Tony Sanchez is expected to be named the next head coach of the UNLV football team, according to Ron Kantowski, a sports columnist with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Kantowski told KNPR's State of Nevada that nobody has come to visit UNLV for an interview that he knows of, and that Sanchez could be named as early as Tuesday. Kantowski said despite his being the Bishop Gorman High School football coach, they are going to “give Tony Sanchez a shot.”
Sanchez has declined to say if he has been offered the position. The Nevada Board of Regents would have to approve UNLV hiring the high school coach to replace Bobby Hauck. Hauck resigned on Nov. 30 after a 49-27 loss to UNR in the Battle of the Fremont Cannon.
After a very successful career at the University of Montana, Hauck came to UNLV on Dec. 23, 2009 with the goal of turning around a struggle program. Hauck has a 15-49 record at UNLV during his five years as head football coach.
Sanchez and his Bishop Gorman Gaels earned a 70-28 win over Reed High school in the Nevada Division 1 title game on Saturday, earning the private school its sixth straight state championship.
Could Sanchez be a success making the straight jump from high school to college? If you look at history, the answer is no. Gerry Faust went from Cincinnati Moeller to Notre Dame, and more recently Bill Blankenship was Tulsa’s Union High School head coach before becoming Tulsa’s head coach in 2011. Blankenship was fired recently after a 24-27 record in four years.
Meanwhile, Kantowski recently wrote in the Review-Journal that UNLV, a team with exactly two wins for the fourth time in five years, should look at the financial benefits and drawbacks of dropping its football program and improving its financial backing of men’s basketball.
Kantowski said he wasn’t calling for UNLV to drop football, but that in his 27 years in Las Vegas he’s seen only four winning seasons, including 8-5 in 2000 and last year’s 7-6 record and loss in the Heart of Dallas Bowl to North Texas.
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Ron Kantowski, sports columnist with the Las Vegas Review-Journal
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