Stoops is definitely not the answer so that's probably who UNLV will hire
Peterson and Orgeron possibly per LVRJ
- Thread starter UNLVfan81
- Start date
Good morning from Arkansas. How would y’all feel about Barry Odom?
I don't know anything about him. Just looked him up to see that he's the DC for Arkansas. Are you hearing that he's being discussed for the UNLV job?
I don't know anything about the Arkansas DC... But Arkansas puts together some pretty salty teams with less talent than most SEC West programs.
Hearing he is in the mix for yalls openings. He was believed to be taking the job at Tulsa but could not agree to terms. He is a very good coach and well liked in our program. This year was a down year for our defense albeit we dealt with major injuries all year. I think he’s ready to be a head coach again. My only concern for y’all with him would be he’s never coached outside of this (Midwest) area. But with the transfer portal it makes it somewhat easier to turn around a team now rather than relying on high school recruits. From the outside looking in yalls program has all the tools to be successful. Play in a state of the art stadium, have talent in the area and although I haven’t been to Vegas in a few years I don’t think it would be too hard to recruit guys to the city. If I hear anything more I will keep you guys informed.
Tulsa is broke. That’s why they could not agree to terms with him. They ended up hiring Kevin Wilson. Although I’m not familiar to specifics with you alls program as far as budgets go, I would think being in Las Vegas there would be potential booster money out there. You already have a prestigious basketball program. Make the right football hire now and get that rolling and would be in a great position for Pac12 realignment imho.
With the prevalence of social media & the need to get likes and the scoop, I can't believe no one associated with UNLV has leaked who has received a phone call or been interviewed. The whole thing has been kept under tight raps
You would think so, in regards to the boosters. However, it's a newer university and most of the big money in town is tied with other universities besides UNLV. We do have money in town, but it's not big, old money like the BIG12, SEC, etc have. Plus, our admin has been terrible for the past 20+ years, so there's not a lot of faith in them doing the right thing. The decision to fire the current coach and buy out his contract was a pretty big deal here IMO, so if they bring in a subpar hire after buying him out, it won't go over very well.
That was my original though when I first heard Arroyo was being let go was they have someone already in line to hire but the longer it drags on that doesn’t seem to be the case. If you fire a guy after year 3 who has the program trending up to hire someone mediocre it just doesn’t make sense. I believe Arroyo was making $1.5/yr with one year left so I would guess the buyout would be around 50%? Would made more sense to keep him an extra year. But unfortunately I am not the AD there. I hope for you guys sake you get a good hire.
Turned Memphis into a top 10 defense in 2014. turned Mizzou from a top 20 defense to a top 5 defense but then as a head coach they had a HUGE drop off in defensive metrics. Improved Arkansas from bottom tier defense to a mid tier in probably the toughest division in the toughest conference in CFB, but had a fall off last season--though you guys were injury plagued.
I think he can coach. He was a .500 guy a Mizzou as a head man, being in the SEC you'll see some of the best and most innovative offenses next to some of the toughest traditional offenses. He's got a lot less baggage than some of the guys we're hearing but he's a young guy, so that's sort of expected.
What I like:
Head Coach experience at a major program in the best conference.
Young
Coached across the defense and worked his way up
Built a great defense at a G5 school
Multiple DC jobs in the SEC, that doesn't happen if you don't have relationships.
Question Marks?
How are his west coast contacts?
Can he hire a DC and let him coach or like at mizzou will he need to have his hands on?
How soon will he bail to take a P5 job?
How is his recruiting, only 2 4 star defender at Arkansas in the 4 classes he helped put together though he has got some nice transfers during that time.
I think we can put together a better financial package than Tulsa, but probably not by a lot is he going to cost too much for his CV?
Buyout was privately (booster funded).
There may have been candidates lined up and they have fallen through.
What might concern me is that it's taking this long, and the names a lot of us thought would/should be targets, haven't even been contacted according to reports.
(Edit: Whether those reports are true or not is another thing).
Last edited:
The whole "trending up" idea with Arroyo isn't really accurate. He took over for a coach that had 5 wins. His first season (covid year) he got 0 wins. Then 2 wins the next year, and now 5 this year. So yes, from his 0 win start it was an improvement, but it was a big drop first before the 'improvement' and getting back to the 5 win spot that the team had before he came in.
I honestly thought he'd get another year. The team looked really good to start the year, but then just collapsed after that. We lost to Hawaii, who's one of the worst teams in the country, and then barely scraped out a home win against UNR (another terrible team this year) to get to that 5th win. Apparently, he is also not liked by the admin and many around town so that definitely doesn't help his cause.
At the end of the day, I don't know what's going to happen with this hire, but the AD definitely put his own neck on the line by making this fire, with the big buyout. So they really need to get this hire right, both for the school and for the AD individually.
Micheal Scherer would be his DC. He currently is our LB coach here and played for Odom at mizzou. Very well liked by the players and has done wonders with our LBers
Good to hear the buyout was covered. Yeah, the longer it drags out would leave one to believe that the top targets aren’t interested but as tight lipped as it has been maybe something is happening behind the scenes. I would be patient and as an Arkansas guy I learned it’s more about making the right hire than making a splashy hire. Winning games (Sam Pittman) is more important than winning the press conference (Chad Morris)
The problem here at UNLV is this.
The football program was the step brother to basketball forever.
It has finally received some support and UNLV has a P5 type football facility and gets to play in a shiny new stadium. Both of which are great but....
Vegas is still a pretty transient town. So a lot of people who live here have alliance to other schools.
With the success of The Golden Knights and the Raiders being here, UNLV football is pretty far down their list of things to do (if it's on the list at all).
So UNLV because of years of neglecting the football program (it takes a certain kind of ineptitude to have 2 winning seasons in 20 years) to get more people to games they almost need a splashy hire.
I hate that that is where they are at but it's pretty much the reality of it.
After Sanchez was fired if you had said Barry Odom who was just fired from Mizzou was up for the job, I'd have said Ok, solid dude. Went .500 in SEC has good resume and shown to be a good DC.. Sign me up.
But with conference realignment coming, UNLV needs to win now and generate some excitement. Not sure if Odom is that guy...
That does explain it very well. Putting a winning product on the field will draw fans into the stadium. UTSA hired a guy in Jeff Traylor that brought a winning product into San Antonio and has started to establish continuity and has drawn some great crowds into the Alamodome who are alums from other schools that live in the area now. Y’all have had a winning FCS coach in Hauck, a premier high school coach in Sanchez and a top P5 coordinator in Arroyo. A guy with FBS head coaching experience would be at the top of my list this time around. It’s mind blowing to me that UNLV hasn’t been more successful. I’m old enough to remember coming to Vegas in 2000 with Houston Nutt and getting beat and turned around the first game in 2001 in Little Rock and we got very lucky to win that one.
I agree 100%. Winning cures everything. Problem is UNLV is fighting to make itself look as appealing as possible to get a P5 bid. Hiring a guy like Ed Orgeron makes it look like a commitment is being made. (As unlikely as it would be for UNLV to get him).
They really don't have time for a guy to go 5-7, 6-6, 8-4.
It might be the better route long term. Probably is to be honest.
But they need something splashy now.
For more perspective. The only reason Tony Sanchez was hired was he was tied to Fertitta money and them footing the bill for new facilities. He most definitely shouldn't have been a candidate for the job here, but UNLV was that desperate for the booster support.
That's how bad it is here.
Yeah, because our punter couldn’t catch a decent snap. Or it was UNLV’s game.
I remember it very vividly as I was there. We barely had over 100 yards of total offense. Cedric Cobbs scored with about 20 seconds left. That changed our program for the next few years due to offensive struggles we brought in a true freshman by the name of Matt Jones after that game and we got some very good years out of him at QB.
Then let’s go full circle and bring in Houston Nutt.
I was gonna say it but I didn’t want to be the one to say it lol.
I hope you aren't Odom's agent. He may be rethinking potentially taking the job after my diatribe. 🙂
Not sure if this makes sense, but if it was Odom vs Arroyo after Sanchez firing, Odom would have been the right choice in my opinion.
Just not sure he's what we need now following Arroyo.
I would. Good track record as a DC. Went .500 at an SEC school.
West Coast ties? A little problematic maybe.
No @bcvegaspt is an IDIOT!
You're idiot adjacent by being a Kings fan, but your Mets fandom cancels most of that out.
All this Las Vegas bowl and Arkansas talk has forced to invoke the magic of the Jason Thomas avatar. Maybe I can lift us to having a coach!
I seriously had a dream last night about UNLV hiring a coach too, only problem is, it was Deion Sanders.
Yeah well I had a dream Salma Hayek left her billionaire husband because she wanted to slum it with me..
Let's see what happens first.
Not gonna lie, I love my Rebs but...I know which one I'm rooting for...
NO!!!
My Salma Hayek dream trumps his Stoops football dream. I'll sit through another quarter century of this crap to make that happen.
I was there too, you guys had a ton of NFL talent on that team Jones was one of a few QBs used that game. D had Batman Carrol, Kenny Hamlin a MLB if I remember, etc
The best part was all of your fans chanting SEC leaving the stadium like they just beat Alabama.
Last edited:
Similar threads
