UNLV coach Tony Sanchez pleased with practice after a day off

Tuesday’s UNLV football practice report from Rebel Park:

Tony’s take

Coach Tony Sanchez on the sixth day of training camp:

“It wasn’t a bad practice at all. It’s the first practice after a day off. There are so many things that go into camp, especially when you bring in a big group of freshmen. How do you transition from a day off? Yesterday, they got a chance to go bowl and hang out a little bit at the Red Rock (Resort) and have picture day. The biggest thing is are they going to be mature enough to come back out and dial it in? The defense dialed it in a little bit faster than the offense, but the second half of practice, I thought the offense did a really good job of getting going again.

“The second time we did red zone. We still have to clean it up a little bit. There are still some miscues in the exchanges. We’re working on that a little bit.”

Notes

— Former UNLV quarterback Caleb Herring is finalizing a contract to replace Mike Pritchard as the radio analyst. Pritchard, who went to Rancho High School and later played nine seasons in the NFL, served in that role since 2006. He joined a Denver radio station on Aug. 1. Herring is ninth in UNLV history with 4,388 yards passing, and as a senior in 2013 led the Rebels to the Heart of Dallas Bowl.

— Senior defensive tackle Mike Hughes Jr., who went to Palo Verde, was held out of practice again because of a tight hamstring. Sanchez said Hughes would play if the Rebels had a game, but didn’t want to jeopardize making the injury worse. Sophomore defensive end Nick Dehdashtian, who also has been battling a tight hamstring, returned to practice.

— Freshman Justice Oluwaseun received some repetitions at first-team center, joining the competition that also includes junior Zack Singer of Bishop Gorman and senior J’Ondray Sanders of Basic. Junior Sid Acosta, who would have been the starter, probably won’t return from a knee injury until the third or fourth week of the season, Sanchez said.

— Junior Nathan Jacobson is sharing first-team reps with redshirt freshman Donovan Outlaw of Coronado at offensive right tackle.

“There is no reason we shouldn’t play seven or eight offensive linemen every single Saturday,” Sanchez said. “If we could have your (No.) 2 guard get 25 snaps, that’s a big deal, your (No.) 2 tackle get 25 snaps out of 75 or 80 snaps, it’s going to keep them fresh throughout the course of the year.”

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