UNLV coach seeks change
UNLV football coach Mike Sanford dismissed the notion that his team’s 2-10 record prompted him to shake up the defensive staff.
He said several late-game breakdowns that turned potential victories into losses led to the changes.
Linebackers coach Dennis Therrell replaced co-defensive coordinators Kurt Barber and Vic Shealy on Tuesday. Barber resigned last week, hinting the decision wasn’t entirely his own. Shealy will stick to overseeing the safeties.
Therrell previously has served as a defensive coordinator at four schools.
“The bottom line is we were not good enough on defense,” Sanford said. “We weren’t finishing games on defense. We weren’t stopping people at the end of games, and we had some close losses. We’ve got to be better.”
UNLV gave up a 29-yard touchdown run to Wisconsin with 1:53 left in a 20-13 loss, a 43-yard scoring pass to UNR with 27 seconds remaining in a 27-20 defeat, and a 3-yard touchdown pass to Wyoming with 5:42 left in a 29-24 loss.
The defense also allowed Air Force to score 24 second-half points to break open a game that was tied at halftime and Brigham Young to turn a 7-6 lead at the half into a 24-14 victory. In each game, the opponents went right after UNLV in the second half, with Air Force rushing for 237 yards and BYU for 158.
The Rebels also struggled offensively, ranking last in the Mountain West Conference with an average of 18.2 points per game.
Even so, Sanford said he will not make more staff changes. Despite the offense’s problems, he took into account that two freshman quarterbacks played behind a young line.
Given those circumstances, Sanford said the offense is “going in the right direction.”
But Sanford could lose interior offensive line coach Keith Uperesa, who said he has had “informal talks” with Southern Utah athletic director Ken Beazer about its head coaching vacancy.
Uperesa and Beazer previously worked together at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. Uperesa said he told Beazer to contact Sanford before any further talks took place.
As of Thursday night, Beazer had not called Sanford, and Uperesa said he expected to stay at UNLV.
Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2914.