Sanford names no starters for spring

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, March 29, 2005 | 9:02 a.m.

The Mike Sanford Era of UNLV football officially starts this afternoon when the Rebels open spring football practice at Rebel Park.

Sanford, the offensive coordinator at Utah last year who helped groom potential NFL first overall draft pick Alex Smith, replaced the retired John Robinson in December and plans to install the same spread option offensive attack that was so successful with the Fiesta Bowl champion Utes last fall. The Rebels will use multiple defensive fronts.

UNLV is scheduled to practice every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4-6:15 p.m. and every Friday from 5:30-7:30, culminating with a Scarlet vs. Gray spring game at 6 p.m. April 22 at Sam Boyd Stadium. There will not be a practice on April 20.

Sanford decided not to issue a preliminary two-deep roster heading into spring drills.

"Everybody has a fresh start," he said. "The first two days we're going to be installing the offense and the defense. It's going to take some time before we decide who's No. 1 (at a position) and who's No. 2. Obviously, we're going to start with some facsimile of that. But overall it's going to take some time to figure out who the guys are."

The big question going into spring drills is who will start at quarterback for the Rebels?

Junior Shane Steichen started part-time last year but is expected to be challenged by junior college transfer Jarrod Jackson. And former Bishop Gorman star Blake Sartini, a transfer from Allen Hancock Junior College in Santa Maria, Calif., also is in the mix along with wide receiver Terry Furlow, who originally came to UNLV as a quarterback.

"Everybody is going to start on the same foot but obviously the ones who are going to get more reps are Shane Steichen and Jarrod Jackson," Sanford said. "At the same time, it's a wide-open deal."

Two years ago Smith began fall practice as Utah's No. 3 quarterback before eventually moving up the depth chart.

Although Utah usually used four wide receivers in its spread option last year, Sanford said the Rebels may go more with three wideouts and a tight end.

"Overall this spring we're going to be doing a lot of shotgun and a lot of single-back," Sanford said. "The thing we're going to do a little different than we did at Utah, because we have tight ends like (Greg) Estandia and (Michael) Fruend, is we're going to line up more with a tight end and a tight end flex."

Sanford has been especially impressed with the 6-foot-8 Estandia, who sat out the 2004 season with a knee injury but is considered an NFL caliber tight end.

"Estandia is going a great job for us," Sanford said.

Sanford said he gave his team a list of goals he wanted to accomplish in spring practice.

"Number one, we want to learn our offense, defense and kicking game," Sanford said. "We want to develop toughness and discipline. We're going to compete a lot, one-on-one, groups against groups, 11 on 11. We're going to find out who loves football and who can play ... who can block and tackle. We need to improve their skills as a football player. And then we need to prepare ourselves for the first three games. Those are our objectives."