Day 3 notebook: Despite strides, Grant far from satisfied

By Ryan Greene

Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009 | 2:29 a.m.

ELY — Mike Grant had every reason to be beaming and celebrating with his teammates following Friday morning's full-pad practice at Broadbent Park.

Early on in fall camp back in Las Vegas, UNLV coach Mike Sanford was quick to praise the efforts of the juco transfer from Sierra (Calif.) College.

He took his biggest steps toward a potential starting gig in the first of the Rebels' Friday sessions, as he broke up two passes and then snared an interception during drills.

The first defended pass came in a skeleton drill on a fade thrown to senior wideout Jerriman Robinson on the left edge of the end zone. The 5-foot-11 Grant hardly allowed him a clean chance at it.

Then, on the first play during 11-on-11 red zone drills — third down attempts in the red zone, to be exact — he jumped a route on the left and picked off an Omar Clayton offering.

After practice, Grant had the red stripe removed from his helmet, giving him the same appearance as his veteran teammates.

But he wasn't much for celebrating. He's still focused solely on becoming a starter for the Sept. 5 opener against Sacramento State.

"I have to work much harder," he said. "We have a lot of time left, there's things I can work on as far as practicing and learning the plays. I still have a long ways to go, but I will tell you, I'll be ready by Sept. 5."

Added Sanford: "He's getting better and better all the time and we expect big things out of him. It's very encouraging. It's about how you do every day. You can't have bad days. It's just an ongoing competition, and we'll have the guys who are consistently the best guys play."

All starting secondary spots are still open for competition, with roughly 10 guys — give or take a couple — in the running.

Also during the 11-on-11 drill, another juco transfer — Warren Zeigler, who stood out in spring ball — took the place of sophomore Deante' Purvis with the first-team defense at cornerback.

Red zone balance

Even though Grant's pick gave the defense reason for optimism early in the red zone drills to close out the morning session, the offense got its fair share of shots in.

Clayton threw a pair of touchdowns. The first was on a little flare to Channing Trotter from 18 yards out after being flushed to the right out of the pocket.

His second was arguably the team's best offensive play of the day.

One play after sophomore receiver Phillip Payne and sophomore cornerback Kenny Brown jawed some and exchanged slaps at the goal line, Payne caught a 16-yard fade pass using just his left hand against Brown.

Backup quarterback Mike Clausen also had two impressive TD runs in the drill, while defensive ends Jason Beauchamp and B.J. Bell applied good pressure from up front.

Defensive front updates

Bell ran with the second-team defense during team drills, a day after he'd been running with the threes.

As for Beauchamp, during team drills against run plays, he dropped back to his original linebacker post. He'll be used predominately as a defensive end this season — especially against the pass — after leading the Mountain West Conference in tackles a year ago.

While Beauchamp dropped back, junior Daniel Mareko took his place at d-end. Mareko was put on scholarship earlier in the week.

Also losing his stripe

Sophomore defensive tackle James Dunlap, a transfer from Citrus (Calif.) College, also had the stripe removed from his helmet

The 6-foot-2, 265-pound Dunlap has drawn rave reviews from his fellow defensive linemen so far in camp.

Injury updates

Junior tackle Evan Marchal was nursing a sprained shoulder, and while missing was replaced on the first-team offensive line by redshirt freshman Yusef Rodgers.

Sophomore running back C.J. Cox was in full uniform, but again did not practice and is not expected to again until early next week.

Senior receiver Ryan Wolfe came up limping briefly during the red zone drills, but was running at full-speed just minutes later, and also went without complications in the evening.

Barrett arrives

6-foot-3 freshman linebacker Jordan Barrett, who will now be a member of the team rather than grayshirting, arrived in Ely and joined the team for the first time at the conclusion of Friday's practice.

Barrett was held up by some traffic issues getting out of Vegas, but met with Sanford and coach Gary Bernardi before heading out onto the field for an individual practice, which marks off one of the pieces of the five-day acclimation period.

Creative conditioning

As is tradition with the Rebels on days with two practices, the evening wrapped up with some creative conditioning.

This time, it was two games of ultimate frisbee, which involved plenty of hoots and hollers.

After frisbee, some of the Rebels put on a tumbling display in the day's final huddle, including B.J. Bell performing a pair of back flips plus a front flip with a running start.

Black jersey update

On Friday, the black jerseys for outstanding performances in Thursday's lone practice were awarded to Wolfe and senior defensive end Heivaha Mafi.

What's on tap

The highlight of the Ely trip — the annual scrimmage — takes place on Saturday morning at Broadbent Park from 10:00 to 11:45 a.m. It is open to the public.

After the scrimmage, the Rebels get their longest break during the week up north, as they won't practice again until Sunday evening, when they go from 4:00 to 6:10 p.m., with two-a-days resuming on Monday.