Every five years when UNLV fires its football coach there is a great whoop-de-doo and la-di-da about football. It usually lasts until the UNLV basketball team plays a quality nonconference opponent. Is there a program out there UNLV ought to be imitating?
UNLV Football
By now you probably are familiar with Notre Dame having hired a wildly successful high school coach named Gerry Faust to wake up the echoes. But there’s an even bolder experiment that better correlates to UNLV that was conducted in North Texas.
A couple of hours after Bobby Hauck resigned as UNLV football coach on Friday, Gonzaga beat St. John’s in one of those sort-of-attractive early season college basketball matchups on TV.
Because it’s still college football season — and because UNLV has regressed to its losing ways faster than anybody could have possibly imagined — the subject changes often whenever sports fans gather ’round here this time of year.
Houston routed UNLV, 69-0, in the season opener of 1989. The Cougars’ wide-open offense, led by quarterback Andre Ware, revolutionized college football.
UNLV lost 48-34, but the Rebels were driving late with another chance to tie before a tipped pass was intercepted in the end zone. Give UNLV tons of credit for hanging in there.
UNLV fans who saw the game against Northern Colorado got their win, but there definitely was a lot of negativity to take note of.
All the celebrities, sports stars and regular folk who participate in the Ice Bucket Challenge for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis should feel good about themselves after toweling off.
UNLV’s success on the football field last year hasn’t resulted in increased season ticket sales. And a proposed stadium has been scaled back — and the dome removed. Maybe they should say it was to save the birds.
The wide receiver spotted the quarterback holding the football. He instinctively knew what to do. He ran a post pattern, accelerating at full speed — or what seemed like it, at least.
It looks like a monolith carved from mortar and molded of chrome, a giant spaceship in the middle of the UNLV campus.
UNLV’s former football coach, like most coaches, said he didn’t read the newspaper. But a story about former Rebels quarterbacks staking their claim as NFL assistant coaches brought back a favorite Mike Sanford memory.