UNLV’s Marcus Arroyo calls audible after coronavirus shutdown

First-year UNLV football coach Marcus Arroyo is trying to maintain some sense of normalcy during the coronavirus pandemic, conducting regular video meetings with his coaches and players.

The Rebels were scheduled for spring practices at this time, but now even the season this fall could be in jeopardy because of the coronavirus.

“Nothing will surprise us,” Arroyo said. “The reality is this is a really big global issue. We’re taking it really, really seriously. This is much bigger than football. I get it, and I don’t say that because that’s a coaching cliche.”

UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois said the department has planned for three contingencies, including if the virus extends into August. Training camp is that month, and the Rebels’ first game is scheduled for Aug. 29 against California at Allegiant Stadium.

ESPN/ABC college football broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit sounded the alarm recently that the season might not take place. “I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football,” he said, according to a TMZ transcript.

North Carolina coach Mack Brown told the Raleigh News & Observer that coaches are concerned about not playing or having a modified season. Of the pandemic, he said, “The biggest problem is you’re not sure when it ends, and we can’t get those answers at this point.”

Even a modified season would dramatically impact athletic departments financially nationwide.

That’s especially true for Group of Five schools, which include UNLV, where the financial margins are much smaller. The Rebels’ football program in the 2018-19 fiscal year made $7.2 million, about one-seventh of the athletic department’s total revenue.

The school’s new coach, Arroyo, is trying to build a program and already is dealing with the likely loss of spring practices. The Mountain West has indefinitely suspended in-person team activities.

So Arroyo is relying on technology to communicate with players and coaches through Google Drive, Instagram Live, Loom, TeamViewer, Teamworks, TrainHeroic, YouTube and Zoom, as well as through text messages.

“I’ve literally used every one of those tools in the past 10 days,” Arroyo said recently.

It’s all not all business, however. Arroyo has what he calls a “coaches’ dinner table” at night with coaches, players and their families, and the virtual discussions are “about anything but football.”

Without spring practices, Arroyo said greater emphasis has been placed on recruiting and scouting opponents.

This would have been an especially important spring practice session for Arroyo, who would have installed offensive and defensive systems and evaluated a whole set of players that the staff inherited or recruited.

That includes at quarterback, where sophomore Kenyon Oblad is the favorite but not guaranteed to win the job. Defensively, from the line to the linebackers to the secondary, every position would figure to be up for grabs.

Arroyo and his assistants have watched video from last season, so they aren’t unfamiliar with these players.

“Every time we get to talking about (evaluations), it’s second in line and down the road in comparison to right now and the health and safety and well-being of our guys,” Arroyo said. “There’s only so much I can control in a calendar, let alone the ambiguity of not knowing when they’re going to say, ‘Go.’ And when they do say, ‘Go,’ what are they going to say you can do?”

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