UNLV turns attention to season opener vs. Howard

Tuesday’s UNLV football practice report from Rebel Park:

Tony’s take

Coach Tony Sanchez on the morning practice, which was the first day of preparation for the Sept. 2 season opener against Howard at Sam Boyd Stadium:

“It’s the first day we’ve got scouts going to different fields. We’re running (game-specific play call) cards now. We’ll do a session or two every single day where it’s good on good (starting units against each other) just for tempo and speed.

“It was a little slower than you’d like, but a lot of that, too, is a lot of guys learning how to do scout, running the cards, things like that. It’s a lot easier when you’re just running your offense against your defense. Things just go fast, so I challenged them today. I said tomorrow I expect them to come out here. They understand the processes, how we’re servicing each other and things like that. I want to see it a little bit faster, but overall it was a decent day.”

Notes

— Sophomore Javin White, who had been competing at safety, worked at first-team strongside linebacker. Sanchez said he wanted to get a look at White at that spot with the starters, but sophomore Gabe McCoy is still competing for the spot.

— Freshman Greg Francis, who went to Bishop Gorman High School, lined up at second-team safety.

— Senior H-back Tim Holt sprained his right ankle in Sunday’s scrimmage, and Sanchez said he probably will be out for a week to 10 days.

“Hopefully, we have him back for Game 1, but you don’t know about those things,” Sanchez said. “There’s nothing fractured. It’s a low one. It’s better than a high ankle sprain, but it’s day to day.”

Backup senior left tackle Michael Chevalier, who had been out with a sprained left tackle, returned to practice.

— UNLV will wear throwback helmets from quarterback Randall Cunningham’s days in the 1980s for the opener against Howard. It’s a silver helmet with a red “REBELS” script.

Throughout the season, the team will wear a commemorative sticker on the back of the helmets that pay tribute to this being the 50th season of UNLV football.

More Rebels: Follow all of our UNLV coverage online at reviewjournal.com/Rebels and @RJRebels on Twitter.

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