A high school coach? Are you serious? Notre Dame tried that back in 1981 with Gerry Faust. He was a devout Catholic and long time fan of ND. He also had compiled a record of 174-17-2 at Cincinnati Moeller from 1963-80, with FIVE State Championships(75,76,77,79,80), and 4 Mythical NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS. Moeller was also State Semi-Finalists in 73 and 74. His teams were undefeated 7 times. They had 1 loss in 6 seasons.
From 73-77, Moeller had a record of 56-2, with both losses coming in the Semi-Finals of the playoffs. After missing the playoffs in 78 with a record of 9-1, Moeller won back-to-back Titles in 79 and 80, and went 25-0. That is 90-3 from 1973-80. From 72-79, there were only 3 divisions in Ohio, and only 4 teams made the playoffs, 1 from each region.
http://www.hsfdatabase.com/oh_moeller2000.htm
http://ohsaa.org/sports/ft/boys/AllTimeStateTournamentResults.pdf (All time playoff results for semi-final and state title games)
The playoff system started in 1972. The playoff teams are determined by a computer system, which rewarded teams for playing difficult schedules, and beating teams with winning records. The quality of High School Football in Ohio is light years ahead of high school football in Nevada. It is among the best in the entire country, along with Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and California. At the time, there were 3 divisions (A,AA,AAA), with AAA being the big school division in which Moeller played. The state was split into 4 regions, and ONE team from each region made the playoffs per division. The playoff system has since expanded to 7 divisions, and 32 teams per division
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/6trP5t2zy0WYPX1S2zE7EQ/texas-tops-the-list-of-the-best-high-school-football-states-in-the-country.htm (Top 10 States for High School Football TEAMS)
At Notre Dame, Faust had a record of 30-26-1 from 81-85, with a 1-1 record in Bowl games. Notre Dame started the 1981 season ranked #4, and beat LSU 27-9. The Irish moved up to #1, and then lost the next game at Michigan 25-17. ND dropped to #14, and lost game 3 of the season at Purdue 15-14. ND was never ranked gain in 81, and went on to finish 5-6. In 1982, ND was ranked for the first 6 weeks, and started 4-1-1. They finished the season 7-4, including an embarrassing 30-17 loss at Air Force, with ND ranked #18. In 1983, ND started the season ranked #5. Why? Because they are Notre Dame. The Irish finished 7-5, lost to Air Force again(this time at home) and beat BC in the Liberty Bowl. In 1984, ND started the season #7. They lost to Air Force for the 3rd year in a row, once again at home. ND went to the Aloha Bowl and lost 27-20 to SMU, and finished 7-5. In 1985, ND lost again to Air Force. They finished 5-6, including 58-7 at Miami in the final game of the season. Pretty impressive to be HC at Notre Dame and lose to Air Force 4 years in a row. After Notre Dame, Faust was hired with much fan far by Akron, and subsequently ruined the entire program. He also ruined the mens basketball program, as Bob Huggins left Akron due to the University piling a bunch of money into football, at the expense of every other sport. The Sips basketball team had gone 22-8 in 85-86, and lost in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament. In 86-87, they went 21-9 and played in the NIT. In 87-88, Akron went 18-9. In 88-89, Akron finished 21-8 and lost to OSU in 1st round of the NIT. But, the school was pouring bucket loads of money into football, while basically ignoring basketball, and Huggins decided to leave for Cincinnati. Also, Akron was a very good football program at D2, and then at 1AA/FCS from 81-85. But, they fired their successful HC to hire Faust, as Akron had dreams of going "big time" in football. The Zips went 43-53-3 under Faust from 86-94. They played at the 1A/FBS level from 88-94. Faust replaced Jim Dennison, who had a record of 80-62-2 with 9 winning seasons in 13 years at Akron. The Zips went 8-4 in 1985 and lost in the 1st round of the 1AA/FCS playoffs. It is a heck of an accomplishment to run one of the premiere college football programs into the ground, and then move on to another school and ruin both the football and basketball programs. LEARN FROM HISTORY!!!!
I understand your thinking of hiring a coach with local ties. But, hiring a High School HC with no college coaching experience is NOT going to work at an FBS program. And, with a losing team, the monetary donations you envision will NOT happen. Heck, if the issue is money, why not go way outside the box and hire Snoop Dogg as HC? He coached his son's Pee-Wee football team. More than that, he FOUNDED the league with $1 MILLION of his own money. He then invested another $300,000 into the league. He has 9 years of coaching experience, and there have been plenty of kids who played in the league Snoop founded who have gone on to play football in college on scholarships. Snoop has crap-loads of $$$$, and has friends with crap-loads of money. And, who knows, kids just might come to UNLV to play for Snoop. He can put on mini concerts at halftime, which ought to lead to sellout crowds at SBS. And, he can bring in Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jay-Z, Ice Cube, Common, LL Cool J, Wiz Kalifa, and others to perform on night Snoop wants to spend more time with the team during halftime. Snoop can hire a coaching staff of quality assistants, and simply be the figure head as HC. Money would DEFINITELY not be an issue anymore, nor would facilities. Come to think of it, I like this idea. UNLV can offer Snoop the job effective the end of this season, and his son can get a scholarship to play WR for The Rebs. Might be able to get a few other Gorman players to sign with UNLV. The more I think about it, the more I like this idea.