Several assistant football coaches at UNLV were given notice Monday that their contracts won’t be renewed for the upcoming season, said Jerry Koloskie, UNLV’s interim athletic director. Koloskie said the coaches will be paid for another 60 days, but are finished with their football obligations.
With the job listing still fresh on the market, UNLV interim athletic director Jerry Koloskie has been inundated with calls and e-mails from those interested in his football coaching vacancy. A source close to the situation confirmed to The Sun that one prominent figure to throw his hat into the ring early is Dennis Franchione, who most recently coached at Texas A&M.
The hills are alive with the sound of ... well, that isn’t exactly music now, is it? It’s the cacophony of UNLV football fans suggesting cures for what has ailed the program since the advent of the face mask and two platoons.
Whenever a college football program undergoes a coaching change, naturally, fallout ensues. Usually, it's in the form of players transferring out of the program. UNLV's decision to fire fifth-year coach Mike Sanford came as the 4-7 team heads into the bye week, and then plays its season finale on Nov. 28 at home against San Diego State. For the time being, until both the season is finished and a new coach is named, the UNLV players who are set to return next season are in a holding pattern of sorts.
A day after his firing as the head football coach at UNLV, Mike Sanford sat in front of more microphones and recorders than he had seen at almost any point in his five-year tenure. He used that rare forum to proclaim that, in his mind, the program's failure to get off the ground had nothing to do with who the head coach was.
Early Friday morning, Dr. Neal Smatresk sat in a black leather chair in his seventh-floor office and knotted a scarlet tie around the collar of a light blue-striped dress shirt. UNLV’s new president spoke wistfully about a football victory the following day at Air Force, the Rebels beating San Diego State, and Ryan Wolfe and Omar Clayton playing in a well-deserved bowl game. “ … we could finish 7-6,” Smatresk said.
The Mike Sanford era at UNLV will officially be over once the Rebels complete another disappointing season with their finale at Sam Boyd Stadium on Nov. 28 against San Diego State. Sources close to the situation confirmed the news to The Sun on Sunday night in the wake of the Rebels' 45-17 loss on Saturday evening to Air Force. The defeat dropped UNLV to 4-7.
As I sat in the Bono seats — the rickety bleachers at the summit of the stadium, which, with rare exception, get occupied only when U2 is in town and never, ever get occupied when the UNLV football team is in town — I had a thought that might be frightening to whatever devoted Rebel football fans remain.
