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Rank the UNLV Football Coaches Since 1985

Rebelnomics

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Dec 9, 2008
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Just curious what others who have been around UNLV football longer than me think. I'm too young to remember much of the Jim Strong and Wayne Nunnely eras, so I'm just looking at records really when it comes to them.

1) Wayne Nunnely - Has the best losing record of the group and was two wins short of going .500 in conference over his time.
2) John Robinson - His teams had some nice players, were fun to watch, and went 5-1 against UNR.
3) Jim Strong - Third best record of the group, but never went to a bowl game.
4) Mike Sanford - Some good OOC wins and an entertaining offense, but never beat UNR.
5) Bobby Hauck - No marquee OOC wins, lost to two FCS school at home, but did beat UNR once and went to a bowl game.
6) Jeff Horton - Worst record of the group, had a 0 win season and a 1 win season, but did go to a bowl game and win.

I went back and forth with Hauck and Horton for the bottom spot. Both had one decent season and that's it. I put Strong ahead of Sanford on record alone. One and two were easy, three and four could go either way, and five and six could go either way.
 
I could make an argument for JRob as #1, we played in a better conference and had some big OOC wins under him. Id probably drop Jim Strong for the fact that he coached in the Big West as well, in fact I might make Strong last.

We used to play Pacific, CSUF, LBSU, NMSU every year, Im pretty sure Sanford and Hauck would have a few more wins with that schedule.
 
I was close to putting Sanford at number 3. He had the toughest conference schedule with BYU, Utah, and TCU being in or near the top 25 most years. He also won some big games like at ranked ASU and was a bad PI call away from beating ranked Oregon State at home.
 
Sanford also thumped Utah good one time. I always say, had Sanford hired Rocky Long to be his DC when he had the chance, he would have won respectively. His philosophy of "matching teams score for score" did him in...and the locker rooms.
 
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