Ben Jaekle finds himself mainly kicking a Nerf football from short distances in practice these days. But that’s quite an improvement considering what the junior from Bonanza High School was capable of doing earlier this summer.

Junior kicker Ben Jaekle had back surgery in June.

Jaekle, the Rebels’ long-distance field goal kicker and kickoff man last season, could barely get his foot off the ground a few months ago, much less swing his leg around and kick a football.

“I had a herniated disc off the sciatic nerve,” Jaekle said. “It started not too long after the end of spring practice. The pain was so bad that I couldn’t even bring my foot up more than maybe 10 degrees. I’d get a real bad shooting pain that would go down my leg. I was kind of hunched over when I walked. I couldn’t sleep at night and I couldn’t sit for more than 10 minutes at a time.

“It ruined my whole summer basically.”

Jaekle, who connected on a pair of 52-yard field goals last season, underwent back surgery on June 14th to repair the problem. He said he’s now at about 90 percent and hopes to be back doing his normal kicking routine by around Aug. 19th if he doesn’t experience any setbacks. He’s competing with senior Kyle Watson for the team’s placekicking and kickoff job.

“I had to miss all the summer workouts with the team which really sucked,” he said. “Right now I’m still getting about four treatments a day on my back. I’m extending my kicking distance by about five yards each time I kick. I started by kicking from the goal line (10 yards) and (Sunday night) I kicked some extra points. I’ll take (today) off and kick again on Tuesday.”

Both Jaekle and UNLV head coach Mike Sanford expect him to be ready to go by the team’s season opener on Sept. 5 against Sacramento State.

“We (kickers) don’t usually do a lot of stuff the first part of training camp anyway,” Jaekle said. “I think I should be ready to go in another week or two.”

Jaekle has connected on 7-of-15 field goals in his career and has been very effective as a kickoff man for the Rebels. He booted a 54-yard field goal in high school.

**

The Rebels will hold their first practice in full gear this morning from 8:45 to 11 a.m. at Rebel Park. The team leaves Tuesday morning to continue fall camp in Ely until Aug. 20.

Joe Hawley is all smiles after benching 455 pounds.

As a 260-pound freshman coming out of Esperanza High School in Yorba Linda, Calif., UNLV offensive guard Joe Hawley envisioned seeing his name one day on the team’s strength and conditioning record board in the Lied Athletic Complex.

Now he can look up and see it twice.

The 6-foot-3, 310-pound senior guard broke not one but two major team weight-lifting marks last week.

Hawley broke his weight class (281 pounds and above) mark in the bench press with a lift of 455 pounds, five pounds more than the previous mark held by Ahmad Miller. He also did 33 reps of 225 pounds to set another team mark in the Pro Bench.

“My goal was to get on that board,” Hawley, a preseason second team all-Mountain West Conference pick by Phil Steele’s magazine, said. “I knew I could do it.”

Hawley was benching “only” 425 pounds at the end of spring practice in April.

Joe Hawley makes it on the board.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to get to 455 then,” he said. “Then I benched 437 the week before (post-summer conditioning ended). That’s when I told myself I was going to go for it.

“It was hard. It was heavy. I was real surprised I got it.”

Hawley broke the mark after first tying it with a lift of 450 pounds. John Grieco, the team’s highly-regarded strength and conditioning coach, then added two more 2 1/2-pound weights on the bar.

“I was the last one to go,” Hawley said. “Everybody was watching. That kind of helped me. Everybody was there supporting me.”

Hawley was more surprised by doing his 33 reps of 225 pounds in the Pro Bench.

“We don’t really train for that now,” he said. “I know that is a (NFL) Combine kind of thing, but it’s not a big focus for our football team. To not really train for it and do that many is really good. Hopefully I can do even more at the end of the season when I train for it.”

Hawley doesn’t own the overall team record in the bench. That mark is still owned by former walk-on fullback James Kraham (467 pounds), a power-lifter who never played for the Rebels. So Hawley’s mark is a school record for any player who actually has lettered.

Other school records included:

* Sophomore linebacker Matt Kravetz (6-1, 245) of Durango High School doing 28 reps of 225, best ever for someone in the 226-255 weight class.

* Junior safety Calvin Randleman (6-0, 195) doing 22 reps in the Pro Bench to break the team record in his (181-200) weight class.

* Freshman linebacker Robert Adell (5-9, 210) of Green Valley High School clearing 400 pounds to break the record in the 201-225 weight class.

MORNING PRACTICE NOTES:

* Head coach Mike Sanford couldn’t have been happier with the weather that greeted his Scarlet team (mainly first and third team players) this morning at Rebel Park. Temperatures were in the mid-80’s with a nice cool breeze. “The weather was great this morning,” Sanford said. It was even better in Ely where the Rebels will train for 10 days starting Tuesday. Morning temperatures were in the 60’s there.

* WR Marcus Sullivan may not learn the results of his high school math proficiency exam until Wednesday according to Sanford. He won’t be admitted to UNLV until he passes that test.

* DT Malo Taumua reported no problems with the right hand he broke in June moving furniture. In fact, there is a large bump of bone mass where the break has healed. “It’s kind of like a club,” Taumua joked. The junior defensive tackle said he was told by doctors that the break would probably have required surgery if he had come in at the time of injury. Taumua waited almost three weeks before seeking treatment and by that time the injury was already healing properly on its own.

* Redshirt freshman tight end Alex Young, expected to compete for playing time this season, quit the team after one day of practice. “He just said he was tired of playing football,” Sanford said. Young had helped lead Modesto (Calif.) Central Catholic High School to three straight section titles and a three-year record of 37-3.

RB Bradley Randle listens to some instruction from running backs coach DeAndre Smith on Thursday morning at Rebel Park.

UNLV held its first fall practice for newcomers this morning at Rebel Park and as expected it was rather unremarkable.

Much of the time was spent on how to do certain drills with a lot of emphasis on hustling from one drill station to another.

Two key newcomers — wide receiver Marcus Sullivan of Cheyenne High School and defensive end B.J. Bell — did not practice.

Bell, the younger brother of 2007 Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year Beau Bell, had an 8 a.m. summer school class and instead will work out tonight with the veterans at 6 p.m.

Sullivan, the 2008-09 Review Journal Athlete of the Year who is expected to make an immediate impact at wide receiver and on special teams, still has not been officially admitted by UNLV. The school is still awaiting the results of his state of Nevada high school math proficiency test that he took on July 14th. He has already met minimum NCAA entrance requirements but must pass the exam (as do all Nevada high school seniors) to earn his high school diploma.

Sanford said it could be up to a week before the proficiency test results are learned.

“It’s out of our hands,” Sanford said. “We’re hoping it’s soon.”

Sanford said he was generally pleased with the first practice for the newcomers.

“We were careful to do a lot of instruction and not run them into the ground,” Sanford said. “We’ve had a bad experience in the past with not many guys out here and just getting excited and running guys into the ground. We were careful today but got a lot done.”

Sanford singled out junior college corner Michael Grant for his performance.

“Mike Grant stood out today,” Sanford said. “He was the one that stood out as one who could make a contribution.”

Some other practice notes:

* RB Bradley Randle’s father, ex-big leaguer Lenny Randle, was on hand filming his son’s first practice and held court with the media.

* Three newcomers who passed the “look” test: Randle (much thicker than I thought), DB Courtney Bridget and OL Thomas Kilgore.

* Former NFL defensive line star Leon Lett is a volunteer assistant working with the defensive line. Assistant head coach Andre Patterson coached Lett both with the Cowboys and Broncos.

* The veterans are scheduled to practice tonight from 6 p.m. to 8:05 p.m.

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.

There has always been a pretty good debate among Runnin’ Rebel basketball fans about who was the greatest point guard in school history, Greg Anthony, who quarterbacked UNLV to the 1990 national championship, or Robert Smith, who helped lead the Rebels to their first Final Four in 1977?

Now we’ll also get to decide which one is the better announcer.

UNLV announced today that Smith has been named as the school’s new basketball radio analyst replacing his former “Hardway Eight” teammate, the late Glen “Gondo” Gondrezick, who served in the position for 17 years before passing away in April from heart failure. He’ll join Jon Sandler, who returns for his sixth season as the lead play-by-play voice for the Runnin’ Rebels, on the broadcast team.

Smith, who was inducted into the Southern Nevada Hall of Fame in June and has recently been coaching at the Andre Agassi Boys and Girls Club, still is the school’s career leader in free throw percentage (87.8 percent) and also holds the mark (92.5 percent) for a single-season.

“Robert was a terrific player for the Runnin’ Rebels,” UNLV head coach Lon Kruger said in a school release. “He has a passion for his school and it is great to have him on board in an official capacity as part of our broadcast team.”

Anthony is currently the lead studio college basketball analyst for CBS after a brilliant start to his broadcasting career as an NBA analyst for ESPN, so Smith has a very high standard to meet if he wants to go down as school’s top broadcaster.

“It is great to be coming back to be a part of the team,” Smith said. “It is very exciting for me as a former student-athlete to be involved with UNLV. I always felt a part of the program, but now I will get to work that much closer with the team and I am thrilled to be part of the university again. I am looking forward to getting started.”

UNLV released it men’s 2009-10 Mountain West Conference basketball schedule on late Friday afternoon. And you probably couldn’t have planned a tougher start to league play for Lon Kruger’s squad if you had tried.

The Runnin’ Rebels open with back-to-back road games at BYU and New Mexico, arguably the two toughest places to play on the road in the Mountain West, if not the entire west coast. Five of UNLV’s first eight games are away from the Thomas & Mack Center.

“We open with a couple of tough road games, but everyone plays everyone twice, so it will even out,” Kruger said.

The Rebels open MWC play in Provo on Wednesday, Jan. 6. They travel to Albuquerque to play Steve Alford’s Lobos in The Pit three nights later on Jan. 9.

UNLV’s league home opener will be against San Diego State on either Tuesday Jan. 12 or Wednesday Jan. 13 depending on which television network picks up the contest.

Here’s a link to the complete 2009-10 Runnin’ Rebels schedule.

http://tinyurl.com/nqw8fd

Kori Babineaux, left, with older brother Brandon.

Brandon Babineaux is one of four talented freshman wide receivers who will be reporting to their first fall camp at UNLV next week. But the rangy 6-foot-3, 190-pounder from Folsom (Calif.) High School was busy playing cheerleader this past weekend.

That’s because his younger brother, Kori, was in town starring for the Nor-Cal Pharaohs in the Reebok Summer Championships basketball tournament.

Kori Babineaux is regarded as one of the top 75 prospects in the Class of 2011 after earning All Star honors at the prestigious Reebok All-American Camp in Philadelphia earlier this month, one of just 11 juniors-to-be to receive that honor.

Schools like Stanford, Cal, LSU and Oregon State are among those already heavily recruiting Kori Babineaux. Count UNLV, which had assistant coaches Mike Shepherd and Greg Grensing both on hand at the game I attended Saturday afternoon at Coronado High School, as also being in the mix.

Seems the Babineaux family took in UNLV’s impressive 79-62 victory over Arizona at the Thomas & Mack Center last December during Brandon’s recruiting trip and came away very impressed with Lon Kruger’s program.

“My brother is always telling me fun facts about the basketball team … trying to persuade me (to attend UNLV),” Kori Babineaux said with a smile shortly after pumping in four second half 3-pointers in a 81-54 win over 707’s Finest. “It’s too early to say right now where I’m going to go to college but UNLV is definitely up there on my list.”

Kori Babineaux, who also plays wide receiver for the Folsom football team, is already 6-foot-3 and weighs 198 solid pounds. In the game I watched he appeared to be an excellent catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter with good basketball instincts, especially when it came to passing the ball. He’s also young (15-years-old) for a junior.

“He sees the floor really well,” Nor-Cal Pharaohs coach Jason Barton, who played college basketball at Chico State, said. “He’s a great point guard with the ability to score. He can get to the hole, is a great defender, is very long and has a great body. He can play point guard or two-guard, whatever we need. He’s also a good student and a great kid from a great family.”

Kori Babineaux said that the fact his brother Brandon is already a Rebel is a plus for UNLV when it comes to his recruiting. Another brother, Chase, is a wide receiver at American River College in Sacramento who also is eyeing UNLV, so it’s possible there could three Babineaux’s on campus one day.

“I’m hearing from a lot of Pac-10 schools basically but UNLV would definitely be great because I would be able to hang out with my brother some more,” Kori said. “UNLV would be a good fit. … I might be a Rebel in the future. (Brandon) going there probably helps out in that regard.”

Stay tuned.

UNLV basketball recruit Henry Buckley

It would be fair to say that more than a few Runnin’ Rebel basketball fans were left scratching their heads in May when UNLV head coach Lon Kruger announced the signing of 6-foot-10, 200-pound center Henry Buckley.

“Henry Who?” was a common response I heard, and for good reason. Buckley, who has really only played two years of competitive high school basketball and has not gone on the reputation-building national summer camp circuit, is your classic definition of a late bloomer. Few recruiting analysts outside of his hometown of Houston had even heard of him, and I couldn’t find one interview with him after Googling his name.

But after watching Buckley play twice for the Houston Hoopsters Elite in the Reebok Summer Championships on Saturday afternoon and evening at Foothill High School, I came away with this opinion on Buckley: he’s a perfect fit for Lon Kruger.

Buckley is athletically gifted, plays hard, enjoys playing defense and is smart enough to know he still has a long ways to go to play professionally one day. And despite giving up 40 to 50 pounds in the post in the two games I saw, he showed good toughness and wasn’t intimidated.

In his first game Saturday, Buckley got up and down the floor quicker than most of the guards and had three blocked shots, altered two more, forced a travel with a baseline trap, and grabbed two rebounds. And that was all in the first five minutes as Houston Hoopsters Elite jumped out to a 14-2 lead en route to an eventual 54-36 victory over the Texas Bluechips Navy.

Buckley finished the game with four points, both on offensive rebounds, eight blocks, six rebounds and by my count altered at least nine more shots. He was a very quick leaper who also displayed a nice jump-hook and had good rotation on his free throws and jumpers. In other words, he has all the tools to be an impact player for the Runnin’ Rebels if he’s willing to continue to work hard beginning this fall in prep school (Buckley will enroll at UNLV in the fall of 2010).

I sat with a longtime college assistant coach that I respect with strong Mountain West Conference and Pac-10 ties who recruits the Houston area heavily. He has watched Buckley play several times this spring and summer and echoed my sentiments on Buckley eventually being a good fit for the Rebels.

“With a year of prep school, he’ll be good,” the coach agreed. “He already is very lively, blocks shots, runs the floor well and has great hands. No, he’ll be good (at UNLV).”

“He’s a late bloomer which is why the ceiling is so high for him,” Houston Hoopsters Elite coach Keith White, whose program has produced over 40 Division I players, said. “He’s still got a lot to learn but he’s willing to put that work in. He’s only in his second year in our program. He runs the floor well and is a great shot blocker. His potential is unlimited. And he’s a good kid.”

When I interviewed the soft-spoken Buckley afterward, he usually began his replies with “yes sir” and “no sir.”

I asked him if Kruger’s track record for helping develop “sleepers” like Joel Anthony and Lou Amundson into current NBA players played a role in his decision to pick UNLV over schools like Auburn, Tulsa and Stephen F. Austin?

“Yes, it was a factor,” Buckley said. “But really the main thing is when I went on my visit here, it was fun, the campus was pretty nice, and (assistant) Coach (Lew) Hill was really cool. That really helped me make my decision.”

Unlike some highly-touted prep big man recruits (hello Beas Hamga), Buckley knows he’s got a lot of work to do if he is going to hopefully one day join Anthony and Amundson in the NBA.

“Strength and getting more rebounds,” Buckley said when asked what areas of his game he needs to work on. “That’s my game … blocking shots, rebounding and running the floor. That’s what I’m going to work on in prep school next year.”

How hard Buckley works in the weight room will definitely be the key. Right now he’s a raw Joel Anthony in a Chace Stanback body.

“With any big man you have to talk development,” White said. “It’s a long process with these guys and you have to be patient. I think that’s what UNLV is going to give him … the patience and the extra work to get better. You look at him in a couple of years and he’ll have an extra 20 to 25 pounds on him, and the way he can get up and down the floor, he’s going to be a valuable player for UNLV.”

The bad news for Runnin’ Rebel fans who didn’t get to see Buckley play this week is that his team was eliminated Saturday night by the Donyell (Marshall) I team, 78-70, on Saturday night. By my count, Buckley had three points, five rebounds and three blocks as the Donyell Marshall squad, which actually featured the former UConn and NBA star coaching intensely on the bench, wisely pulled Buckley away from the basket with a center who patrolled the 3-point line most of the night.

“Everything has been going pretty good for me here,” Buckley said before the loss. “I’ve been playing every game and I’m even starting to get used to the hot weather here. I’m looking forward to playing here.”

UNLV received some good news on the injury front last week when junior linebacker Starr Fuimaono was cleared for full contact after missing most of the 2008 season with a torn ACL.

“I’m back,” the 6-foot, 210-pound junior said with a smile before heading off to a weight-lifting session at the Lied Athletic Complex. “I’m pretty excited. I’ve been away from football for a long time but I’m back now. Everything is good. I’m ready to go.”

Fuimaono suffered the knee injury midway through the second quarter of the team’s Mountain West Conference opener at Utah on Sept. 6. The Rebels were leading the eventual Sugar Bowl champs, 7-0, when Fuimaono, the key figure in many of the team’s defensive schemes, went down. Utah eventually rallied for a 42-21 victory en route to a perfect 13-0 record and No. 2 national ranking.

Fuimaono was a preseason third team all-MWC pick by Phil Steele’s magazine entering the 2008 season after an outstanding sophomore campaign that saw him garner 68 tackles in just nine games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. He also excelled in dropping back into pass coverage and some observers felt he was equally as valuable to UNLV’s defense that year as 2007 MWC Defensive Player of the Year Beau Bell. So his loss early after a little over five quarters of action was a big one for Mike Sanford’s linebacker-thin squad last year.

“He was a huge loss just because he’s a very fast and very physical football player,” Sanford said. “Without a question that was a huge loss for a us.”

Sanford wouldn’t go as far as to put Fuimaono in Bell’s class yet. But he made it clear he expects big things from the junior from Chula Vista, Calif.

“I don’t know if you can compete with the number of tackles that Beau Bell (126) had two years ago,” Sanford said. “But Starr Fuimaono is a very important player for us and we are extremely happy to have him back.”

REBEL NOTES: Starting defensive tackle Malo Tuamua is expected to get a cast removed from his broken right hand later this week. The 6-1, 270-pound junior from Honolulu, who should vie for all-conference honors this year, suffered the injury while moving furniture last month. “My hand got caught against the corner of the wall,” Tuamua said. “I didn’t even see a doctor for a couple of weeks. When I did they said, ‘Hey, you know you broke it, right?’ But they said it is heeling fine and put the cast on it.” Tuamua still was lifting weights despite the cast. …

If you put much credence into preseason media polls, then this could finally be the year that UNLV’s football team ends up in a bowl game for the first time since the 2000 Las Vegas Bowl.

The Rebels were picked to finish fifth — barely — in a media poll released at today’s Mountain West Conference football media day at Green Valley Ranch Hotel and Casino. UNLV also had two players — senior wide receiver Ryan Wolfe and senior linebacker Jason Beauchamp — picked to the preseason all-MWC squad.

TCU (207 points, 15 first place votes) was picked to win the title followed by BYU (190, 6), defending champ Utah (179, 3), Air Force (130) and UNLV (108), which just nudged out sixth place Colorado State (107) by one point. New Mexico (60), San Diego State (53) and Wyoming (46) rounded out the poll.

The Mountain West Conference has tie-ins with at least five bowl games this year: Maaco Las Vegas Bowl, Poinsettia Bowl, Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, New Mexico Bowl and the Humanitarian Bowl. That number could climb to six if the MWC has a team picked for a BCS bowl game and the league has six teams eligible for post-season play.

The fifth place finish in the preseason poll is UNLV’s highest since 2002 when the Rebels were selected fourth. UNLV (5-7) finished tied for sixth in the MWC with New Mexico last year with a 2-6 league mark.

BYU quarterback Max Hall was selected as the MWC’s offensive player of the year while TCU defensive end Jerry Hughes was named defensive player of the year. TCU junior punt returner Jeremy Kerley was chosen as special teams player of the year while TCU running back Ed Wesley was tabbed as freshman of the year.

UNLV’s football media guide is due back from the printer on Friday but for those who can’t wait to get their hands on a copy you can already view it now online here http://tinyurl.com/lna8ml.

Notice the great action shot of Phillip Payne’s one-handed TD catch at Arizona State on the inside front cover. That shot by Rebel Nation photographer Louie Traub is one of the all-time great sports photos for UNLV or any other college that I’ve ever seen.

Add UNLV head basketball coach Lon Kruger to the millions who are now using the social network called Twitter. And with the dog days of summer upon us — my car thermometer read 119 degrees when I left Kruger’s office at the Thomas & Mack Center this afternoon — the timing couldn’t be better.

I mean, what else is there to do on a brutally hot July day than to keep track of the daily activities of Las Vegas’ favorite head coach on your computer or cell phone?

If you were one of Kruger’s followers today (www.twitter.com/LonKruger), you would have learned that Lon had spent part of his morning chatting with New Jersey Nets GM Kiki Vandeweghe, who is in town for the NBA Summer League currently taking place at the Cox Pavilion. Or you might have learned that Kruger had spent Saturday on the road with assistant coach Lew Hill evaluating recruits.

Kruger also has “tweets” about former players like Wink Adams and son Kevin, who is busy playing (and doing pretty good) for the Utah Jazz in the NBA summer league in Orlando, as well as upcoming basketball events.

Kruger rolled out his new Twitter site last Thursday exactly 100 days before the start of October basketball practice. As of this afternoon, he already had put up 18 items and had 252 official followers getting his content. I’m guessing you’ll be able to put a zero at the end of that last figure in another month or two.

“It’s the way young people are communicating,” the 56-year-old Kruger said. “I say young people when it relates to recruiting. It’s important that they go on and get information as it relates to what is happening here. It’s a way also to promote other things that are good that are happening in the community. It’s a fun thing to do.”

Recruitaholics will be disappointed, however, if they check in hoping to find out what players the Rebels are recruiting or watching the next couple of weeks during the busy July evaluation period. It would be an NCAA violation for Kruger to comment about a prospective student-athlete on his Twitter page just like it would be if he were to comment to a newspaper reporter about it.

“Even in the item about recruiting with Lew Hill I didn’t say where we were,” Kruger said. “Even that could be a gray area. We can’t say who we are watching. We’ve got to be careful that way with anything that might be questionable with the (NCAA) rules.”

Still, it’s a fun way to beat the heat and keep up to date on the Runnin’ Rebels at the same time.

Also, check out our new Rebel Nation site on Twitter which started up this morning. It can be found at www.Twitter.com/UNLVRebelNation.

Noel Johnson of Fayette County High School in Fayetteville, Ga., regarded as one of the top wing scorers in the Class of 2009, picked Clemson over UNLV, LSU, Georgia Tech and UNC-Charlotte on Friday.

Johnson, rated the No. 56 prospect in the nation by Scout.com, originally signed to play at USC but was was later granted a release from his national letter of intent after the school became the target of an NCAA investigation over allegations former head coach Tim Floyd had given money and other improper benefits to former star guard O.J. Mayo.

Johnson took an official recruiting trip to UNLV on June 5-7. He eventually picked Clemson over LSU.

“It just seemed like the best choice for me,” Johnson said of Clemson to Scout.com. “It’s close to home and the academics are good and I like coach (Oliver) Purnell. He had a big influence on me.”

UNLV hopes of landing one of the nation’s top shooting wings at the recruiting buzzer came to an end on Thursday.

Noel Johnson (6-7, 200) of Fayette County High School in Fayetteville, Ga., rated the nation’s No. 56 prospect for the Class of 2009 by Scout.com, will decide Friday night between Clemson and LSU according to his father Lynbert “Cheese” Johnson.

Noel Johnson originally signed a letter of intent to attend USC but later was granted his release in the wake of the O.J. Mayo recruiting firestorm that resulted in Trojan head coach Tim Floyd’s resignation. He visited UNLV on the weekend of June 5th-7th.

Johnson returned from an unofficial trip to Clemson on Thursday.

“It went really well,” his father told CUTigers.com. “It really did. Noel is down to two schools right now, Clemson and LSU. We spent a long time with (Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell) and that all went good.”

Johnson averaged 28 points and nine rebounds as a senior.

UNLV offensive line coach Keith Uperesa (left) tutors a player at summer camp.

Popular UNLV assistant coach Keith Uperesa was busy tutoring high school players on the fine art of playing the offensive line during the past four days at Mike Sanford’s annual summer camp at Rebel Park.

Not bad for someone who just six weeks earlier had undergone 7 1/2 hours of major surgery at UCLA Medical Center to combat an aggressive form of thyroid cancer.

Uperesa, who will spend most of the summer undergoing radiation treatments to further combat the illness, spent five days in the hospital following the surgery. But he was back at work at the summer camp despite having several lymph nodes and a cancerous cyst removed from his neck. The surgery left a scar that starts at the bottom of one ear and makes a half-circle around the bottom of his neck and ends at the bottom of his other ear.

“I’m feeling better every day,” Uperesa, who said the disease was detected during a routine physical in February, said. “I’ve been undergoing physical therapy to try and get the range of motion and strength back in my shoulders again. When they opened me up, there were a lot of nerves that were disrupted and had to be put back together. It affected my upper body and shoulders more than I thought it would.”

Uperesa, who will return to the hospital in early July for the first round of two radiation treatments, said he was told his cancer “was caught fairly early.” He plans to be back coaching with the Rebels by the start of the regular season.

On Wednesday the former all-WAC star for BYU and former NFL offensive lineman for the Broncos and Raiders will find himself the center of attention at Coaches Tackling Cancer Golf Tournament at Fox Hollow Golf Course in American Fork, Utah.

Former Utah State quarterback Riley Jensen, who was a junior college All-American for Uperesa at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, in 1996, and Alema Te’o, head of the Polynesian Coaches Association, organized the tournament and a silent auction to help raise funds to help Uperesa with his medical costs.

“We’re going to give (Uperesa) a big check to help him out,” Jensen said. “The thing that is a miracle about this is that we found out about his surgery on May 1 and we’ve managed to put this thing together in just six weeks. The love and donations coming through have just been fantastic and amazing. It’s a testimony to just what a great guy Keith is.”

Uperesa’s old BYU head coach, LaVell Edwards, will be on hand as will Sanford, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian and UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow. BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall and Utah State head coach Gary Anderson also will take part after working camps and clinics that day. And a number of former NFL players with ties to Uperesa will either play in the golf tourney or attend a luau afterward.

“It’s going to be a really good thing,” Sanford said. “Keith has touched a lot of people in the state of Utah that he either played with, coached with or played under him. There are a lot of Keith Uperesa fans who are pulling for him.”

Jensen said he has also received “hundreds” of donations for a two-week silent auction that will be on the website “coachestacklingcancer.com.” That site was still not operational yet as of this afternoon however.

Further information on the golf tournament, which begins at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, or the silent auction can be obtained by contacting Jensen at Rjensen@thefansports.com or by calling 801-867-4539.