Tony Sanchez to unveil UNLV football team at spring game

UNLV has gone through spring practices in the shadows as the men’s basketball program went through a publicly debated and then largely celebrated coaching change.

But now the football team gets prime attention Saturday when the Rebels stage their spring game at noon at Peter Johann Memorial Field, which is free and open to the public.

It will be as close to a gamelike atmosphere that the Rebels will experience before they open their season Aug. 31 against Southern Utah at Sam Boyd Stadium.

“You’re going to have a full officiating crew out there, so you want to make sure there aren’t a lot of penalties,” coach Tony Sanchez said. “You want to make sure you’re getting the ball snapped on time. You want to make sure you don’t see the turnovers. You don’t want to see exchange issues. We’ve gotten a lot of the work that we need, so it’s like every team in the country. You want to stay healthy coming out of it.”

The Rebels will play their final season at Sam Boyd before moving into the new stadium near the Strip shared with the NFL’s Raiders. UNLV was 4-8 last season, but was without quarterback Armani Rogers for six games because of a toe injury.

Rogers is expected to play two series Saturday.

“I just want to go out there and compete and have the timing down with the receivers,” Rogers said. “It’s not too different (from a team practice session). Everybody’s out there competing with each other, making each other better.”

UNLV will go through a series of warmups and drills before beginning a 25-minute scrimmage, taking a five-minute halftime and concluding with a 25-minute second half.

The starters are scheduled to face each other in the first and third series, with the second-teamers going in the second and fourth drives. The offenses and defenses then will be a mix of players the rest of the way.

“We’re going to get a lot of guys in, get some threes (third-teamers) in, get some twos in,” Sanchez said.

NOTE — UNLV fans can purchase new and game-used apparel Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon at the North Gym inside the Paul McDermott Physical Education complex. Those who renewed football or men’s basketball season tickets will receive access to the sale beginning at 8 a.m., and wristbands for early entry can be picked up at McDermott.

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Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.