Game Preview: Gophers vs UNLV Runnin' Rebels

Pop Quiz Hotshot.  Who are the best UNLV Runnin' Rebels football players of all time?

Give up?

They have one number retired and it's Randall Cunningham.  He was pretty f'n good.  They also had Ickey Woods and Keenan McCardell.  They had music mogul and Vanilla Ice Dangler Suge Knight play for them a bit.  Kenny Mayne apparently was a quarterback there too, which gives us some insight into recruiting strategy. Check out super-sized Ickey doing the Ickey Shuffle below:




Current alumni that are in the NFL include: Isaako Aaitui, Joe Hawley, Frank Summers, Martin Tevaseu and Eric Wright.  Never heard of them except for Wright.

Sherry's lips do look a little purple here.  Just sayin'

Coach Bobby Hauck has set a team goal for UNLV to play in their first bowl game since the year 2000.   Sophomore QB Nick Sherry is excited about the offense saying they'll be "fun to watch and fun to play."  I have no information on how much purple drank each consumed prior to that statement.  The team does return 19 starters from last year.  Besides Sherry, the team relies on running back Tim Cornett to provide punch on offense.  The senior is just 700 yards away from the all time school record of 3,149 yards.  He ran for over 100 yards in eight games last season.  Cornett also takes care of the ball; he has just one fumble in his career.  Junior left tackle Brett Boyko returns after an injury riddled season last year where he played only 4 games.  For the seven minutes of the game that I'm sober enough to pay attention, I'll watching how Boyko (6'7", 310) holds up against our defense.

On the defensive side for UNLV, end Sonny Sanitoa had 5 sacks and 28 tackles in 9 games as a redshirt freshman last year.  He's Samoan, so you know he's good.  Senior Tim Hasson (6'2", 215) is an undersized linebacker that is the leading returning tackler.  His half brother Tahj is nearly as big as him (6'1", 195) and is one of the starting corners.  Look for the Gopher offensive line to frequently get to the second level and mow over these dudes.

Here's a strange and interesting story I found on the Las Vegas Sun UNLV blog:  Their starting right guard is a converted tight end named Nick Gstrein.  That in and of itself isn't super odd, but he got there by speaking to Hauck in the spring and asking where he could get more play time.  Hauck tried him at guard, center and HALFBACK, but eventually the 6'4", 285 Gstrein landed the starting job at right guard over last year's starter, Ron Scoggins.  That's just...odd.

UNLV Roster All-Namers

#68 Tui Fakauho
#32 Mike Horsey
#57 Roscoe Kalilikane
#66 Bryson Mook
#63 J'Ondray Sanders
#42 Peni Vea

Some impressions from watching video of their fall scrimmage:

- Lots of multiple wide receiver shotgun sets shown.

- Nick Sherry is prone to a (more) horrible pass when he goes to a second receiver.

- No fans are in attendance.  Hot sun watching crappy football or deliciously cool casino playing cards?  That's no choice at all.

- When they did manage to complete a pass, the tackling was miserable.  Now imagine the bowling ball Kirkwood is running at them.

- I found myself staring at the mountains in the background a lot.

- Jerry Rice Jr. is on the team I guess.  Not a starter.  The video I watched called a pass out flat to Rice by Herring that he broke two tackles on and turned it into 15 yards the "offensive play of the day".

Prediction

If I felt completely comfortable with our passing game I would say this is a 50-10 type of game.  While I like how Nelson has been throwing the ball in practice, I need to see it in a game before I jump in with both feet.  That being said, I didn't think much of UNLV before watching some video and reading up on them and I actually came away thinking they were worse than I originally thought.  The Gophers should be able to run at will and the defense shouldn't struggle too hard with Sherryball.  That poor converted tight end might have to go up against Hageman for the few plays he's able before his chest is caved it.  I'll say Gophers 34, UNLV 13.

What Others are Saying

UNLV #Rebels at Minnesota #GoldenGophers 8/29/13 - Free #CFBPicks & Odds http://t.co/QzBMOfgWss
— ctsportspicks (@ctsportspicks) August 29, 2013

These guys are saying it will be close and to take the +14 based on last year's game.  They don't know about #YEAR3 I guess.

In exactly 24 hours, UNLV football takes the field. In a 'Now or Never' situation, these boys are choosing the 'NOW'! #winwinwin! #unlvfb
— Runnin Ramble (@RunninRamble) August 28, 2013

UNLV's only football tradition is losing. @PatrickReusse on the #Gophers first opponent: http://t.co/2EiKoPi0YJ #B1G
— Star Tribune Sports (@StribSports) August 26, 2013

Our guy Reusse keeping it classy.

Our @ronkantowski sees a ray of hope for UNLV football. Does that make him an optimist or an idiot? http://t.co/RyNIne9ajb
— Review-Journal (@reviewjournal) August 29, 2013

So is he an idiot?  Here's his picture, decide for yourselves:

Gopher Football Preview: O-Line

Campion Before

Campion After

One of the things that usually jumps out to me and my buddy @Frothygopher when we get down to practice is how fricken huge the offensive linemen are.  I've probably said it before, but I think Coach Klein and his guys really work wonders building the size and strength of their players.  To quantify this, let's look at their weights from when they were freshmen on rivals and what they're listed at now on the team's website. Also, I'm using the two-deep from our good friends at The Daily Gopher - see their projected two-deep depth chart here.  They know stuff, you should check out all of their shit.

Gopher Linemen Grow Big Like Bulls
Position	Year	Player	HS Ht/Wt	Current Ht/Wt	Weight Gain
LT1	RS SR	Ed Olson	6'7" 285	6'7" 309	24
LT2	RS JR	Marek Lenkiewicz	6'5" 250	6'5" 289	39
LG1	RS JR	Zac Epping	6'2" 274	6'2" 321	47
LG2	SO	Joe Bjorklund	6'5" 285	6'5" 288	3
C1	SO	Jon Christenson	6'4" 288	6'4" 306	18
C2	JR	Tommy Olson	6'4" 275	6'4" 301	26
RG1	JR	Caleb Bak	6'3" 255	6'3" 302	47
RG2	RS FR	Isaac Hayes	6'3" 270	6'2" 304	34
RT1	RS SO	Josh Campion	6'5" 265	6'5" 326	61
RT2	RS SO	Foster Bush	6'5" 270	6'5" 303	33

Even with Bjorklund blowing the curve, the average weight gain is 33.2 lbs per player.  Campion's 61 pound increase is awesome.  Hayes going up 34 pounds in a year is just sick, but that guy is a monster anyway.

Two of the more interesting stories regarding the offensive line involve the Olson brothers.  At left tackle, Ed Olson has been pressed in practice by Marek Lenkiewicz and although there has been no announcement one way or another yet, many believe that Lenk will get the start against UNLV.

Tommy Olson after losing his job at left guard was asked to move over to center in the spring.  This move helps strengthen the team's depth after losing Zac Mottla to injury and with Brian Bobek looking like a medical redshirt this season.  Now the rumblings are not only is Olson doing a great job in practice, but he's also pushing Christenson for first team snaps.  Christenson had a nice year at center last season so I'm inclined to think he'll continue to hold the job, but it's a great thing to have competition in practice and to have some backups that aren't just another one of Brewster's 185lb sons or something.

Another note is that this team might not have a single starter that is a senior unless Ed Olson ends up back at LT.  Even so, many of them are experienced due to being pressed into action early in their college careers.  Besides the LT battle, I (and everyone else) can see Isaac Hayes playing sooner rather than later as the guy is just a bulldozer.  The feeling here is the line is trending up in year three and hopefully this shows on the field.