Burning Question No. 1: Will the d-line have more bite in 2009?

By Ryan Greene

Friday, Aug. 14, 2009 | 2:30 a.m.

Editor's note: UNLV coaches are looking to answer several questions while the Rebels football team practices in Ely. Reporter Ryan Greene counts down these burning questions through Wednesday.

ELY — Jason Beauchamp still wears No. 33. Malo Taumua is still sporting No. 93. And 318-pound Isaako Aaitui still dons the slimming No. 99.

Yes, the first-team personnel still looks the same. The pieces are just lining up elsewhere on the field.

That's what the Rebels hope will be a big ingredient in the elixir to fix a pass rush that looked rough on paper when taking a look at the 2008 NCAA rankings.

Out of 119 Division-I teams, UNLV was 115th in sacks (11) and 116th in tackles for loss (50). Those two numbers were key components as the Rebels were 103rd in total defense.

Beauchamp, who led the Mountain West in tackles last season as an outside linebacker, will now line up predominately at defensive end.

Taumua, who was gobbled up by double-teams at tackle in 2008, will now get to utilize his speed at the other end spot.

Aaitui, at 6-foot-3 with bulk, will line up next to 335-pound senior tackle Martin Tevaseu on the interior.

"It made us more athletic on the edges," Rebels defensive line coach Andre Patterson said. "Having those two guys coming off the edge makes us more athletic, moving (Aaitui) inside makes us more powerful in the middle. We're 335 and 318 between Tui and Martin, so we become bigger, stouter and more physical."

The size and speed being lined up correctly up front, plus a solid linebacking corps rounded out with the return of junior Starr Fuimaono from a knee injury, should help the Rebels improve against the run right away — an area where they ranked 110th in the land.

But the focus now is getting to the quarterback.

"Because of high school football and little league, people think that rushing the passer is an easy thing to do," Patterson said. "But once you get to college and in the NFL, rushing the passer is one of the most difficult things there is to do in professional sports. It's hard to get back there.

"That's why in the pros, they'll pay a guy $30 million just to get 10 sacks. He gets 10 sacks, and he has 400, 500 rushes."

That's where Beauchamp and Taumua could prove to be pivotal.

Both faced struggles that kept them from getting to the quarterback a year ago.

Beauchamp was needed so much in run support with injuries to Fuimaono and then-sophomore Ronnie Paulo that getting into the backfield took a back seat at times.

As for Taumua, while he has one of the most consistent motors on the team, his 270-pound frame struggled with double-teams from opposing interior linemen.

Now they both feel more free.

"I think that I'll be more effective, actually, at defensive end," said Beauchamp, who so far in Ely has solely worked with the d-line. "The sack is a bigger deal than a tackle. A sack is a game-changing play. It doesn't take much. It only takes a sack a game, maybe two, to totally change a game.

"I'm definitely getting stronger, gaining a little weight. I feel like I'm a natural as far as linebacker goes, so if they ever need me, I'll be ready to go."

Added Taumua: "We're both speed rushers, and we can be power rushers if we want to. I'm just scared that we might run into each other when we beat the tackles."

The pass rush takes on added importance this season, too, given the Rebels' struggles in the secondary last season.

Mike Sanford and his staff added plenty of depth with an influx of newcomers in the defensive backfield — both from the high school and junior college ranks — who have shown plenty of promise and play-making ability so far in fall camp.

But they might only be as good as the defensive front allows them to be.

"It definitely goes hand-in-hand," Patterson said. "In order for you to be a good pass-rushing team, you have to have good coverage on the backside, too. And at the same time, if you don't have good pass-rushers, and the quarterback can hold the ball all day, it makes your secondary look bad. They work together, and we've made a lot of moves in the secondary, we're gonna be more athletic, and I think that'll help us do our jobs better, too."

The line also has newcomers of its own.

Obviously, the highest profile within the bunch belongs to 6-foot-2, 260-pound junior end B.J. Bell, who came from Santa Ana (Calif.) College.

But he has shoes to fill in terms of his two older brothers — Zach and Beau — who already came through the UNLV program. Beau, now an outside linebacker for the Cleveland Browns, was the 2007 MWC Defensive Player of the Year.

For the time being, he's working with the third-team defense, but is showing flashes that indicate he'll move up the ranks soon.

Also turning some heads are 6-foot-2 sophomore James Dunlap, who transferred from Citrus (Calif.) College, and 340-pound junior Ramsey Feagai, who switched over at the start of camp from the offensive line.

And the secret weapon within this bunch?

Well, he's not wearing a uniform.

It's former Dallas Cowboys great Leon Lett, who had a stellar 11-year NFL career that wrapped up following the 2001 season.

The connection that brought Lett aboard was through Patterson, who was his defensive line coach with in Dallas during the 2000 season.

Lett completed his college degree at UNLV in the spring and now is a part of the program as a volunteer office assistant. While he's not an official member of the coaching staff, he's at every practice and is more than welcome to hand out little pointers here and there, which his pupils have found quite valuable so far.

"We're talking about a three-time Super Bowl champion, two-time Pro Bowler," Taumua said. "Just having him out here, we learn a lot from him. He's an NFL great. He just teaches us what he knows."

Added Patterson: "When he steps up and says something, he's got instant credibility. Just the little things that he's seen over the years that he's played, if he can just give a guy a little tip, I think that's a great thing for our players to have. They look up to him. He's been in the trenches, he's been in the wars, he's had a great deal of success and came from a small school and developed himself into one of the most elite defensive tackles to play the game."

Taumua offers up the example of how Lett is constantly preaching the phrase 'Work them hands, work them hands' in his direction.

The teaching doesn't end on the field, either.

"He'll walk past me at lunch, try and touch me and I'll just slap his hands away," he said. "If the offensive line punches you, right when they put their hands on you, just push them away."

The players have done nothing but rave about what the combo of Lett and Patterson — who was a defensive line coach for 10 NFL seasons before coming to UNLV prior to last season — gives them to work with.

"(Patterson) always finds a way to let you make plays and make you the best football player you can be," Taumua said. "We'll have Tui and Martin in there pushing the pocket, then me and (Beauchamp) collapsing the pocket and we can drop the quarterback right there."

The success and overall improvement won't be judged during fall camp, and that's no secret.

But for the time being, the pieces appear to be in the right places.