Sanchez eager to get into actual coaching part of being UNLV’s new coach

By Taylor Bern

Monday, March 16, 2015 | 2 a.m.

The identity of UNLV’s next football coach wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret, so long before Tony Sanchez was introduced and the excitement started to build, players interested in learning about the new guy didn’t have to go outside their locker room to find someone with a little knowledge.

“Even when there were rumors before it was official there were a lot of people coming up to me asking, ‘How’s Coach Sanchez as a coach, what’s he going to be like?’ ” said junior-to-be Marc Philippi, who played for Sanchez at Bishop Gorman High. “It’s hard to explain.”

Philippi’s answer would often include the word intense — something players have gotten a taste of that during 6 a.m. workouts leading up to Monday’s start to spring practice (full schedule below). But there’s also been some of the flash that Sanchez injected into Bishop Gorman, where he posted an 85-5 record and won the state championship in all six seasons.

For the final morning workout last week, Sanchez and strength coach Keith Belton looked into bringing the UNLV marching band to play the fight song. They were unavailable, so on the practice fields at Rebel Park players gathered around for an impromptu fireworks show including artillery shells and roman candles.

“It was like a little Fourth of July celebration,” Philippi said. “You can have a lot of fun while you’re going out there and working really hard.”

That fun is going to get loud starting today as Sanchez recently received his new Tempo by CoachComm setup, a trio of giant speaker systems that will be preprogrammed to the practice schedule to blast music, crowd noise or whatever else the coaches want. It’s the same system he used for Gorman practices and Sanchez will have a wireless controller with him that, at the touch of a button, will let him play the fight song if someone scores a touchdown or trigger a designated sound for a big hit.

“You’re not going to be able to hear yourself think,” Sanchez said.

Picking the playlist will be a highly sought after job. So will every starter’s role.

They’re having more fun at the football facilities these days but this is still a team coming off a two-win season with a first-year coach that knows how far they have yet to go.

“There is nobody that walks in on Monday that has a job,” Sanchez said. “Not one person.”

As position battles begin and slowly start to sort themselves out there could be some position changes, like filling out the defensive line or receiving corps, both of which Sanchez cited as shallow. One of the changes that’s already happened is flipping Philippi over to offense, which, for now at least, completes the same transition he made in high school.

Both at Gorman and now at UNLV, Philippi started at safety and then moved to linebacker before also adding fullback. Many programs don’t use a fullback anymore — UNLV didn’t list anyone at the position last season — and the new opportunity has Philippi reinvigorated, though that seems to be contagious as the players get used to the new way of doing things.

“We’re not just going through the motions, we’re getting better each workout and I think that’s one of the major differences,” Philippi said.

High energy doesn’t seem to be an issue for these first few practices. As far as what the Rebels will actually do on the field, Sanchez said he’s got the first seven practices planned out with an idea of where he wants everyone to be before they take a week off for spring break.

“Make sure by the end of the first week they have a great knowledge and an understanding of the base stuff we’re going to do this year,” he said. “What are the bones? That’s what we’re doing. We’re installing the bones offensively and defensively of what we need to do.”

The goal is to install as much as possible — these are completely new systems and coaches, after all — while acknowledging they can’t move on to steps four, five and six if one, two and three haven’t taken hold yet. It’s a give and take, one Sanchez is thrilled to undertake.

In three months since officially taking over as UNLV’s 11th football coach, Sanchez has done just about everything involved with the job except what he wants the most. That starts today.

“I’m so excited to get out of this office, to stop doing interviews, to stop fundraising, to put a whistle on and go out and coach football,” Sanchez said.

Spring practice schedule

All practices are open to the public and take place at Rebel Park except for the Spring Showcase, which will be at Peter Johann Memorial Field

• Monday, March 16 — 4-6 p.m.

• Wednesday, March 18 — 4-6 p.m.

• Friday, March 20 — 1-3 p.m.

• Saturday, March 21 — 9-11 a.m.

• Monday, March 23 — 4-6 p.m.

• Wednesday, March 25 — 4-6 p.m.

• Friday, March 27 — 1-3 p.m.

• Spring Break

• Monday, April 6 — 4-6 p.m.

• Wednesday, April 8 — 4-6 p.m.

• Friday, April 10 — 1-3 p.m.

• Saturday, April 11 — 9-11 a.m.

• Monday, April 13 — 4-6 p.m.

• Wednesday, April 15 — 4-6 p.m.

• Friday, April 17 — 1-3 p.m.

• Spring Showcase on Saturday, April 18 — 12-1:30 p.m.

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