Hauck hints Clayton will remain Rebels’ starting quarterback
PROVO, Utah — Redshirt freshman Caleb Herring took most of the snaps Saturday, but UNLV’s offense still appears to belong to senior Omar Clayton.
Coach Bobby Hauck wouldn’t say for sure that Clayton will remain the Rebels’ starting quarterback, but indicated that was the case following a 55-7 loss to Brigham Young.
"I want our seniors to hang in there to be able to play it out," Hauck said.
Clayton has been in a slump, and his first pass against the Cougars was intercepted. He completed 3 of 8 passes for 13 yards and has 334 yards combined in the past four games.
Herring completed 8 of 21 for 109 yards and a touchdown, throwing one interception. It was the third time this season he accounted for UNLV’s only touchdown.
■ BIG PICTURE — Hauck said he is finishing this season with an eye on next year, and the temptation is to seriously shake up the roster.
His problem is that an injury glut has already forced a shakeup.
"I think definitely you’re going to see some people sliding around," Hauck said. "We need to evaluate effort and execution, and we’ll go from there. The thing is, and I just said this to our coaches, we don’t have anybody to go to. We’re playing a lot of young guys and a lot of walk-on guys."
Hauck said the ideal situation would be to have longer practices, but that doesn’t appear realistic.
"We’re going to do everything we can," he said. "We can’t go crazy here and not have anybody to suit up next week. Bailing wire and duct tape are holding us together right now, and unfortunately that’s the way it looks on the field, too."
■ BIG HIT — Helmet hits have been in the news recently, and Rebels safety Alex De Giacomo was penalized for landing one on BYU running back David Foote in the fourth quarter.
BYU players were enraged after the hit, and it appeared they were ready to take on De Giacomo, who said he wasn’t trying to make an illegal hit.
"I was just trying to play football," said De Giacomo, who made nine tackles and broke up two passes. "I didn’t know it was unnecessary roughness."
■ BREAKING IT DOWN — The loss tied the fourth worst in UNLV history. The Rebels also lost by 48 points to Texas Christian (51-3) in 2005, Air Force (65-17) in 1996 and Northern Illinois (62-14) in 1995.
Their worst losses were 69-0 to Houston in 1989, 62-3 to Tennessee in 1996 and 59-6 to Oregon in 1992.
