New-look Rebels on display for fans in Saturday’s Spring Showcase

By Taylor Bern

Friday, April 17, 2015 | 2 a.m.

The vast majority of the work the Rebels have accomplished in the spring will be complete by the time the vast majority of the public will first set eyes on coach Tony Sanchez’s first team at UNLV. That’s by design, because while no time on the practice field is without its benefits, Saturday’s Spring Showcase is more about continuing the program’s positive offseason outreach and trying to transfer the energy from the practice fields to the fans than perfecting the systems the Rebels have spent more than a month working on.

“People have got to get behind us and we’ve got to fight hard for them, and I think if we do that on both ends we’ve got a chance to make this a special place. There’s no reason it shouldn’t be,” Sanchez said. “We’ve had success in the past in other sports and it’s our time in football. We’ve got to really buckle down and make this a fun place to be around, make people want to be a part of the experience.”

UNLV is sharing that experience from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at Peter Johann Memorial Field, the on-campus home field for the men’s and women’s soccer team. The event is free and follows the university’s athletic apparel sale from 8 a.m. to noon a short walk away in the North Gym.

In addition the Rebels’ regular drills and warmups, the showcase will feature some goal-line situations, field goals and 20 minutes of live scrimmage. Returning starter Blake Decker will get most of the first-string snaps at quarterback, though Sanchez said junior college transfer Kurt Palandech would also get a little time with the ones.

The first-year coaching staff has spent the spring installing new offensive and defensive systems, so while Sanchez said he’s happy with the progress they’ve made there are obviously many areas that still need work. Senior defensive lineman Sonny Sanitoa said one of the players’ goals is to try to display the extra attention to detail that’s come with the new coaching staff.

“It’s just a matter of showing the people that we’re improving, we’re making progress but we still have a long way to go,” Sanitoa said.

Last year this event came a day after UNLV announced it wouldn’t be eligible for the postseason because of a low APR score. The Rebels ended up finding enough points to get themselves back on the right side of the ledger but it didn’t matter after a 2-11 season that ended coach Bobby Hauck’s five-year tenure.

That feels like a long time ago after a few months of general positivity and national attention on Sanchez’s jump from Bishop Gorman High to trying to do what some believe is impossible: consistently win at UNLV. Winning support won’t necessarily lead to actual wins, but the positive momentum is something the team hopes to carry through the weekend and into the recruiting season.

“We’ve figured out who are the guys that we can run with now, we’ve figured out who the guys are that we feel like we can continue to develop to get us there and we kind of know the holes we need to fill going off into recruiting,” Sanchez said.

Starting Wednesday the majority of the staff will hit the road trying to sell their vision. They hope fans who come out Saturday are also ready to buy in, up to and including season tickets.

And while the staff sets out working on the future, the end of spring practice doesn’t mean the current Rebels’ work is over. Those 6 a.m. workouts aren’t going anywhere, so if all the players’ talk about high energy and renewed belief in one another is true they can’t let up now.

“I think they realize if you want something you’ve never had before you’ve got to be willing to do something you’ve never done before,” Sanchez said.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.