Regents unanimously approve Sanchez as UNLV football coach

But he was followed by speaker after speaker who supported Sanchez, and in a rare moment of unanimity when it comes to such hires, so did the regents.

They voted 11-0 on Tuesday to officially name Sanchez as the Rebels’ new coach, approving his four-year contract with a $500,000 annual salary. Sanchez also has a slew of bonuses in the deal.

“I think (the regents) believe in the process that occurred,” said Sanchez, who went 86-5 and won six state championships in his six years at Bishop Gorman High School. “I think they believe in the vision that UNLV had and president (Don) Snyder and (athletic director) Tina Kunzer-Murphy. I think it shows they’re excited about my opportunity to lead this program into the future, and we’re going to do a diligent, good job in raising student-athletes and bringing UNLV football to some prominence.”

Regents Rick Trachok and Jack Schofield were absent from the meeting.

Trachok, the vice chairman, has been a critic of escalating coaches’ salaries and has hoped the state would take the lead in trying to reign in how much schools pay.

Without him in attendance, the regents were quick to voice their support for Sanchez. James Dean Leavitt even went as far as to say he was disappointed UNLV didn’t make more of a financial commitment to Sanchez, saying it’s important to offer competitive salaries.

Kunzer-Murphy told the regents Sanchez, 40, will make significantly below the average national and Mountain West wage for a head football coach.

“I think if we have success, I’ll get paid more,” Sanchez said. “There are plenty of bonuses in there, and at the end of the day, I think it was important for me to focus on hiring a quality staff. You’ve got to surround yourself with smart people, so I think by myself taking a little less, it’ll allow me to do a little more with the guys I’ve going to surround myself with.”

Sanchez confirmed Barney Cotton as offensive coordinator and John Garrison as the offensive line coach will join the Rebels from Nebraska. Cotton is the interim coach for the Cornhuskers, who play Southern California in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27.

Also, wide receivers coach Cedric Cormier was retained from the previous staff under Bobby Hauck. Cormier consistently oversaw UNLV’s strongest unit, and he recruits Houston and was key in landing running back Tim Cornett and wide receiver Devante Davis.

And Bishop Gorman quarterbacks coach Ron O’Dell will follow Sanchez to UNLV. O’Dell used to coach at Illinois, and he was Aaron Rodgers’ coach in high school. He also is the cousin of former Rebels quarterback Scott Turner, the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterbacks coach.

Keith Belton will be the strength coach. He is an assistant at USC.

Sanchez said an announcement on his defensive staff would come Friday.

He hopes to one day make an announcement regarding a new football facility.

“We need to have a better academic center for our kids,” Sanchez said. “We need to have a place where we have a training table. We need better coaching offices and meeting rooms. We need a place that can kind of ‘encapsulize’ UNLV football and what we’re about and where we’re going.

“So a stadium is not a priority to me at this point. At this point right now, it’s building a football facility so the kids will stop flying over Las Vegas to other Mountain West conference schools when we’re a 3½-hour drive from LA, when we’re five hours from Phoenix, when we’re five hours from Salt Lake City, Utah. And we’ve got a great population right here. We need to engage the community to support us. We need to do some things with our facilities, and if we do that, we’re going to win.”

Some minor changes were made to his contract, including the language about playing in the new College Football Playoff format and the addition of his base pay to the amount Sanchez would owe if he leaves before the end of his contract.

Regent Cedric Crear called the hiring “historic” because of Sanchez’s Hispanic heritage, saying he joins Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez as the only Latino head coaches in major college football. Rodriguez, however, has family from Spain and doesn’t consider himself a Latino-American.

“You would hope they would hire you on the merits of your achievement. I think that’s exactly what they’ve done,” Sanchez said. “At the same time, you need to embrace your heritage and the opportunities that it may present for other people in the future. So it’s an exciting thing for a lot of people.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.