Wow, didn't expect the Mike Price rumors to begin so soon...

[JeeberD]

MWC Notes: UNLV wants new coach hired by end of season (http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_2418148)

The UNLV Rebels will try to end their awful start the same way they did the last time they began 0-4 in 2001, by beating rival Nevada on Saturday. But the game is being overshadowed by the announcement that coach John Robinson will retire at the end of the season.
Athletic director Mike Hamrick wants to have a replacement ready by the time the Rebs play their season finale on Nov. 20, and he alone will do the hiring.
So, who's next?
Offensive coordinator Bruce Snyder had been considered an heir apparent, but it's unlikely Hamrick will retain a member of an outgoing staff whose offense has averaged all of 12.8 points this season. UTEP's Mike Price, Bowling Green's Gregg Brandon, and offensive coordinators Mike Sanford of Utah, Chris Peterson of Boise State and Brian White of Wisconsin are potential candidates - along with former Nebraska coach Frank Solich.
Media reports speculate the Rebels will offer between $600,000 and $700,000 a year. And Hamrick, remember, is the guy who hired Lon Kruger to coach the men's basketball team - so he appears capable of delivering an exciting hire.
In any case, the league continues to move away from its one-time standing as a haven for accomplished veteran coaches. "I'm really disappointed and heartbroken," Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry said, "because John brought so much to our conference and our game."


And this from the NMSU board...

Subject Price rumors already
Author desertstormer

A media report in Vegas indicated that UNLV is going to try to lure Mike Price to the Rebels and the MWC to replace John Robinson. They're raising money to buy out his UTEP contract quietly. I doubt it's the last school that'll try to raid UTEP's football coaching staff.

Registered User
Posts: 1
10/3/04 11:17:23 pm


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Re: Price rumors already
rojo13
Price leaving would be a disaster for the Miners. Stull knew the risk of something like this when he gave Price the job. I truly hope Price shows some class and stays on with UTEP, but at his age and stage of career, big money and a more prestigous conference are hard to counter.

Registered User
Posts: 376
10/4/04 5:30:00 am
Reply



I would love to just roll my eyes and dismiss this as idle rumor, but after the Billy Gillispie fiasco I know that anything is possible. Hopefully Price is a man of his word and won't leave us in the lurch...

[WSUCougar]

I would bet money that he doesn't go to UNLV. He was burned badly by the Alabama incident (much his own doing, of course), and has learned his lesson. My take, anyway.

[Butter]

Leaving UTEP to coach UNLV would be similar to a basketball coach leaving Lehigh to coach Lafayette.

No offense, Jeeber.

[moriarty]

Leaving UTEP to coach UNLV would be similar to a basketball coach leaving Lehigh to coach Lafayette.
.

But the stripppers are alot hotter in Vegas than UTEP, adding credence to the rumor.

[rexallllsc]

Leaving UTEP to coach UNLV would be similar to a basketball coach leaving Lehigh to coach Lafayette.

No offense, Jeeber.

Agreed. Why start over at a school of the same magnitude? Especially when he has Ebell coming in! ;)

[dawgfan]

Why did I think this thread was going to be about the strip clubs in El Paso?

Sorry Jeeber, couldn't resist... :p

[MrBug708]

Tyler Tyler Tyler!

[JeeberD]

Why did I think this thread was going to be about the strip clubs in El Paso?

Sorry Jeeber, couldn't resist... :p

I knew that someone was going to say something along those lines... :D

[WSUCougar]

Hey dawgfan, has the Gilbertson watch started yet? Any rumors on replacements?

[dawgfan]

Hey dawgfan, has the Gilbertson watch started yet? Any rumors on replacements?

Oh yeah - the dawgman.com boards are in a frenzy, with the more rabid posters calling for him to be canned immediately (they actually started that drumbeat post-Notre Dame). I'd rather wait to the end of the season to make a decision myself.

Some of the more optimistic fans think that if Cal doesn't have in place their promised facilities upgrades soon and thus void some clauses that keep Tedford there, that we could make a run at him. Other names bandied about are Urban Meyer of Utah, Pat Hill of Fresno State and Dan Hawkins of Boise State, plus a few hot coordinator names like Randy Shannon of Miami, FL.

Personally, I'd love to get Tedford - I think he's there with Bob Stoops as one of the best coaches in the country - but I think it would take a hell of a sales job by our new prez Mark Emmert to get him to switch Pac-10 schools. The UW might be a modest upgrade over Cal in the big picture, but it would sure look like little more than a lateral move to most.

I feel bad for Gilby - he's a hell of an O-line coach and did some great things as Offensive Coordinator, and I like the fundamental changes he's implemented in the program in the wake of Neuheisel. He brought in a real promising recruiting class, his coaching staff is pretty good (espeically Chris Tormey) and he bleeds purple. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like he's got the ability to prevent a very mediocre Husky team from crashing and burning this season. At this point, we can't be sure we'll win any game this season. The consecutive non-losing season streak is almost assuredly going to fall this season, and 2-9 seems a likely tally.

[mckerney]

If he were to come up here to Minnesota, I'm guessing we'd see and end to the no taking recruits to strip clubs rule. Hell, he'd probably be the one taking them to the Vu.

[dawgfan]

OK, stop the presses - I'm now seeing reports, supposedly confirmed that Steve Spurrier was recently touring the UW campus, fueling talk of him as a potential coach to replace Gilbertson. I'm highly skeptical, but then again the new Prez Mark Emmert and AD Todd Turner are both former SEC guys, and Emmert moved quickly at LSU to right that program by bringing in Nick Saban.

Would Spurrier really consider going from Washington of the NFL to Washington in college football? Washington, about as far away from Florida as possible? Instead of the faux Spurrier in Neuheisel, could they get the real thing?

[Balldog]

My bet is Brandon from BGSU will be the guy, the way he answered questions about the possibility it sounded like he is interested.

[Leonidas]

But the stripppers are alot hotter in Vegas than UTEP, adding credence to the rumor.

What a natural fit! Who better to coach at UNLV and uphold the fine tradition set by none other than Tark the Shark but the guy who got canned in the Bible Belt for putting lap dances on the school expense account. If Price gets hired, he can do it and nobody will give a rats you know what. I wonder if the school will offer him his own private booth at the Crazy Horse II as one of their main selling points when they talk to him?

[scooper]

Any of you can have Willingham. Please, take him.

[judicial clerk]

I think Washington would be a significant upgrade over Cal. I think UW has the richest athletics department of any Pac 10 school and could probably satisfy any request made by tedford, while Cal is still trying to play catchup as a football school. of course, i don't know if tedford will want to make a move when he has already got Cal competing at such a high level. I think Cal has about as much chance as USC of winning the Pac 10 at this point. Tedford might not be a good hire for anybody, however, because i think the NFL will come calling failry soon.

Leave Pat Hill alone.

[JHandley]

I can't believe Tedford would consider moving to UW. Right now, the Washington job is a no win situation.

They have the slowest defense in the Pac-10, if not the entire country. The d-line can't get pressure, the linebackers aren't quick enough to play zone and the secondary doesn't have the speed to play man. James is a good back but young, Bonnell can make thing happen but is young, ET has looked real tentative and the rest of the WR's and TE's are just god awful and they're not getting any better. The O-Line has some young talent, but right now, there's a reason they are 0-4 and aside from the Fresno State game, they have been completely outclassed in every game they've played.

That said, the fans and alumni still believe that they are a top flight program. Tedford wins at Cal and he's suddenly a hot topic. Tedford wins at UW, it's just expected. Moving from Cal to UW right now is lateral, at best. Tedford's stock is huge right now, if he's going to move up, it's going to be to a Florida, Texas, i.e. an actual big name school or the NFL.

I personally think any talk of removing Gilby is about 2 years premature. The guy had no chance at all when he was almost forced to take the job. He didn't want to be the head guy, but they had to have someone after the Neu disaster. This is not his team and there isn't a coach in the country that could take this team to a .500 record. Does anyone really believe that if Meyer, Ferentz, Pinkel or Spurrier were coaching this team, they would be better than 1-3?

[Butter]

You can quash that Spurrier talk, he'll be headed to Clemson after they crash and burn into a 3-8 season.

[JHandley]

I also don't see Spurrier going to UW. I don't think it's a good fit for either party.

[dawgfan]

I'm skeptical about Spurrier and the UW, but I'm not going to rule out anything from Mark Emmert. He's proven with his stint at LSU that a successful football team is important to him and that he'll be personally involved in making sure his school has the right guy to achieve success - witness his big money courting and hiring of Nick Saban.

Spurrier to the UW doesn't make a lot of sense on the surface - Seattle is about as far away from his Florida roots as possible. But dig a little deeper; this is a man who lives to prove people wrong. Tell him he won't fit in at the UW? He'll set out to prove he will. And when you combine the fan support and booster support surrounding the UW you might have the closest thing to an SEC-like football school in the Pac-10. One big downside for Spurrier is that he wouldn't be sitting on a goldmine of talent like he was in Florida. Washington produces some very good players, but nowhere near the numbers of Florida, Texas or California. He'd have to slug it out with Pete Carroll and Jeff Tedford in California to land the elite Cali talent he'd need.

As for Tedford, I agree that the UW move isn't necessarily much of an upgrade at this point. It's also moot if Cal boosters step up and fulfill facilities upgrades as promised. However, Tedford might prefer the west coast, and if Cal failed to lock him in, working for Emmert at the UW might be more appealing than moving to Texas or Florida. That's assuming he doesn't have NFL aspirations. I think he'd prefer to make a go of it in Cal though - if the boosters can step up, Cal has the potential to be a top program.

Regarding Gilbertson, I agree he landed in a real tough spot, but the thing is, what has he shown so far to prove he deserves another 2-3 years? Had the Neuheisal fiasco not happened in early summer and the UW had time to conduct a real, national search, would Gilby have even been a candidate?

I like him a lot and think he's a great O-line coach and possibly still a good Offensive Coordinator, but I'm not sure he's cut out to be a successful head coach. I don't know that Tedford would do much better with this roster, but 2-2 isn't unreasonable.

[JHandley]

I think the recruiting class he brought in, the change in atmosphere and the ability to make the best out of a very bad situtation merits giving the guy a chance to atleast play with his own deck. While he hasn't done anything to prove he should get 2-3 more years, I don't think anyone could have proven that with the roster he was given.

And yes, when you can't play offense, defense, kick or punt...2-2 is completely unreasonable.

[dawgfan]

I think he deserves the rest of the season, but I'd like to see some kind of improvement. I agree that the talent level isn't real good, at least in the upper classmen, but don't the coaches bear some responsibility for that as well? Shouldn't the coaches be doing a better job in developing the players? Shouldn't they be doing a better job in developing schemes that maximize the players ability and minimizes their problem areas?

Pettas is a pretty uninspired play-caller IMO, and Snow was repeatedly burned against UCLA by calling blitzes away from the short-side running play the Bruins ran over and over again. The special teams have been real bad, which doesn't say much for Pelluer. And the decision to go with Casey Paus over Carl Bonnell I think was a mistake - go with the guy with more upside, even if it means simplifying the offense.

Fresno State was a game that could've been won with better play-calling. The 2 turnovers by Stanback returned for TD's were plays that he shouldn't have been asked to make in the first place as close as the Huskies were to their own end-zone.

UCLA was a game the could've been won had the coaching staff made better adjustments to the same freaking running play the Bruins ran over and over and over again for huge gains.

Notre Dame, well I don't think Bob Stoops could've coached the Huskies to a win there.

Stanford is a good team, but special teams breakdowns killed us. Better coaching there to avoid those breakdowns and who knows - we might've had a shot.

I think Gilby's recruiting class was real good, but given it was built primarily on in-state players in an up year for the state and I'm not sure how much extra credit he deserves for it. Besides, it's looking more and more like this season's recruiting is going to be real lean. I like the change in the atmosphere in the program from the lax attitude of Neuheisel to his more hard-nosed philosophies, but it'll take more than just that to make him a great head man. The fact he didn't set the world on fire at Cal has to give you pause, as does the fact he's said on more than one occasion he doesn't really think he's head coach material in the first place. In moments of candor he's pretty much admitted he took the UW job as a favor based on his love for the school. I appreciate him for that and everything else he's done for the school, but I'm just not convinced at this point he's the best guy for the job, or even close to the best guy.

[JHandley]

If you think he's not the right guy now, why not just get rid of him now? Why do you think he deserves the rest of the year, but not next year?

I was a bit harsh before, UW can play some offense. They can run the ball. They can pass the ball. They cannot catch the ball.

The scheme can only do so much. While, I do agree that the offensive playcalling lacks any continuity, I think it still comes back to the players on the field. On the defensive side, Snow is just plain screwed. If he doesn't blitz, the QB can stand back there all afternoon and just wait. If he blitzes, he puts too much pressure on the rest of the line to contain the run and puts his CB's on an island. The ND game showed that the secondary doesn't have the speed to keep receivers in front of them. The UCLA game showed if you run short side once a series, you're gonna eventually break off a huge run. If you watched the replay on Sunday, you'll see that Stanford did the exact same thing that UCLA did. Stanford ran for a huge TD, a 30 yd gain and another 30 yd gain that was called back, all using the same off guard, short-side run. If the back makes it through the line, the Husky defense is not fast enough to catch him. So what can he do? What scheme or defensive play call can put that defense in a position to win?


I guess my thing is, I'd really like to see Gilby succeed at UW. I think firing him because of things out of his control is just wrong. If he's fired now, then all the ties with him are lost and that's a real shame. If the ties are lost when he was put in a position that couldn't possibly succeed, that's a bigger shame.

[dawgfan]

I'm not convinced 100% either way with Gilby right now, but I'm not seeing a lot from what I think is under his control to make me convinced he should get another season. That's why I want to see how the rest of the season plays out.

The problem with the secondary against Notre Dame wasn't speed - it was a complete breakdown of responsibilities. Safeties not reading plays correctly, DJ getting burned bad on a fake screen.

The problems against UCLA were galling because it was the same freaking play over and over again, the short-side off-tackle with the cut-blocking, and Snow kept crashing from the field side. The fact that Stanford was able to similarly exploit the defense doesn't give me a lot of hope that Snow is able to adjust his schemes and personnel to counter this. His safeties keep taking bad angles to the ball and misreading plays - that's his position group.

I'd like to see Gilby succeed too, but it may well be that what the UW really needs is a clean break from the past. We all love Don James and his legacy, but that may be preventing us from moving forward. It's nothing unique to us - the same thing happened in the wake of Barry Switzer at Oklahoma, is happening at Nebraska after Tom Osborne, happened after Bear Bryant at Alabama and happened at USC after John Robinson's first go-round.

I think if Gilby is let go, the new guy has to be given the opportunity to change everything if he so chooses. If he wanted to retain Gilby as O-line coach, great. If he wanted to keep Chris Tormey coaching LB's, great, If not though, he needs that freedom to do so.

[JeeberD]

Sorry to threadjack my threadjacked thread, but I just saw this and it made me smile... :)

Price not interested in UNLV (http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/sports/todaysstories/20041006-177297.shtml)

Mike Price says he's not going anywhere.

UTEP's first-year football coach, named in published reports last week as a "potential candidate" to replace John Robinson at UNLV at season's end, said this week he has not been contacted by the school and would not leave El Paso after just one season.

"Let's just nip that in the bud right now," said Price, who has led the Miners to a 2-2 start, marking the 10th time in 32 years the Miners have been .500 or better after four games. "I've got a job and I'm not interested, because of the tremendous opportunity I've been given here by (UTEP Athletic Director) Bob Stull and (UTEP president) Diana Natalicio and the way this community has embraced me."

Stull laughed at the chances of Price leaving UTEP for UNLV.

"Yeah, that's a good move for him," Stull scoffed, "go from where they're averaging (38,091) fans per game to where they're averaging (23,512) per game."

Stull said Price's mention in articles last week in the Las Vegas Sun and Salt Lake City Tribune simply was speculation.

"Anytime you have a high profile coach and he's winning, you can expect that," Stull said. "But I think Mike really appreciates the opportunity he's been given here. He's fallen in love with El Paso and the people."

UNLV Athletic Director Mike Hamrick, who is expected to pick a replacement for Robinson by the end of the season, told the Las Vegas Sun that the school is prepared to pay its new coach a salary comparable to other Mountain West head coaches ($600,000 to $700,000 a year).

Price, the highest paid coach in UTEP history, has signed a five-year deal with an annual base salary of $225,000. Potential bonuses, including $10 for every season ticket sold over 10,000 and $1 for every single-game ticket sold, can make it worth more than $500,000 per year. A clause in the incentive-laden contract calls for a $250,000 buyout if Price leaves UTEP before 2009.

Among the other potential candidates for the UNLV job are Tulsa coach Steve Kragthorpe, Utah offensive coordinator Mike Sanford, Boise State offensive coordinator Chris Peterson and current UNLV offensive coordinator Bruce Snyder.

Price said UNLV should promote Snyder, national coach of the year in 1996, the year before Price received the same honor as head coach at Washington State.

"They've got a great candidate right there," said Price, whose team plays at Fresno State on Saturday. "Bruce Snyder is one of the best coaches in America."

[moriarty]

I think Tedford stays at Cal (gets the facilities upgrade) and gets his contract bought out to go to Notre Dame in two years (write it down).

Gibly = nice guy, bad head coach.

[scooper]

I think Tedford stays at Cal (gets the facilities upgrade) and gets his contract bought out to go to Notre Dame in two years (write it down).

Gibly = nice guy, bad head coach.
Please don't get my hopes up.

[Noop]

Please don't get my hopes up.
Where u been Scooper?

[scooper]

I've been here. I just don't post much as I don't enjoy discussing politics, baseball or trolling on message boards.