Something amiss with coach/coaches

[rebelx]

Sanchez has the personality of a coach that could be a winner, but something is amiss. I don't know if it's a lack of football intelligence, a lack of attention to detail, if he hired the wrong coordinators, or if the guy is great at talking but not putting in the work, or what.... I'd be speculating if I said it was any of those things, but I'm guessing it's gotta be one of them at least.... In the end though, we're not all that great at very much. I think our pass defense has improved this year from day 1 to now.... but the run defense right now really sucks. We're predictable on offense, and after a quarter or two, teams that do a solid job of adjusting, can really shut us down (Air Force, Utah State, BYU, etc...)

With all of Tony's energy, I was hoping he'd be similar to a younger Urban Meyer....who was also an energetic young coach (only more proven)... but Urban is, and was, hands on. Urban coached the special teams when he was at Utah... he didn't delegate that, but as the head coach, he coached an often overlooked aspect of the game, and if you don't remember, his special teams, were SPECIAL. They would regularly have huge returns, and against us one year, I believe they took two returns the distance on us..... they were creative, disciplined, and held responsible for their play.... Not one quality that UNLV currently has in any of the three aspects of the game....hell, we average 16 yards per kickoff return....which has to be one of the worst in the country....and we seem to give up 25 to 30 yards on return.... pathetic!

In my opinion, for a team like UNLV to rise from the bottom and get to the top, there needs to be much more of an out-of-the-box approach to the game than what we've had/ have UNLV. IMO, Tony needs to comb the ranks of college football and find coordinators that doing things that have turned a few heads, and needs to get those guys here at UNLV. It may be that he needs to find those guys in the subdivision level... because if their in the FBS level, why would they come here? Regardless, he needs to find a few guys that can match the creativeness with his energy level....or his energy and vocalness just falls on deaf ears. It's like the equivalent of having Conor Mcgregor doing the press conferences, but then handing over the reigns to Pete McNeeley to fight in the ring...

 

[LocoRebel]

What I see is a first time college head coach, a young one especially, who want to use his contacts to bring in established guys to set a certain tone, or at least bring the "this is how things are done at the college level" to the program. That has been lacking. I look at both Cotton and Baer as a very good pair of coordinators for a first time head coach. Guys who clearly have been around the game, have seen good players, and who have a feel for how it has been done at bigger programs. I think both have served their purpose to this point, but it's still difficult to draw in one of those up and coming outstanding, head-turning coordinators to this program. Those types of coordinators are being offered more than CTS makes to coordinate at the highest programs. I don't even know if a very good FCS coordinator would come here right now - those guys would believe in themselves enough to start at a program that isn't starting from below ground level. It's a career killer of a program.

The other thing about comparing Tony to Urban Meyer is that Urban came to Utah when it was average. It wasn't hot trash. It was okay. Okay as in twice in the previous twelve years was it below .500. And Urban already had the two prior years at BG as proving his track record. I don't think you could find a coach who has a winning program in D1 to take over UNLV. The system is so much different now than it was in 2002-3-4, and UNLV is in a much worse place now than Utah was in 2003. Just a note on the kicking game, Bobby was our special teams coordinator while he was here. Our special teams were below average in my opinion. But he's doing great now at SDSU... the head coaching position is what you make of it. I personally think for UNLV, a program manager is probably the most important thing for us - fund raising, managing personnel, scheduling, etc (and I know that not all of those things are favorable to CTS at this point.... personnel specifically IMO).

That said, UNLV is in the process of getting some of those things going. Stadium? On its way. Practice facility? Also coming. Community support? I won't say it is skyrocketing, and I can't speak to the metrics, but it has *felt* like it's going the right way. Frustrating at times, sure. And overwhelmingly difficult at others? Of course. I have had more conversations with people about UNLV FB in the last year or two than I can remember in any years prior who are not affiliated with the program. Overwhelmingly I have heard people say that Sanchez is not the guy for this job, and I don't know if his ceiling is 11-2 and sniffing a relevant bowl game like all of us would like, but I would be very much okay spending a bit of time at and around .500. At least flirting with it like we are right now. He may not be the right guy for the job overall, but right now I think he's good for the program. I'm very much okay with shuffling the coordinator deck, and at least one or two additional assistant spots, but we are in such a bad spot as a school, especially for the guys not given the HC title, that I'm not sure what we can do.


Here's to DRF really establishing herself as a conference power of an AD i nthe next few years with fundraising, scheduling, marketing, and yes... hiring.

 

[unlv91]

Vegas is full of money. If we can get the money for a new practice facility and with the new stadium on the way, who to say somebody won’t step up and fund a new head coach?.

 

[LocoRebel]

Vegas is full of money. If we can get the money for a new practice facility and with the new stadium on the way, who to say somebody won’t step up and fund a new head coach?.

I don't know that Vegas is full of the kind of money that will freely flow to the hands of football coach for a program whose university and community have given up on it. Sure, if the right shoulders are rubbed well enough. More than likely the money comes in after the program is winning, not before.

 

[unlv91]

You point is well taken. I will say the closer the Stadium is a finished product, the more momentum football will gain because of it. So I won’t write off anything as far as a coaching search and $ at this time.

 

[LocoRebel]

You point is well taken. I will say the closer the Stadium is a finished product, the more momentum football will gain because of it. So I won’t write off anything as far as a coaching search and $ at this time.

Absolutely - I don't like to look at it this way, but I sort of look at, right now, Tony is a stop gap. Build the bridge to the community and keep the program from falling apart. When stadium and facility are done, let's see where we are... if we are close, let him ride it out and maybe grow the program. If not, and there's an option on the table for a guy who looks to be the guy (and private, big dollar donors step in) spend the money. Maybe some big money folks will look at it as an opportunity to get in early on something that could balloon. I always kinda hoped Zappos would do that...

 

[rebneck]

Matt Entz, DC, NDSU. Fetch!