Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

ray brewer:

Tony Sanchez making it cool for locals to play for UNLV football

First UNLV Football Spring Practice With Tony Sanchez

Steve Marcus

Bishop Gorman players watch UNLV football spring practice Monday, March 16, 2015, at Rebel Field.

Rebels Spring Practice With Tony Sanchez

Linemen run through drills during UNLV football spring practice at Rebel Field Monday, March 16, 2015. Launch slideshow »

It doesn’t hurt to ask.

For years, ever since Steven Jackson in the late 1990s was under-recruited by UNLV football before shining at Oregon State and having a lengthy NFL career, the best Las Vegas high school players have rarely considered strapping it up for the hometown school.

They either weren’t recruited, lightly recruited or had such a low opinion of UNLV they wouldn’t invest an afternoon and short drive to check out the program on an unofficial visit. Playing for UNLV, a perennial two-win program, was so frowned upon that recruits would be ridiculed by their peers for even considering it.

Players regularly sign with major schools such as USC and Notre Dame, or league rivals such as San Diego State, without much resistance from the hometown school. A scholarship offer might have been extended by UNLV, but the recruiting effort was passive. Why waste time courting a player you sensed had little interest?

Times are a changing.

Now, some four months after former Bishop Gorman High coach Tony Sanchez and his staff have embarked on their seemingly impossible journey to make UNLV football a respectable program, locals are jumping over each other to see what they are building.

It’s a simple strategy: To have a winning program you need the best local players. Recruit them. Show interest in them. Get them excited. Most important, ask them to be Rebels.

“They are building something special over there,” said Desert Pines defensive end Anthony Smith, Nevada’s top recruit by Rivals.com for the class of 2016 who visited last weekend.

Click to enlarge photo

Bishop Gorman High linemen Julio Garcia II and Jaron Caldwell take a photo in UNLV jerseys during an unofficial visit to campus Feb. 28, 2015. Both 2016 prospects committed.

In late February, two linemen from six-time state champion Gorman verbally committed in a true sign Sanchez has the program heading in the right direction. UNLV never gets a commitment at this stage of the recruiting cycle, when the heavyweights are fighting for four and five star prospects, and programs in the Mountain West are evaluating under-the-radar prospects the big boys have missed. This is how Boise State, the benchmark program in the Mountain West who has played in three Fiesta Bowls since 2007, handles its recruiting.

UNLV also rarely recruited at Gorman with previous coaches under the opinion players from the 2014 mythical national champions were entitled. The facilities and swag at Gorman were so impressive, playing for UNLV would be a downgrade.

Tony Sanchez’s Rebels are different. And I’m not the lone one to make that observation. Recruits, the people who matter most, are also speaking.

“Coach Sanchez, he’s a great, great coach,” said Keenen King, a 2016 offensive lineman from Arbor View who also has scholarship offers from Arizona State and Oregon State of the Pac-12. “We all saw what he did at Gorman. That was unbelievable. He has that spirit and energy to do the same thing at UNLV.”

On the Rebels’ first spring practice last week, about a dozen players from Gorman took unofficial visits, fueling hope that a Gorman to UNLV pipeline will start. Sanchez has an intimate knowledge of the players, and they have a high opinion of his coaching from a dominating six-year run at Gorman. And Sanchez’s younger brother, Kenny, is the Gorman coach.

The group visiting included four-star 2017 recruits Tate Martell and Tyjon Lindsey, two standouts destined to play at major schools, but had so much respect for Sanchez they agreed to check out UNLV. They don’t have to commit to UNLV to make the process a success. By liking the direction the program is headed, their endorsements can help sway others.

The others, whether you played at Gorman or a school Gorman beat, are listening to what UNLV has to offer. They say playing at home is attractive, bucking the trend of past recruits who couldn’t wait to leave.

Sanchez has offered at least 10 locals, including three from the class of 2017. There’s a long line of others waiting for him to pull the trigger with an offer.

Click to enlarge photo

Head Coach Tony Sanchez watches UNLV football spring practice at Rebel Field Monday, March 16, 2015.

“We see everything that’s going on over there (at UNLV),” said Greg Rogers, a 2017 defensive end prospect from Centennial who visited unofficially last weekend and has an offer. “Most kids wanted to play for him at Gorman, but didn’t have the opportunity. He can probably do the same thing at the college football level. It’s exciting knowing there’s an opportunity to stay home and be part of something special.”

Sanchez is making it cool to play for UNLV. He’s selling players on a vision of Las Vegas becoming a football town, telling local recruits they’ll be hometown heroes and looked up to when UNLV becomes a winner. The transformation includes an on-campus football facility — construction will begin in May and be finished in the fall, recruits have been told — and a hard-nosed brand of football. Update: I'm told fundraising still a work in progress for facility, which is one of Sanchez's priorities in building the program. If the project moves forward, the completion date wouldn't be until fall 2016, at the earliest.

Recruits rave about Sanchez’s energy and enthusiasm. They leave a trip from UNLV motivated to get better. They can see themselves wearing the scarlet and gray, and helping Las Vegas become a football town.

Some will still leave for the lure of a big-time program. Others will stay and help create the big-time program here.

Yes, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy