Open date offers Rebel football chance to improve

This weekend, we are off again with our second bye week this month, which is a unique scheduling situation.

I've never been big on having open dates for your team because I think they break up the rhythm of the season. The only time they're productive is when you are trying to get some guys rested and healthy. However, we are not currently in position to use the bye week for rest because of our inexperience.

The importance of this open date for UNLV football is twofold:

1. With such an inexperienced football team, we have to have great practices. Our execution, our playmaking ability and our individual technique all have to improve. We went out and got to work Tuesday to help us find a way to improve and get wins.

2. Starting this afternoon, our coaching staff will go off campus and hit the recruiting trail, because that is the other component to improving our football program -- through recruiting. NCAA guidelines allow for us to have one open date when we can use all 10 coaches, and we've deemed that this week, so we have guys staying locally and traveling out of state to see prospective Rebels.

At this point, we are ahead of where we've been in the last couple of recruiting years. On a couple of positions, we're already done having our budgeted allotment of recruits committed. If we can continue on this pace and round out the class the way we think we will, we'll have a strong group like the one we signed a year ago.

We've got a long way to go to make UNLV football what we all want it to be. We're going to continue to be diligent in our efforts to make that happen. We're working on improving on many different fronts, and that's what it's going to take -- improvement in a lot of areas.

With us at the midway point of a 12-game season, I'm really happy with the attitude on this team. Everyone involved in this program is willing to do what it takes to improve.

Our next chance to show improvement on the field will be on Oct. 29, when we host Colorado State. It will be good to be playing at home after four weeks of being away, with two road games. I can tell you that we'll be fired up to be back at Sam Boyd Stadium and will work our tails off to get a win.

Go Rebels!

Bobby Hauck writes a weekly column on UNLV football for Rebels Report.