Pit boss: Sanford makes sure injured players are still productive in spring

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 | 9:27 a.m.

There is a new makeshift addition to the Rebel Park practice fields this spring.

On the grass near the end zones of the two AstroPlay fields is an area affectionately known as "The Pit." It is the place where injured UNLV football players go through a wide array of constant conditioning drills during the three hours or so their teammates are practicing and learning new head coach Mike Sanford's spread option offense.

Depending on what kind of injury they're sidelined with, players in The Pit can find themselves doing anything from situps to riding stationary bikes to pushing a small cart with strength coach Mark Philippi sitting in it through the tall grass to swinging a sledgehammer into a large tractor tire to doing the crab crawl through a nearby sandpit.

Simply put, The Pit is the pits for injured Rebels to have to spend time in. And that's the plan.

"The whole deal is obviously there has been an injury issue here," said Sanford, who brought the idea of The Pit with him from Utah. "And the injury issue is because of a variety of things. We need to be stronger. We need to be in better physical condition. We need to eat better. All those things. We also need to make it miserable to be hurt and that is basically what that is.

"The Pit is a miserable existence."

Sanford says he knows not all injuries are the same.

"There are some guys who are hurt who can't do anything about it," he said. "They've got surgeries or whatever. But I want it so guys are just wanting to practice because the The Pit is such a miserable place to be."

That strategy seemed to work at Utah during its 12-0 Fiesta Bowl run in 2004.

"We did not have a lot of injuries," Sanford said. "But we had a great strength and conditioning program. We did a great job with our summer lifting and summer conditioning. We ate properly. So we came into the season in great shape."

Sanford jokingly said he allows Philippi, who won ESPN's "America's Strongest Man" competition a few years ago and spent his summers as a teenager working in rock quarries in Wisconsin, to use his "torture creativity" with coming up with the exercise drills.

"Man, The Pit is harder than practice," offensive tackle Marco Guerra, who is rehabbing from a broken leg and ankle injury, said. "It's a different kind of tired. Out on the practice field you get more winded but in The Pit you get more physically tired because you keep going nonstop."

Guerra estimated he rode the stationary bike for an hour and 20 minutes straight one day before taking a brief water break.

And pity the injured player who slacks off in The Pit. One who drew Philippi's ire recently could be seen on his hands and knees pushing a medicine ball down the field with his head.

Injured players were allowed to stand around and watch practice after finishing their rehabilitation exercises under former coach John Robinson. No more.

"We'd stand on the sidelines and learn the plays," Guerra, who started eight games at left tackle last season, said. "Now we have to go The Pit and learn the plays separately on our own time. That's the price you pay when you get injured. You don't want to get hurt anymore."

Senior defensive end Pete Dunbar, slated to start at defensive end last year before going down with a torn knee ligament in fall camp, spent some time in The Pit this week after tweaking the same knee while doing some running drills. But he says he doesn't mind the hard work.

"It's tough," Dunbar said. "It's a different kind of conditioning. It really works you. But it's good. It can move you to where you can rehab and also get better. It's not just wasted time. You might as well keep busy if you're hurt and try and get back out there."

As for spending several minutes continually whirling a sledgehammer into a tire, Dunbar said, "It was tough. But whatever it takes."

Don't be surprised if UNLV's injury list is a whole lot shorter next season.