Clausen auditioning to become UNLV’s latest QB-turned-safety

By Ryan Greene

Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010 | 9 p.m.

While Omar Clayton was connecting with Phillip Payne on a deep post route at Rebel Park during Tuesday afternoon's UNLV football practice, former starting quarterback Mike Clausen was on the adjacent field, standing behind the action with head coach Bobby Hauck and secondary coach J.D. Williams.

Clausen may be wearing a different colored practice jersey and on a different practice field than Clayton, his closest friend on the team, for the foreseeable future, too.

Clausen took reps with the No. 2 defense on Tuesday and likely will for the next couple weeks, as a switch over to play safety could be the end result.

The Riverside, Calif., native met with Hauck after the team returned from its 38-10 loss at Utah this weekend and said he wanted to find a way to get on the field, even if it meant a position switch.

"I felt I have the capability to play more than one position and help the team out in whatever way," Clausen said. "He said, 'safety.' I said, sure. We're in Day 1 right now."

Clausen earned the opportunity to start UNLV's season opener, lasting a little more than a half in the Rebels' 41-21 loss to Wisconsin at Sam Boyd Stadium on Sept. 4.

Clayton, who started the brunt of the past two seasons under the previous coaching staff, has performed strong through two games, going 24-of-53, 299 yards and one touchdown.

Despite the offense not finding the end zone behind Clayton this weekend, the Rebels picked up 18 first downs, racked up 319 yards of total offense against a stout defense and held the ball for 36:33, stringing together several promising drives.

Clayton took all of the snaps this weekend at Utah, and Clausen simply wants to be back on the field somehow.

At 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, he's one of UNLV's top athletes. To boot, he played safety on top of his quarterbacking duties for four years at John W. North High.

"We're going to play him some in the kicking game this weekend (at Idaho), which he's done a lot of in spring ball and fall camp," Hauck said. "We'll see how the season goes, but we've got some depth problems at some different positions, and that's one of them. If he can provide us with some depth, we have a chance to play some more people on that side of the ball than we do at quarterback.

"You could make the decision that he can't do it, and that wouldn't take very long, but today it looked like he had some hope of being a contributor there. After one day, I'd say we're going to give him another chance tomorrow."

Clausen said that getting used to dishing out hits again as opposed to absorbing them won't be much of an adjustment, as he's also developed a reputation over the last few years as being a punishing runner when he tucks the ball and takes off from the pocket.

The toughest part of the transition will simply be conditioning, as he said that "defensive back shape" is quite different from "quarterback shape," even though offensive coordinator Rob Phenicie has made Clausen and the other quarterbacks go pretty hard at practices since the new staff arrived.

"Once I get that and my footwork back down, I'll be OK," Clausen said. "It's a little easier than quarterback in terms of reads and everything. I have one assignment, which is nice. Once I get the physical stuff down, the mental stuff will come easy."

Hauck said that he and Clausen batted around the idea of a position switch in the spring as a potential option if Clayton won the starting job. While Clayton didn't take it out of fall camp, he now appears to have sunk his claws into the top spot on the depth chart with two strong game performances.

Also, a move would vault redshirt freshman Caleb Herring to the No. 2 spot on the quarterback pecking order. Herring, who has long been regarded as the quarterback of the future, took snaps with the No. 2 offense on Tuesday.

Hauck said that Herring would be the Rebels' primary backup on Saturday in Moscow, Idaho, if Clausen doesn't end up taking reps at quarterback in practice this week.

"Caleb's capable," he said. "If he wasn't, we wouldn't do it."

He added that it would be a stretch to see Clausen play at safety this weekend unless it's an emergency situation.

If the position switch becomes official, he would be the third UNLV quarterback in the past three years to move over to safety. The other two came early in the 2008 fall camp, when both Travis Dixon and Chris Jones converted. Jones has since moved onto play linebacker for the Rebels, while Dixon is listed along with fellow senior Mike Grant atop the depth chart at free safety.

As for Clayton, he said that in no way will this take any pressure off of him to keep playing and practicing at a high level with his long-time competition for the job now switching sides.

"I could still not perform well and Caleb could play," he said. "My focus is still the same. It doesn't change just because Mike is wearing a red jersey now in practice. I've still got to do the same thing every day regardless."

Weekly UNLV injury report

Released by the program on Tuesday for Saturday's 7:30 p.m. game at Idaho:

Out: DB Courtney Bridget (arm), LB Beau Orth (back), DB Quinton Pointer (leg), RB Imari Thompson (foot), OL Shane Watterson (leg), FB/LS Anthony White (leg).

Questionable: TE Anthony Vidal (leg).

Probable: DE B.J. Bell (arm), LB Nate Carter (leg), LB Starr Fuimaono (arm), John Gianninoto (back), OL Evan Marchal (undisclosed).