Cornerbacks coach Akeem Davis settled on the word during last season’s exit meetings: finish. With a veteran UNLV secondary returning for a second year in defensive coordinator Paul Guenther’s system, he wants their familiarity with assignments to hold through the end of each play.
“That has been the emphasis,” Davis said. “When we had that exit meeting last year, and when we approached this year, we knew from the top down that that was one thing that we wanted to do, finish. And that’s in the classroom, that’s in the weight room, that’s in the film room and that’s on Saturdays.”
Explosive plays hurt UNLV at different points last season. Davis has tied his camp message to eye discipline: defenders have to keep watching the receiver or threat their assignment requires, recognize the play and still complete the coverage when the ball arrives.
“We put our eyes in the right spot and we execute,” Davis said. “And we finish. We burn our eyes on our work and we know what they’re about to try to do to us. Once they give us what we were expecting, we finish.”
That instruction reaches beyond a single coverage. UNLV has played in the past three Mountain West championship games without winning one, and Davis wants the returning group to carry its work all the way through a title run.
“We gotta go win the whole thing,” Davis said. “It ain’t enough to just get there. It ain’t enough to just show up. The chip is that we’ve been there, but we just gotta go finish.”
Experience that lets the defense move faster
Cornerbacks Denver Harris and Quandarius Keyes are among the veterans Davis wants to see turn their knowledge of the system into faster reactions. He can work on the details with players who already understand the calls, rather than install the entire defense again.
That experience does not mean the two had identical roles last season. Keyes appeared in all 14 games and started twice, finishing with six pass breakups and two interceptions. Harris played in only four games, received a medical redshirt and returned for the Frisco Bowl against Ohio. One has a full season of work in this defense to build on; the other is trying to turn his familiarity with the system into a longer run of availability.
Keyes returned an interception 25 yards for a touchdown against New Mexico and intercepted another pass in the win at Wyoming. His six breakups ranked second on the team.
The New Mexico game also shows why a takeaway does not settle the larger question. Keyes’ return helped erase an early 21-0 deficit, but the Lobos rebuilt their lead, and UNLV ultimately lost 40-35. The Rebels later went ahead 35-34 with 6:35 remaining before New Mexico answered with the winning touchdown. An individual play had helped UNLV recover. The defense still needed another stop to protect its late lead.
New Mexico nevertheless completed 20 of 26 passes for 401 yards. Keyes’ takeaway helped UNLV recover, but it could not offset the passing gains or secure the final stop.
“They know game,” Davis said. “They know the game, they know schematics, they know scheme, they know the structure of the defense. But more importantly, they know what it takes to be a good unit, and that’s together.”
“I think when you got some guys that have been here, I think you don’t have to reset the culture,” Davis said. “You don’t have to reset the expectation. I think the expectation has been established.”
Harris brings energy and Keyes a more even temperament. Davis sees both approaches as useful.
“Leadership is influence,” Davis said. “I got a lot of older guys, man, that have influence in different ways.”
Keyes feels the difference after the group spent last year bringing transfers into a new system.
“Last year it was a great group, I love them guys, but I feel like we’re more comfortable in the schemes,” Keyes said. “It was a lot of guys with a lot of transfers. Second year in the scheme, so I feel like everything’s just faster, everything is better.”
Laterrance Welch’s return to practice adds another veteran and last season’s interceptions leader. Keyes welcomed the added competition.
“We’re stacked now,” he said. “We got a lot of guys that can play, so we know we got a lot of playmakers that we can have in the secondary. So that’s a great add.”
Welch, Harris, Keyes, Mumu Bin-Wahad and Avery Helm are competing for snaps. The players describe that competition as helping the group. Health is part of it, too: Bin-Wahad and Harris dealt with problems that limited what they wanted to accomplish last season.
Bin-Wahad played in 12 games and started four last season, recording 32 tackles, a forced fumble and a recovery. At Wyoming, he made seven tackles and both forced and recovered a fumble.
Harris brought 11 games and three starts of 2024 UTSA experience to UNLV, but his first season in Las Vegas produced only three solo tackles. Staying healthy would allow him more sustained work in Guenther’s defense.
“I tell them to go out and play like it’s their last snap each and every day,” Davis said. “Prepare like it’s their last snap each and every day. And when they’re out there, go finish like it’s their last opportunity to finish every single day.”
Helm’s chance to play again
For Helm, being able to practice without the same injury questions has been emotional. He described calling his mother on the way to practice and trying to explain what it meant to have football back.
“I was crying in the car and I was just like, ‘I got my flame back,’” Helm said. “I feel like I love ball. It’s like being born again.”
Helm’s path included a second torn ACL at TCU and a lingering injury that eventually required another surgery. His connection to head coach Dan Mullen dated to Florida, where Mullen recruited him and started him as a redshirt freshman. When another year became available, Helm contacted him.
Helm’s history explains why the relationship carried weight. He started nine games for Florida in 2021, Mullen’s final season there, and finished his Gators career with 13 starts in 22 appearances. He then started all 11 games he played for TCU in 2023. His career includes substantial starting work, rather than only the promise of what he might do once healthy.
Helm redshirted at TCU because of injury in 2024 and appeared in four games in 2025. Across three seasons with the Horned Frogs, he recorded 27 tackles, six pass deflections, a sack and a forced fumble.
“My mom was actually like, ‘Man, you talk to Coach?’” Helm said. “I’m like, ‘No.’ So I texted him on Instagram. He texted me right back. I said, ‘Coach, I got another year.’ He got me on the flight three days later.”
“This is the second time he took me coming off of a torn ACL,” Helm said. “So he know I’m not gonna quit. He know I’m gonna show up every day and be the best I can be. So he trusts me like I trust him.”
He remains direct about what he can offer at cornerback.
“Everything,” he said. “Everything you want in a corner, I got it.”
Speed has always been part of it. Helm said he won the Junior Olympics when he was around 11 or 12 and won multiple indoor national championships while competing in track. Football eventually became his focus, but the speed remained part of his game.
The time unable to play also changed how Helm helped his teammates. He learned to contribute by explaining what he saw rather than measuring his value only by his own snaps.
“It taught me to open up and pour into others more,” Helm said. “Me not being able to be on the grass but me still being able to affect the game from pouring into other people and showing them what I see, telling them how I would play it, telling them how I would feel in that moment.”
Helm said the time away also taught him to stay emotionally steady, without letting one good or bad moment determine how he treats his next assignment or his teammates.
Camp tests the details
Mullen’s formations and motions test that understanding in practice. When a receiver changes sides or a tight end changes alignment, the secondary has to communicate its response before the snap, then carry out the coverage as the routes develop. Davis credits the offensive staff for making the defense handle those changes.
Davis said he has learned from Guenther while working alongside Mike Scherer and Kap Dede. He also credited UNLV’s receivers and tight ends for challenging the secondary in practice.
“You see those players out there competing, but I promise you, man, us coaches, we up there, we compete trying to give our guys the best edge to go out on the field and be successful,” Davis said.
Davis returns to the same instruction at the end of that work.
“Finish, finish, finish,” Davis said. “In everything that you do, go finish.”
