UNLV coach Hauck to resign on Monday

On the eve of UNLV’s emotional game against UNR, the Rebels made an announcement that was surprising only in the timing.

Bobby Hauck will resign Monday as the Rebels’ football coach after five seasons, and he said in a text message that timing the announcement for late afternoon Friday was a way to further fire up his team for today’s 7:30 p.m. game at Sam Boyd Stadium, where UNLV will attempt to keep the Fremont Cannon that it took from UNR last year.

Hauck broke the news to his players at 3:30 p.m. Friday.

“We were given an opportunity to get it done here at UNLV, and we simply did not win enough games,” Hauck said in a statement through the athletic department. “It’s my responsibility to push the program forward, and I wish we would have produced better results.”

Hauck, who has a 15-48 record at UNLV, said he didn’t want to comment much more beyond that statement until after tonight’s game.

Athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy didn’t blame Hauck for the program’s shortcomings, saying UNLV has hired many good coaches who couldn’t win at the school.

“We can’t keep just putting people in that chair without fixing the culture of UNLV football,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “We have got to change the culture of football. Bobby worked very, very hard to get us where we were, and it didn’t work out, and he’s a good coach. I mean, he is so well-respected, so there’s something fundamentally the matter that we have to fix here at UNLV.

“We’ve got to do those things that every­body does in the conference. You read every day that somebody in the Mountain West is doing something with their football program, and we’ve got to look at it from an institution and fix it.”

To that end, she said her responsibility goes beyond hiring the next coach but also to find a way to improve the program as a whole.

Kunzer-Murphy didn’t talk about specific potential candidates, but her comments seemed to point at Bishop Gorman High School coach Tony Sanchez, who if hired probably would have the financial backing of the Fertitta family. Kunzer-Murphy talked about the importance of improving the facilities, and an indoor practice facility is a building that could be constructed if a deep-money booster provided the funds.

“We’re behind the arms race in a lot of ways,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “If there was one thing, we need a building when you bring football recruits on to our campus, they see it says we’re committed to football here at UNLV.”

If Kunzer-Murphy doesn’t hire Sanchez, who coaches the nation’s top-ranked high school football team, she could look at former New York Giants and Las Vegas Locomotives coach Jim Fassel, a close friend of Kunzer-Murphy and her husband, Greg Murphy.

Others who could emerge include former Hawaii and Southern Methodist coach June Jones, former Mississippi coach and Southern California interim coach Ed Orgeron, or perhaps former San Diego State coach Brady Hoke, if he is fired at Michigan.

Whoever steps in takes over a program that has just four winning records since 1987.

Hauck was the latest to try to turn around the Rebels when he was hired after the 2009 season. He went 80-17 in seven seasons at Montana, taking the Grizzlies to the Football Championship Subdivision title game three times.

But Hauck discovered quickly the challenges he faced, winning two games in each of his first three seasons. Then came what appeared to be last year’s breakthrough 7-6 season that included the Rebels’ first victory over UNR since 2004 and a trip to the Heart of Dallas Bowl.

That success prompted Hauck to publicly tout his team before this season, even calling it his best at UNLV.

The season never played out that way, and it became apparent early the Rebels were in trouble. Kunzer-Murphy pointed to the Nov. 8 game against Air Force at Sam Boyd Stadium as a moment that signaled the beginning of the end, a 48-21 loss for the Rebels.

“None of us have been happy with the way the season went — students, alums, coaches,” Kunzer-Murphy said. She and Hauck “talked about the season all through it. We talked about how it was going and what we were hoping for. I think after the Air Force game I had a little more clarity that it was going to be a little more difficult than we thought.”

Then, after UNLV lost 37-35 last Saturday at Hawaii, Hauck contacted Kunzer-Murphy, who had been in New York with the men’s basketball team. He told her he wanted to meet to discuss the program.

Kunzer-Murphy didn’t divulge the nature of the conversation, other to say they agreed that Hauck would accept a $400,000 lump-sum payment rather than the $700,000 buyout he was entitled to.

If he had taken the $700,000 buyout, Hauck would have been paid in installments over the next two years, with the payments ending once he took another job elsewhere during that time frame.

This certainly wasn’t the ending Kunzer-Murphy wanted. She had hoped the Rebels would build on last season’s success, and it was her intention that the new three-year contract she awarded Hauck would continue a long run.

Kunzer-Murphy even went out of her way to say that Hauck is a friend.

And, indeed, this wasn’t personal. Kunzer-Murphy, and obviously Hauck, know the business of sports is about winning.

“The football job here is very, very tough,” Kunzer-Murphy said. “We need to do some things internally. It’s not just sitting behind the desk that’s the problem.

“It’s our problem, and we’re going to have to address it.”

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