Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Tony Sanchez fired as UNLV football coach

Rebels Fall Short, Lose to SDSU

Sam Morris/Las Vegas News Bureau

UNLV Rebels head coach Tony Sanchez reacts after UNLV missed a game-tying field goal in the closing seconds of their NCAA football game against the San Diego State Aztecs Saturday, October 26, 2019, at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Updated Monday, Nov. 25, 2019 | 2:40 p.m.

UNLV announced today that Tony Sanchez has been fired as head football coach.

Sanchez, who is in his fifth year at UNLV, will coach the team in its season finale on Saturday at UNR.

"Obviously I'm disappointed that I'm not going to get a chance to continue on," Sanchez said in an afternoon press conference. "This is not something that I wanted, but in competitive Division-I athletics this is part of the life."

Sanchez said he was informed of the decision on Friday, the day before the Rebels hosted San Jose State. He chose not to tell the players until Monday; UNLV beat SJSU, 38-35, to improve to 3-8 on the season. 

Sanchez has gone 19-40 since taking over the program in 2015. The Rebels have not posted a winning record during his tenure, coming closest when they went 5-7 in 2017. UNLV could have qualified for a bowl game that year, but a season-opening home loss to Howard — the biggest upset by point spread in college football history — kept the team from achieving the necessary .500 record.

There was speculation that Sanchez would be fired after the 2018 season, when UNLV went 4-8, but Reed-Francois brought him back for another year on the condition that the Rebels qualify for a bowl game in 2019. When the team lost at Colorado State on Nov. 2 to fall to 2-7, Sanchez was effectively on notice.

Sanchez pointed to academic improvements, facility upgrades and improved recruiting as some of the biggest accomplishments of his tenure, and said he hopes the next coach will have more success at UNLV.

"I truly believe with this football complex, the stadium coming online, the recruiting the way it is, our kids doing all the right things, a cultural dynamic that has completely shifted within this program, bigger and better days are ahead for UNLV," he said. 

Sanchez has two years left on his contract after 2019, but only the base salary is guaranteed. UNLV will have to pay him $300,000 per year through 2021.

Sanchez, who coached Bishop Gorman for six years before taking the UNLV job, said he envisions staying at the collegiate level in an assistant role. 

Athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois said that once the decision to terminate Sanchez was made, she "didn't see the point" in waiting to inform him.

"It was important to us once we had that decision made that we communicated it," Reed-Francois said, "and then instead of speculating about what's going to happen, is he staying or is he leaving, let's turn our collective energies now — now that we have this decision — let's beat UNR."

Reed-Francois said UNLV will now conduct a national search for its next football coach. She said she expects the budget will allow her to offer a salary that will be attractive to candidates.

“We’re going to be competitive [in terms of salary]," Reed-Francois said. "We’ll be very competitive in the Mountain West conference.”

Reed-Francois also addressed the longstanding apathy toward the football program and noted that she wants the next coach to be able to capture the local market and convince fans to invest their time, money and interest in the Rebels.

“Tony has done a wonderful job of galvanizing the community and bringing people in," she said. "We also recognize we need to keep doing our part and create a reason to care. We have a brand-new stadium. We know that it doesn’t fill itself.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.

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