Adios Tony Sanchez.
UNLV's five-year experiment to elevate a successful high school football coach to the Football Bowl Subdivision level is finally over.
Sanchez failed miserably in a pair of categories that matter most in big-time college football: Victories and Revenue.
A 20-40 record over five seasons, an average of exactly 4 wins and 8 losses per season, is one measuring stick.
Sanchez's ability, or lack thereof, to raise revenue for UNLV's cash-strapped athletic department is the other.
And therein lies the biggest difference between coaching at an affluent Bishop Gorman High School and coaching a struggling football program in a Group of Five conference.
Pursuit of the almighty dollar leads to a seedy underbelly of college football where scandals of all sorts involve athletes, coaches and administrators everywhere.
Happy to report, there were no major NCAA violations at UNLV during Sanchez's reign unless you count a winning rate of 33% a violation.
Attendance at UNLV home games declined each of the first four seasons of Sanchez's administration while corporate sponsors steered clear of UNLV in favor of a more popular newly-created NHL team (Vegas Golden Knights) and a renegade NFL brand (Las Vegas Raiders) set for relocation.
Disgust and disinterest were frequently-heard sentiments surrounding UNLV football throughout the Valley.
College football head coaches need to convince local residents and business leaders to invest time, money and interest in their teams.
Unfortunately for Sanchez, he had a hard time motivating his players, let alone the community.
It's easy to cite Sanchez's teams for a lack of discipline which led directly to a lack of execution.
There were many pre-snap penalties, countless dead-ball fouls and plenty of blown assignments in all three phases of the live game.
Have a trick play up your sleeve?
Run it against UNLV's gullible defense and watch it work.
The Rebels allowed more than 34 points per game over the past five seasons.
Unacceptable.
And who can forget UNLV's season-opening game against Howard University in 2017?
The Bison, a Football Championship Subdivision team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, defeated UNLV at Sam Boyd Stadium, 43-40, as 45-point underdogs.
It was classified as the largest upset in college football history and will stain UNLV football for years to come.
The start of the Howard-UNLV game was typical Rebel football.
UNLV was penalized for offside on the opening kickoff and things went downhill from there.
Sanchez deserves his fair share of criticism for five failed seasons, a period of time when every Mountain West team made a bowl appearance except for UNLV.
But let's not allow UNLV's athletic department off the hook.
Had the administration done its due diligence, it's doubtful Sanchez would have been hired in the first place.
Remember Todd Dodge?
He won the 2004 High School Coach of the Year award presented by USA Today before being named head coach at the University of North Texas.
Like Sanchez, Dodge had no head coaching experience beyond high school and promptly went 6-37 before his dismissal.
Similar to Sanchez, Dodge's teams could not defend the run or the pass, yet played a hurry-up style of offense which taxed its defensive unit.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
There was a more high-profile illustration of a job being too big for the applicant.
UNLV administrators of a certain age will remember the most famous high school coach to make the jump to college football.
Gerry Faust was a high school coaching legend in Cincinnati, Ohio where he led Moeller High to a record of 178-23-2, including seven undefeated seasons and four mythical national championships.
Faust accepted the Notre Dame job in 1981 amid great fanfare, but the enthusiasm dampened quickly as the losses mounted furiously.
ND finished 5-6 in Faust's first season despite an opening-week victory over LSU and a #1 ranking in the early-season polls.
Faust's lifelong dream turned into a national nightmare.
Notre Dame's gamble on a high school coach went bust.
Faust finished his Notre Dame tenure at 30-26-1 after a Jimmy Johnson-coached Miami-Florida team blasted the Irish, 58-7, in the Orange Bowl following the 1985 season.
The most embarrassing part of Faust's time in South Bend was a film clip depicting him in prayer before an opponent's field-goal attempt.
"Say a Hail Mary, say a Hail Mary," he encouraged everyone around him.
First, Notre Dame.
And then, North Texas.
And now, UNLV.
UNLV's athletic department failed to do its homework before hiring Tony Sanchez.
A bargain base salary of $250,000 per season and a misguided endorsement from the influential Fertitta family was all it took for UNLV to take the bait on a high school coach with a sterling 85-5 record.
There's a reason most Fortune 500 companies and the United States military believe in incremental promotion.
Learning all facets of an operation is mandatory before reaching the level of CEO or General or Head Coach.
Sometimes outside-the-box thinking is outside the box for a reason.
UNLV's five-year experiment to elevate a successful high school football coach to the Football Bowl Subdivision level is finally over.
Sanchez failed miserably in a pair of categories that matter most in big-time college football: Victories and Revenue.
A 20-40 record over five seasons, an average of exactly 4 wins and 8 losses per season, is one measuring stick.
Sanchez's ability, or lack thereof, to raise revenue for UNLV's cash-strapped athletic department is the other.
And therein lies the biggest difference between coaching at an affluent Bishop Gorman High School and coaching a struggling football program in a Group of Five conference.
Pursuit of the almighty dollar leads to a seedy underbelly of college football where scandals of all sorts involve athletes, coaches and administrators everywhere.
Happy to report, there were no major NCAA violations at UNLV during Sanchez's reign unless you count a winning rate of 33% a violation.
Attendance at UNLV home games declined each of the first four seasons of Sanchez's administration while corporate sponsors steered clear of UNLV in favor of a more popular newly-created NHL team (Vegas Golden Knights) and a renegade NFL brand (Las Vegas Raiders) set for relocation.
Disgust and disinterest were frequently-heard sentiments surrounding UNLV football throughout the Valley.
College football head coaches need to convince local residents and business leaders to invest time, money and interest in their teams.
Unfortunately for Sanchez, he had a hard time motivating his players, let alone the community.
It's easy to cite Sanchez's teams for a lack of discipline which led directly to a lack of execution.
There were many pre-snap penalties, countless dead-ball fouls and plenty of blown assignments in all three phases of the live game.
Have a trick play up your sleeve?
Run it against UNLV's gullible defense and watch it work.
The Rebels allowed more than 34 points per game over the past five seasons.
Unacceptable.
And who can forget UNLV's season-opening game against Howard University in 2017?
The Bison, a Football Championship Subdivision team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, defeated UNLV at Sam Boyd Stadium, 43-40, as 45-point underdogs.
It was classified as the largest upset in college football history and will stain UNLV football for years to come.
The start of the Howard-UNLV game was typical Rebel football.
UNLV was penalized for offside on the opening kickoff and things went downhill from there.
Sanchez deserves his fair share of criticism for five failed seasons, a period of time when every Mountain West team made a bowl appearance except for UNLV.
But let's not allow UNLV's athletic department off the hook.
Had the administration done its due diligence, it's doubtful Sanchez would have been hired in the first place.
Remember Todd Dodge?
He won the 2004 High School Coach of the Year award presented by USA Today before being named head coach at the University of North Texas.
Like Sanchez, Dodge had no head coaching experience beyond high school and promptly went 6-37 before his dismissal.
Similar to Sanchez, Dodge's teams could not defend the run or the pass, yet played a hurry-up style of offense which taxed its defensive unit.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
There was a more high-profile illustration of a job being too big for the applicant.
UNLV administrators of a certain age will remember the most famous high school coach to make the jump to college football.
Gerry Faust was a high school coaching legend in Cincinnati, Ohio where he led Moeller High to a record of 178-23-2, including seven undefeated seasons and four mythical national championships.
Faust accepted the Notre Dame job in 1981 amid great fanfare, but the enthusiasm dampened quickly as the losses mounted furiously.
ND finished 5-6 in Faust's first season despite an opening-week victory over LSU and a #1 ranking in the early-season polls.
Faust's lifelong dream turned into a national nightmare.
Notre Dame's gamble on a high school coach went bust.
Faust finished his Notre Dame tenure at 30-26-1 after a Jimmy Johnson-coached Miami-Florida team blasted the Irish, 58-7, in the Orange Bowl following the 1985 season.
The most embarrassing part of Faust's time in South Bend was a film clip depicting him in prayer before an opponent's field-goal attempt.
"Say a Hail Mary, say a Hail Mary," he encouraged everyone around him.
First, Notre Dame.
And then, North Texas.
And now, UNLV.
UNLV's athletic department failed to do its homework before hiring Tony Sanchez.
A bargain base salary of $250,000 per season and a misguided endorsement from the influential Fertitta family was all it took for UNLV to take the bait on a high school coach with a sterling 85-5 record.
There's a reason most Fortune 500 companies and the United States military believe in incremental promotion.
Learning all facets of an operation is mandatory before reaching the level of CEO or General or Head Coach.
Sometimes outside-the-box thinking is outside the box for a reason.
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