Mondays with Mike: Injuries, big plays not at a premium

By Ryan Greene (contact)

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.

Each Monday, UNLV football coach Mike Sanford meets with the media to discuss last weekend's action and next weekend's matchup. So each week the Sun will bring you notes and quotes discussing both.

It's almost come to be expected at this point in the 2008 season that at the beginning of each week, coach Mike Sanford has a decent-sized list of injury updates to get out of the way.

The cruel part, though, for a team that has allowed its opponents 500-plus yards of total offense in each of the last three weeks, is that those health woes continue to pile up on the defensive side of the ball.

The biggest name in this week's infirmary report is sophomore middle linebacker Ronnie Paulo, second on the team in tackles this season with 57. He left Saturday's 29-28 loss to Air Force early with a bad ankle sprain. It's the second time this season he's hurt the ankle, but no fractures appear to be present, making him questionable for this Saturday's game at BYU.

No corps on the entire team has been more depleted this season with injuries and other occurrences than the linebackers. Junior Starr Fuimaono tore up his knee in the season's second game and is out for the year. Most recently before Paulo was backup middle linebacker Jimmy Miller leaving the team a week ago for personal reasons.

The secondary is also suffering, as junior Daryl Forte missed much of Saturday's game due to a lingering knee issue, although he could be back this week. Also dinged up is freshman Beau Orth, who was expected to begin seeing extended reps in the defensive backfield. He had a wrap around his calf during the game after a nasty collision in practice last Thursday, but then suffered an ankle sprain on the other leg after a chop block by the Falcon offense.

Defensive end Thor Pili and right guard Evan Marchal both suffered ankle sprains and are between questionable and probable.

Got all that?

"But the good news about those is that those guys at some point will all be back," Sanford said.

Woulda, shoulda, coulda ...

After looking at the tape of Saturday's loss, it gave the feeling, in hindsight, of an all-or-nothing type of night for Sanford and his staff.

"I would say that I actually think that our scheme on defense, when you watch the tape, was good," he said. "The problem was we let big plays happen, and that's the thing that's killing us. We (allowed) three rushes for 106 yards, three passes for 133. If you even take just one of those out, we win the game.

"So I think had we not allowed big plays and you take those six plays out, they would have averaged 3.4 yards a rush, and they would have had 269 yards of offense. But the think that killed us is we allowed big plays, and that's gotta stop.

It's been an ongoing issue in recent weeks for the Rebels in terms of not just allowing big plays, but big scoring plays. In the past three games, all UNLV losses, the defense has allowed 14 touchdowns. Eight of those have been the result of plays stretching 28 yards or more.

"In an offense like that, they're fifth in the nation in rushing, they're gonna move the football, they're gonna run the ball on you," Sanford concluded of the Air Force game. "You just can't allow big plays, and that's what happened in the game."

Some midseason recruiting insight

Sanford opened up the windows a little bit into his staff's recruiting strategies for the class of 2009.

Most of what was talked about was on the defensive side of the ball, where they're set on attempting to shore things up in the defensive backfield.

He said the staff is going to be recruiting at least one juco prospect at cornerback, as the Rebels will lose Geoffery Howard to graduation this year. But also it will be in an effort to develop quality depth.

"We have some really good young players in the secondary that are developing, but we're not ready to completely unleash them and let them play all the time," Sanford said. "But we need to continue to recruit quality corners, safeties and everywhere. But we've really got to have a good year at corner and safety this year."

One of the young players Sanford & Co. are developing right now is freshman corner Deante Purvis, whose speed has helped him make big plays in each of the last two weeks on special teams. He also said there was plenty of promise shown by freshman safety Chris Jones Saturday night in his defensive debut following a switch from quarterback in fall camp.

The other area Sanford said will be addressed, but not with a juco prospect, is in replacing Frank Summers so he can still have a big, bruising back at his disposal. Summers on Saturday was effective, as was freshman C.J. Cox. The two split 24 carries almost right down the middle (13 for Cox, 11 for Summers), and provide a nice change of pace for each other.

"I love having a big back," he said. "We've got to recruit a big back to replace Frank. We don't necessarily need a guy as big as Frank, but we need a physical back. You've got to have a short-yardage back. We have too much depth at running back right now, we wouldn't want to recruit a (juco) guy."

Sanford also pointed out the potential of freshman Imari Thompson in the future backfield picture. He hurt his ankle against Arizona State and is out for the season. The staff plans on applying for a medical redshirt for him.

UNLV currently has three known commitments for the class of 2009: Mesquite (Texas) receiver Mark Barefield, Perris (Calif.) quarterback Caleb Herring, Peoria (Ariz.) linebacker Reggie Umuolo.

On to BYU ...

This weekend, UNLV takes on a BYU squad that punished them, 52-7, on the Rebels' last trip to Provo.

Based on the way this season has gone, the Rebels aren't expecting such a lopsided spread on the scoreboard this time around. Sanford claims that his team remains a confident bunch despite three straight losses on the heels of a 3-1 start.

"We're putting ourselves in a position to win," he said. "Now we've just got to make plays and win. That's the bottom line here. I don't buy into the fact that we don't have confidence.

"I believe we were a better team than (Colorado State and Air Force) and should have won. That could be argued by other people. I think that does have an effect on you, no question. It could have a positive effect, it could have a negative effect. That has yet to be seen."

If you're a Rebels fan trying to spin some kind of positive outlook on the trip to Provo, it's that UNLV has taken in some valuable road experience already in 2008. A week after being a bit shell-shocked by the atmosphere in Salt Lake City, UNLV took out Arizona State, 23-20, in Tempe.

LaVell Edwards Stadium is bound to be at capacity and rockin' with BYU coming home nursing some wounds following a 32-7 beatdown at TCU last Thursday. Sanford said the team is expecting nothing short of a loud-as-usual crowd, despite BYU's BCS dreams now just barely flickering.

UNLV will be piping crowd noise into practice out at Rebel Park on Thursday in preparation, but dealing with audible distractions won't be all Sanford and his staff need to emphasize. They're facing yet another team prone to executing big play after big play.

Quarterback Max Hall has thrown for 2,119 yards and 20 touchdowns already this season, while receiver Austin Collie (53 receptions, 789 yards, eight touchdowns) and tight end Dennis Pitta (48 receptions, 626 yards, three touchdowns) have hurt secondaries with consistency all year. The Cougars are balanced, too, as tailback Harvey Unga has 603 yards on the ground through seven games.

"I think they'll definitely have a sense of urgency, and they're home," Sanford said. "But we can't worry about that. We've got to take care of ourselves.

"They're gonna get some plays. You just have to keep them to not being huge plays and touchdowns. The other thing about BYU is you've got to be able to stop their run game. Last year against us (a 24-14 BYU win), they lined it up and played some smashmouth football against us, and we've got to be able to stop that."

Stay tuned to www.lasvegassun.com/rebels the rest of this week (and the season, for that matter) for all of your UNLV football coverage, including stories, blogs, photos, videos and live in-game coverage.