. The biggest thing is player development in the spring and then when this class comes in the plan is not to sit 20 guys and redshirt them, it's to put the best 11 players on the field on offense and defense.

Was there anything unexpected during the recruiting process?

It was a fast and furious experience. We didn't have the luxury of a year to recruit. We only had one commit when I got here so there was a lot of heavy lifting to do. But we did our due diligence, brought people in and talked about who we are and what we want to be. There was nothing easy about it but we're happy to be where we are at today.

Do you expect senior Blake Decker to start at quarterback?

We're not even there yet. We're going to bring a bunch of pigskins out and compete our tails off and see who the best guy is. The guys returning are feeling that already, it's a clean slate for everyone. Decker's a great player, but there is going to be competition and that's what we're going to foster. We want to create a competitive environment; we don't want anyone being comfortable going into this thing. Going to have to learn to live in the land of the uncomfortable, that's where winning's done.

Closing Comments

At the end of the day you didn't know if this was a group you would have to finish at the end, see who fell off, but once the boat started moving everyone jumped in and we're ready for spring ball. We're excited about today and moving on to building this program.

We have to go a good job of identifying the kids that want to be a part of this community, part of this great university, who have a true ambition and desire to help build, and I feel we got that group.

I passionately talked about Las Vegas, about this town, about this university, because I love it, it's an easy sell for me. I'm not really selling anything, I'm telling the truth.