We embrace Wisconsin challenge

You're reading this as our team is on the road preparing to open its season tonight against Big Ten Conference powerhouse and 11th-ranked Wisconsin.

While our coaches would take another month of preseason camp if they could, our players are really itching to play a game.

I'm excited about the season and proud of our coaches and players for their efforts the past eight months, and especially during preseason camp. Everyone has put in a lot of hard work, and we hope that work will pay off with tangible results on the scoreboard.

Madison, Wis., is a great place, and Camp Randall Stadium is simply an awesome venue to showcase our sport. Tonight we will face one of the country's best teams. Taking on Wisconsin is a tall order, but being able to kick the year off on a Thursday night on ESPN with the nation watching is a big deal for us.

The Badgers have a lot of firepower and deserve their national ranking. They haven't lost a nonconference game since 2003, but it just so happens that it was your Rebels who beat them in that game.

No one stopped their offense a whole bunch last year, so we know we have our hands full. We get to gauge ourselves against a top-10-caliber team and get an idea of where we are and what we have to do to get better. We've spent a lot of time studying them, and we admire the way they play.

Playing on a Thursday doesn't affect our preparation too much because it's the first game of the season. A great byproduct is that it will give us a couple of extra days to get ready for our next game, Sept. 10 at Washington State.

Our starting quarterback tonight will be sophomore Caleb Herring. He won the job during camp with great attitude and effort daily. We had a great competition, and all the QBs did a nice job. We're excited about letting Caleb go out and see what he can do. While he doesn't have a lot of experience, he is a bright guy and a natural leader. We also feel good about our other quarterbacks.

I am asked a lot about receiver Phil Payne. He broke his foot in June and had surgery, but he's way ahead of schedule in his rehab and has been full-go in our practices for about a week. This is a nice surprise, as we anticipated Phil would have to redshirt this year. He's one of our best players, so to get him back in time for tonight is a real positive.

Go Rebels!

Bobby Hauck writes a weekly column on his UNLV football team for Rebels Report.