Three key areas to watch during fall camp

UNLV’s football players report this afternoon for the start of fall practice. Newcomers hit the Rebel Park practice field for the first time on Thursday morning at 7:40 with the veterans practicing for the first time that night at 6 p.m.

The team will be broken in up into two groups, Scarlet and Gray, with each group practicing once per day on Friday and Saturday. The first whole team practice is Sunday night at 6 p.m. while the first practice in full gear — to me the real start of fall practice — is Monday morning at 8:45. The Rebels leave the next day for Ely where they will practice until Aug. 20.

“We had a great off-season, the best since I’ve been here,” Mike Sanford, who begins his fifth season as head coach, said. “It was the best combination of attendance, hard work, attitude and leadership. It was a great summer.”

The Rebels, who were 5-7 in 2008, were picked fifth in the Mountain West Conference preseason media poll behind TCU, BYU, Utah and Air Force.

“Our expectations are very high,” Sanford said. “The mission statement for this program is to win the Mountain West Conference championship, be ranked in the Top 25, and to get into a bowl game. To me that’s the level of expectations that we have for ourselves.”

Here are three key areas that need to be addressed during fall camp if the Rebels, who open their season on Sept. 5 against Sacramento State at Sam Boyd Stadium, hope to make it to a bowl game for the first time since 2000:

1). The secondary. UNLV tied New Mexico with a conference-worst 24 touchdown passes allowed in 2008. Sanford hit this area hard in recruiting bringing in eight newcomers including three junior college corners in Warren Zeigler, Kenny Brown and Mike Grant and as well as JC safety Alex De Giacomo. All but Grant, who also is a talented return man, took part in spring practice and performed well.

2). Tailback. Replacing steady and hard-nosed Frank “The Tank” Summers, a fifth round pick of the Super Bowl champion Steelers, will be crucial to helping balance Sanford’s Shotgun Spread offensive attack. The Rebels have talent and experience at quarterback (Omar Clayton, Mike Clausen), wide receiver (Ryan Wolfe, Phillip Payne, Rodelin Anthony) and offensive line (Joe Hawley, Matt Murphy, Evan Marchal, John Gianninoto). So the missing piece entering fall camp will be trying to fill the big and powerful shoes of Summers. Five players — sophomore C.J. Cox, senior Chris Brogdon, junior Channing Trotter, redshirt freshman Imari Thompson and true freshman Bradley Randle — will compete for the starting spot. Look for the explosive Randle, the son of longtime Major League infielder Lenny Randle, to make a strong push for immediate playing time.

3). Punter. Longtime backup QB Dack Ishii was a pleasant and much-needed surprise at this spot a year ago after junior college transfer Brendon Lamers struggled out of the gate. Ishii, who averaged a solid 39.7 yards per punt including 16 inside the 20, has graduated leaving the job open again for Lamers (30.0 avg. on 4 punts in 2008), placekicker Kyle Watson and a pair of walk-ons.

Practices through Aug. 19 are open to the public in limited viewing areas.

To keep tabs on how things are going in practice, make sure to check out my updates at www.twitter.com/MrRebelNation.