Healthy Sid Acosta relishes return to UNLV football field

Sid Acosta could have played late last football season after recovering from a torn ACL, but burning an entire year of eligibility over two or three games didn’t make sense.

He knew it was in his best interest to wait, even if UNLV was down to its third-team center.

“There was a time where I felt I let the team down,” Acosta said. “I know that I wasn’t able to control what happened, but at the same time when I’m down and another guy goes down and another guy goes down, it kind of builds up.”

Now Acosta is back and making up for lost time as UNLV wraps up its third week of spring practices at Rebel Park. The redshirt junior has been starting at center, a spot he probably will keep when the season begins Sept. 1 at Southern California.

“I think first and foremost he’ll be a very quality starter in this league,” UNLV offensive line coach Garin Justice said. “I think before he graduates and leaves, he should be an all-conference type guy. The thing Sid has, he has a natural mean streak, naturally aggressive and tough, and one of the strongest guys you’ll come across.

“The biggest thing right now, we have to refine his fundamentals, refine his technique a little bit because he’s been out of it, and get some more flexibility where he can take steps and do some things we need. But he’s on track to be a very, very productive player in this league.”

Acosta (6 feet 1 inch, 290 pounds) went into spring practices last year as the expected starter but tore an ACL and faced a long road to recovery.

Though unable to play, he still managed to stay in shape by hitting the weight room and even got in some running without having to plant his feet.

That helped set him up for this spring when Acosta again went in as the leading candidate at center, but also thought he would battle redshirt freshman Justice Oluwaseun for the position. Oluwaseun, who also was going to be a candidate at guard, tore his ACL three weeks ago, putting him on a similar recovery path to what Acosta experienced last year.

“I told him, ‘There are going to be times that are tough. You’ve got to stay positive and take advantage of the time that you have now,’” Acosta said. “He’s getting after it. He’s doing really good right now. He’s coming back a lot faster than I ever did.”

Justice, in his first season at UNLV, said Acosta also is getting after it.

They have a little history together. Justice was the offensive line coach at Florida Atlantic and brought Acosta in from Riverside (California) City College for an official visit before the player committed to UNLV in December 2016.

“It’s crazy how the college football world works,” Justice said. “I was able to develop a relationship then. I was able to meet his family. He was a guy I really, really wanted at my previous school. Now that we have him and I was fortunate enough to take this job, I’m looking at him like, ‘I know Sid Acosta.’ I’m really excited about him.”

And Acosta is excited about being able to play again.

“The first couple of months sitting out, it really made me realize how much I missed out on everything,” Acosta said. “So being able to come out here filled a lot of the emptiness I felt last season.”

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Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.