Notebook: Rebels showing emotion on practice field

By Ryan Greene

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 | 2:30 a.m.

Well, you can't accuse the UNLV football team of having mailed it in emotionally after two beyond-humbling losses to UNR and BYU.

That showed Tuesday evening during the closing moments of practice out at Rebel Park.

Whistles blew and bodies collided as a small skirmish broke out between a couple of players during live drills. The fracas was diffused relatively fast, with junior defensive tackle Isaako Aaitui coming out of it fired up and without a helmet.

UNLV coach Mike Sanford didn't offer up specifics of how it all got started, but he attributed the added emotion to the fact that the Rebels' starting offensive and defensive units have been going head-to-head in practice, as opposed to working against scout teams.

It's all part of the coaching staff's effort to increase practice intensity and productivity.

"Nothing wrong with that," Sanford said. "Guys are fired up, and they got a little fiery with each other. As long as that doesn't carry over into the locker room, there's nothing wrong with that. That's football. Football's a passionate game."

The necessity of a good showing this weekend for the 2-4 Rebels against No. 24 Utah, who checks in at 4-1 after coming from behind to win at Colorado State last Saturday, 24-17.

If UNLV can somehow get past Utah, the Rebels have more than a couple of winnable games remaining down the stretch run of their 2009 schedule.

"It shows that they really care about the game and you can see the passion coming out," said sophomore safety Chris Jones. "I just hope they take it into Utah and take it out on them."

More than anything, UNLV needs something to help bring back the confident feeling that once radiated from the team back in August, as the Rebels entered a season full of hope, promise and expectation.

"I'm not gonna say people's morale isn't slightly down," junior quarterback Omar Clayton said. "I mean, people are frustrated. Anytime you have three tough weeks and two weeks have been really bad, there's a lot of frustration. I think our players and coaches are continuing to work.

"We realize that whatever we've been doing these past three weeks, individually, as a team and as both an offense and defense, it hasn't been working. The offense hasn't put up enough points to make games competitive, and the defense hasn't played well enough to keep the scores low. Everyone has to change something and continue to keep working, and that's what we're trying to do."

Utah mystique?

While it's not hard to get up to play conference heavyweights such as TCU — who may very well make a run at a BCS game this year — and BYU, Utah carries a bit of mystique within the Mountain West Conference.

After all, the Utes have been through two undefeated seasons since 2004 and won BCS games both times, including last season's Sugar Bowl upset of Alabama. In the process, the Utes have put themselves on the national map, and anyone who gets the best of them gets noticed.

"The Mountain West is on the map because of Utah," junior running back Channing Trotter said. "TCU does their job every single year. BYU is known nationally. But Utah is the one going undefeated, beating Alabama, winning the Fiesta Bowl (in 2005), I think that's huge for us. There's always a little added incentive going against a nationally-known team like that."

Injury updates

Senior receiver Rodelin Anthony, who sprained his ankle in Saturday's loss to BYU, practiced for part of Tuesday's practice but was unable to finish.

Also only going for a portion of Tuesday's session was sophomore tight end Kyle Watkins, who also suffered from an ankle sprain on Saturday.

Both will be gametime decisions on Saturday evening, along with junior linebackers Starr Fuimaono (ankle) and Ronnie Paulo (shoulder).