CAMP DAY: 9

DAYS UNTIL KICKOFF: 21

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "In the second half we came with some juice and some fire. Got in the end zone a couple times and found our rhythm. It's good to see the offense fight back and I really feel like this year is a big improvement from last year. You'll see that overall as a team." 
-Super Senior running back Charles Williams on the Rebel offense during yesterday's scrimmage



A day after UNLV's two-hour-plus, closed scrimmage, the squad donned only helmets and spider pads at Rebel Park leading into a non-practice day on Friday.

Following a spirited practice, the media in attendance asked head coach Marcus Arroyo and defensive coordinator Peter Hansen about their top takeaways from Wednesday's work over at Allegiant Stadium.

ARROYO:
"It was great to get into Allegiant. Practice eight for us -- first day in full pads. Got a chance to see some live situations, scrimmage situations. Any time during our first training camp for us to get those opportunities, it's really, really big. So we tried to get as many as we could, we got about 100 reps each side of the ball -- the 1s and 2s got about 50 plays each, which is really balanced. Got a bunch of special teams plays in and a real chance to see some guys and coach them as close to real football in some situations and settings that we could.

"A lot of stuff to clean up, some really good stuff. Things we have to get better at. Focusing on that.

"Practice today was good. We came back out and the guys had good juice. They really flew around."



HANSEN:
"It's the game-like atmosphere, it's the live situations that are so important. I told the guys after yesterday that it was the most important film we were going have. Being the first live tackling day AND in the stadium AND scrimmaging -- they handled all that really well. The mental aspect of the game was probably stronger than we would even expect in the first live day. So that's what impressed me the most."