Wait until next year

Friday, Jan. 6, 2006 | 8:48 a.m.

Good recruiting season makes Sanford optimistic

He's hamstrung by NCAA rules and can't comment on potential recruits. But UNLV football coach Mike Sanford has a difficult time hiding his delight about the way the Rebels' recruiting season is shaping up.

Sanford last month announced the signing of four midyear players -- linebackers Adrian Bradley and Bradley Niles and defensive linemen Malo Taumua and Jeremy Geathers -- who will enroll at UNLV this month and be able to take part in spring practices.

But it is the prospect of landing up to 15 players between now and the Feb. 1 national letter of intent signing day that has Sanford looking forward to the next three weeks of recruiting.

"I feel great about our midyear guys," Sanford said. "We met some needs that we had with the midyear guys that we signed, and we've got some (verbal) commitments from some really good players that I can't be quoted on who they are. But I feel great about those guys."

Sanford, who is coming off a 2-9 season in his first year at UNLV, said about 35 recruits were scheduled to make visits to UNLV during the last three weekends of January.

"The next three weekends are major weekends for us," Sanford said. "We've got some good guys that we're recruiting, and I feel very good about how recruiting is going so far. We're on our way to a really good recruiting year."

Sanford filled some holes on the defense with the signing of the four midyear players and planned to address some deficiencies on offense by signing some linemen and a receiver this month. Sanford said he also is looking to add a safety and, possibly, a running back to this recruiting class.

Excluding the 10 grayshirts (players who have enrolled in school and have been promised a scholarship), Sanford has 15 scholarships to offer this recruiting period.

Plugging holes

In addition to finding help on offense and defense this recruiting period, Sanford is busy trying to fill two vacancies on his coaching staff.

The top priority is to hire a replacement for strength coach Mark Philippi, who was fired last month. Sanford also is looking for a replacement for defensive line coach Ken Sharrar, who resigned during the season for health reasons.

"We're in the process of hiring a strength coach, and then we're going to wait and hire (Sharrar's replacement) in late January," Sanford said. "I feel like I can get through recruiting without hiring that coach, but I want to get the strength coach wrapped up here pretty soon."

Also noted:

BY THE NUMBERS:

9th -- UNLV's rank (out of nine teams) in both scoring offense (16.9 points per game) and scoring defense (37.1) this season in Mountain West Conference play

14 -- The number of starters (nine on offense, five on defense) who will return in 2006

39 -- The number of quarterback sacks allowed by UNLV in 2005

Brian Hilderbrand can be reached at 259-4089 or at bh@lasvegassun.com.