Injured Guice puts a big hurt on Lobos

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005 | 9:17 a.m.

ALBUQUERQUE -- Junior cornerback John Guice was one of UNLV's most heralded recruits last winter after earning first team J.C. All-America honors at Grossmont College in El Cajon, Calif. And after giving up a few early receptions to New Mexico wide receiver Hank Baskett, he settled in to play a strong game.

Guice, in fact, finished with a team-high 10 tackles and two pass breakups. What made those stats even more remarkable is the fact he may have done it with a broken rib. Guice was injured in the first quarter but stayed in the game.

"I don't know if he broke it or not," Sanford said. "I don't know his status."

Defensive coordinator Vic Shealy told listeners of the Rebels' postgame radio show that Guice may have played most of the game with a broken rib.

Facer, a walk-on from Dixie State College in St. George, Utah, edged out Pacheco for the starting punters job and averaged an outstanding 46.7 yards on six punts, including a 56-yarder.

"It was a very close competition," Sanford said. "It just turned out that Kip was the slightly better guy and that's what we decided to do."

How did Pacheco take the news?

"I think it was difficult for him," Sanford said. "What we'll probably do, unless something drastic happens, is we'll probably redshirt Brian."

Both Facer and Pacheco are juniors.

It was thought that two other highly touted freshman receivers who played well at times during fall camp, Corey Anderson and Justin Marvel, would also see action.

"They're going to play," Sanford said. "We didn't have that many plays on offense today. We only had 60 plays, and in the first half we hardly had any at all. As a result of that, we played the other guys more because we thought they were fine."

Aguayo, who was 27-of-27 as a freshman on PATs, pushed this one to the left.

"I messed up," Aguayo said. "It'll happen sometimes. I'll learn from it. People make mistakes and I'll learn from it."

Aguayo came back to nail a 31-yard field goal in the third quarter, his only field goal attempt of the contest. Dating to last season, Aguayo has connected on nine of his past 10 field goal attempts and is 12-of-16 for his career.