Rebels aiming to open season with a win for first time since 2009

By Taylor Bern

Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016 | 2 a.m.

The last time UNLV won its opening game, Tony Sanchez was beginning his first year at Bishop Gorman High. Over the last 20 years, the Rebels are 5-15 in their first game of the season, and for the third time in program history an entire class of players has graduated without ever starting a season 1-0.

“That’s gotta stop,” Sanchez said at Monday’s news conference. UNLV opens the 2016 season at 7:05 p.m. Thursday against Jackson State in Sam Boyd Stadium.

Sanchez is a big believer in the benefits of seeing an entire offseason of hard work rewarded with a victory. The confidence gained, he has said, is invaluable, and unlike many of its opening games against the likes of Wisconsin and Minnesota, this is a game the Rebels will be expected to win.

In his debut season, Sanchez’s Rebels lost a close game at Northern Illinois and then played a couple of decent first halves before losing by a combined 55 points to UCLA and Michigan. It wasn’t until they shellacked Idaho State 80-8 that they enjoyed the feeling of victory, and this year the schedule sets up to let the Rebels get that confidence-boosting win right out of the gate.

Of course, UNLV of all programs knows better than to look past a Division I-AA opponent like Jackson State, which plays in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Sanchez may have been coaching Gorman at the time, but he remembers the 2011 blowout to Southern Utah, the 2012 loss to Northern Arizona and the one-point victory against Northern Colorado in 2014.

“It wasn’t too long ago where all these I-AA teams were coming in and walking away with Ws or us winning last-second games,” Sanchez said. “Last year we kind of exorcised that, that was a good thing to see. We need to do it again.”

Jackson State has a new coaching staff, so without much film to study, the Rebels’ preparation has been much more focused on themselves. That starts with new starting quarterback Johnny Stanton playing within himself.

Stanton gets the nod

Sanchez informed Stanton on Sunday night that he would be the Rebels’ starting quarterback after winning a competition against last year’s backup Kurt Palandech. It was a close race that Sanchez said would often shift day to day before Stanton, who was the odds-on favorite to get the job, pulled out to a lead.

“At this point, you look at the overall skillsets, you look at arm strength, physicality, some of the stuff he can do in the red zone; he’s just a little ahead of Kurt right now, but Kurt’s not totally out of it. You’ll see him play,” Sanchez said.

Stanton, who started his career at Nebraska and last season played JUCO at Saddleback College, will be making his first career Division I start. Listed at 6-foot-2 and 245 pounds, he’s pound-for-pound one of the strongest players on the team, something to which junior receiver Devonte Boyd could attest.

“He has a strong arm, like a really strong arm. He’s really strong,” Boyd said.

Sanchez said he hadn’t finalized a plan, but Palandech, who recently sat out a couple days of practice but is expected to be fine, would likely play at least one series in the second quarter. How often they split time under center depends largely on how well Stanton handles the gig, but however it plays out Sanchez is confident that he has at least two guys capable of handling the position.

“He’ll be chipping at Johnny’s heels the entire time,” Sanchez said of Palandech. “I don’t want to get into this big quarterback controversy deal, but we feel like we have an able guy that can come on in.”

Above all, Sanchez wants to keep things as simple as possible so that Stanton can get comfortable. Sanchez has made it clear that this season managing the game is more important than making big plays as a quarterback.

“The biggest thing for him going into this game is that he does not have to put the team on his shoulders,” Sanchez said. “He’s got tremendous receivers around him, he has a loaded backfield, good offensive line, solid defense, good on special teams. He has to just go out and do his job, get the ball to the athletes.”

Notes

• Junior receiver Kendal Keys is out for the season because of a knee injury he suffered last week, a loss that’s especially hard for Boyd, who came into the program at the same time as Keys. There’s rarely been a huddle over the last three years that they haven’t shared, Boyd said, but now the entire group will have to fill in for him.

“Kendal’s not a kid that wants anybody to feel sorry for him,” Boyd said. “He’s still expecting us to do go out there and make big plays.”

Keys, whose older brother Kenny is a senior safety on this year’s team, had six touchdowns and 515 yards on 43 catches last year. While the Rebels are disappointed for Keys, they’re lucky that the injury happened in one of their deepest positions, where sophomore Brandon Presley and freshmen Darren Woods Jr., Mekhi Stevenson and Allan Cui III could all handle larger roles.

“We feel like we lost a great one,” Sanchez said, “but we have enough depth there that we’re going to be OK at that position.”

• After an open competition that included five players, first-year Jackson State coach on Monday named senior LaMontiez Ivy the Tigers’ starting quarterback. Ivy started several games the last two years, including an injury-plagued 2015 that saw him throw for 2,199 yards, 15 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

One of the players Ivy beat out is junior Jarin Morikawa, who was a UNLV walk-on that led the scout team in 2013. Last season at JSU, Morikawa appeared in six games, throwing for 633 yards and five touchdowns.

Hughes said the Tigers might play more than one quarterback against UNLV, but didn’t give any hints as to which of the other four that would be.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.