Arroyo preaching competition as UNLV football preps for camp

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Thursday, July 21, 2022 | 2 a.m.

With training camp opening next week, UNLV head football coach Marcus Arroyo sat down at Mountain West media day Wednesday to talk about the offseason, the future of the program, the team’s evolving roster, position battles and more.

The key takeaways from Arroyo’s press conference:

Adding talent remains top priority

Arroyo is realistic about the biggest obstacle facing the UNLV program: Talent.

When the Mountain West releases its preseason all-conference selections Thursday morning, the list is not going to be full of UNLV players, and that’s keeping the program from being competitive on a yearly basis.

Arroyo has said since taking the job two years ago that stocking the team with talented prospects (and developing them into impact players) is his No. 1 priority. To that end, he has turned over almost the entire roster since 2020.

“One of the starting points for the whole thing was trying to acquire talent and build a roster,” Arroyo said. “And roster management is probably the most important thing we’ve got to do. There are only a handful of guys left from even just the end of the 2019 season.”

Arroyo said the current roster stands at 105 players, including some who haven’t officially been cleared yet but are expected to be ready when training camp begins next week.

He expects that depth to foster intense camp competition at just about every position.

“We have 36 guys who were with us at the end of the season. That’s it. We don’t have a whole roster full of fifth-year seniors. All of our guys are competing for a job.”

Open QB competition in training camp

The most conspicuous position battle is at quarterback, where three passers will go head to head for the right to take the first snap in Week 1: junior Doug Brumfield, sophomore Cameron Friel and junior Harrison Bailey.

Bailey is a former four-star recruit who transferred to UNLV after two years at Tennessee, and he is expected to eventually win the job. But at the conclusion of spring practice, UNLV’s official depth chart listed Brumfield and Friel as co-starters, with Bailey as the No. 3 option.

Arroyo had an explanation for why Bailey is slotted in with the third-stringers — for now.

“That’s pretty simple — Cam and Doug both played last year,” Arroyo said. “Doug got hurt, Cam ended up as freshman of the year, and then Harrison came in spring ball, and he’s going to have to earn his way to the starting position. They’ll compete. Those other two guys just have snaps with our guys.”

As Bailey gains experience in the offense, he should challenge for the top spot.

Revamped secondary is key

Three of the NCAA’s top 11 leaders in touchdown passes last year were Mountain West quarterbacks — a statistic Marcus Arroyo knew off the top of his head Wednesday. That’s why he and defensive coordinator Keith Heyward will use training camp to continue building the secondary, searching for the right combination of cornerbacks and safeties to combat the league’s high-flying offenses.

“The ball is in the air,” Arroyo said. “There’s a lot of talent in this conference when the ball is in the air, and we try to make sure we’re pointed in regard to putting guys back there who can do that. I think coach Heyward and the group have done a really nice job of integrating the talent we’ve recruited, and the defense that now we’re moving forward with.”

Not sweating MWC poll

The Mountain West released its preseason poll Wednesday, but Arroyo said he’s not putting much stock in prognostications.

That’s probably for the best, as the league’s media voted UNLV to finish fifth in the West Division and 10^th overall. If that prediction pans out, it will have been a very disappointing campaign for the Scarlet and Gray and especially for Arroyo, who is in his third year as head coach.

He dismissed the poll as not even worthy of being bulletin board material, believing his players have to be self-motivated.

“I’ve never done anything with preseason polls,” Arroyo said. “That’s a match, and I’m looking for a torch. That’ll be a fuse for a minute, but I’m trying to motivate the guys internally, not externally. There’s a lot of external motivation you can use at certain times — that’s not to say you can’t use those tools, but they don’t last.”

Arroyo said the team is drawing from their finishing stretch last year. Though UNLV went 2-10, they finished strong over the last month by winning two of their final four contests.

The coaches stoked that enthusiasm over the offseason, and Arroyo said it has carried through to spring practice and now to training camp.

“We looked back with a fine-toothed comb over everything,” Arroyo said. “They were excited. The way our guys played — to lose six games by one score inside two minutes, against…teams in this conference that won 10 games — the San Diego State game, the Utah State game, San Jose, to be playing with them when they just won a conference title the year before…there’s a ton of good stuff to build off that. I think our guys took that and they did a great job in spring of using that to springboard themselves.”

Happiest place on earth

Arroyo is usually all business, but he did share that he got a chance to take his family to Disneyworld this summer. Though his daughter is a veteran of the park, it was Arroyo’s first trip to “The Happiest Place on Earth.”

“We went through all the rides together,” he said. “It was awesome.”

His least favorite amusement? The teacups, which he estimated they rode five times. Arroyo said he is a big "Star Wars" fan, so he had a better time at Galaxy’s Edge.

The key to enjoying Disneyland was the lightning pass, which allowed Arroyo and his “team” to race through the park in the same focused manner he orchestrates a football practice.

“Efficiency,” he said. “No-huddle at Disney. It was really fun.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.