UNLV’s offensive line looks to ‘The Room’ for inspiration and support

They talk about The Room, which seems more mindset than anything. A culture built within the culture of UNLV’s football program.

A place the team’s offensive line can grow together, trust each other, understand what it means to be such a critical piece of the process.

Nobody messes with The Room. It’s their identity. They meet there, break things down there, embrace the concept there.

The size and talent and depth and versatility of this season’s line suggests it might be one of the best at UNLV in recent memory, a combination of young and old, of seasoned transfers and promising freshmen, of returners who understand how far things have come in a relatively short period. They remember the worst of times. They are living the best of them.

Louie Addazio was hired as the team’s offensive line coach in January, and he’s a passionate sort. Not afraid to let his feelings be known, good or bad.

“Listen, I come from a loud Italian family, so no one is safe,” Addazio said. “That’s how it was growing up. We bust everyone’s chops, and they bust my chops. It’s open season. You can’t be sensitive in my room. I have a great room. They’re really good dudes and love football.”

They appear to, passionate about getting better across the line and making a difference for a team expected to contend for a Mountain West championship this season, and maybe more.

And, yes, it all begins with them.

Protecting a quarterback

There isn’t an offensive line at any level that isn’t significant to the pursuit of winning, but that at UNLV this season might be even more so.

The Rebels will have a new starting quarterback, with Auburn transfer Jackson Arnold and returner Alex Orji battling for the spot in training camp. It’s imperative those up front succeed at a high level, if anything to take some of the early pressure off a signal-caller trying to perform.

“We have a lot of responsibility as far as the team goes in the trenches,” said junior tackle Jackson Brown, a transfer from Pittsburgh. “Whoever the quarterback is, we’re going to protect and lead. They both do a great job of commanding the huddle. They’re pushing each other every day. It’s been really good.

“At the end of the day, it’s a competition, but we as teammates want to win as much as anyone. They both get in the huddle and are ready to go and we’re like, ‘OK, we have your back.’ We’re going to hold things up for them. If we give them time, they’re both going to do good things.”

Addazio recruited Brown as an assistant at Colorado State, so there was a relationship once the player jumped into the portal. He chose UNLV over Houston and South Carolina, mainly because of the pitch made by Addazio and coach Dan Mullen.

Brown is also the perfect example of what UNLV looks for and needs, a player who arrived as a guard and was moved to tackle. It’s the kind of versatility that permeates across the front. That is needed for the line to reach its full potential.

“You’re always looking at putting the five best on the field,” Addazio said. “We’re going to do that. Guys have to play different positions. You want to play in the NFL? They only keep eight guys on the active roster. You have to be multiple.”

Austin Boyd knows all about that.

1 percent

Boyd, the 6-foot-4, 305-pound senior, is a preseason All-Mountain West selection who has moved to center. This, a player who has competed at both guard spots and right tackle in his time at UNLV.

He talks about being 1 percent better each day, about Addazio getting after the unit and bringing the intensity every practice, about leaving it all in the field.

If you’re looking for a self-proclaimed team leader, you’re staring at him. He talks about The Room.

“It’s a mentality,” Boyd said. “We stick together. Everything starts and ends with us up front. (Addazio) instilled that in us from when he came here and now we’ve taken it and run with it. It’s part of our mentality throughout camp.

“I have to be a loud guy to make the calls. Even off the field, everyone expects the center to be a leader of the team, and I am one. Just making sure everyone knows how we do things in our program.”

The Room. How an offensive line is built, and why it has the opportunity to thrive.