Sanford turns down offer to come to UNLV

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Dec. 10, 1998 | 10:30 a.m.

Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Mike Sanford was on his car phone on Wednesday afternoon while making the 45-mile drive from Eugene, Ore., to Corvallis to visit with recruit Marc Jackson.

For Sanford, it would be the fourth of five states he would visit in a two-day span. Later that afternoon, he would drive three more hours to meet with another top-notch prospect in Seattle, Kennedy running back Paul Arnold.

A day earlier, he woke up in Montana, flew to Phoenix for a mid-day recruiting visit and finished the day in Corona, Calif., visiting another blue chip recruit, offensive lineman Shane Lehmann.

It was just before leaving Billings, Mont., and star linebacker Pat Ryan (6-3, 215), who had orally committed to the Fighting Irish a few days earlier, that Sanford told new UNLV coach John Robinson that he would be turning down his attractive offer of assistant head coach and offensive coordinator to remain in South Bend for his third season.

"Hard, very hard," Sanford said of the decision he wrestled with for almost a week.

"The hardest decision I ever had to make was to leave SC (after the 1996 season) for (arch rival) Notre Dame. But this one was just as tough."

Had he taken the job at UNLV, the 44-year-old Sanford would not only be a step closer to his dream of becoming a Division I head coach, but his family would be just a four-hour drive and/or a 45-minute flight away from its old home in Los Alamitos, Calif.

But Sanford said he decided to stay put in large part because his son, Michael, would be forced to attend his third high school in just four years. The family even considered moving into their old Los Alamitos house for a year so that Michael could rejoin his old freshmen and junior high teammates at Los Alamitos High School while dad commuted back-and-forth to Las Vegas.

"But that would have been tough on everybody involved," Sanford said. "Still, it was an extremely tempting situation."

So Sanford, who drew rave revues for his work with Irish quarterback Jarious Jackson this season, decided to stay put for at least another year at college football's most storied program.

Boyd: Minor delays

A legal dispute that could postpone the start of an $18 million overhaul of Sam Boyd Stadium by about three weeks is not expected to interfere with the reopening of the stadium at the start of next year's season.

A.F. Construction, which submitted the low bid ($19.5 million) for the project that was rejected by staff members and attorneys for the state Public Works Board and the University and Community College System of Nevada (for being too high), is suing those entities in District Court. A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 21.

Rather than continuing to negotiate with A.F. Construction, the university system decided to scale back the project slightly and put it out to bid again.

"We don't feel there will be any delay at all," Pat Christenson, director of Sam Boyd Stadium, said. "It's really not a delay because we haven't even started construction yet."

Christenson, who said he expects to have a press conference in mid-January detailing the construction process, figures the legal battle with A.F. Construction could delay the planned start of the refurbishing "by about 20 days.

"It's not really that big of job, it shouldn't be that hard to catch up," Christenson said. "The relocations of the restrooms will probably be the biggest part of the job. We're going to demolish the old ones and move the concourse out about 18 feet."

UNLV's first home game of the John Robinson era tentatively is scheduled for Sept. 18 against Iowa State.

Honors for Kristosik

The honors continue to pile up for UNLV punter Joe Kristosik.

The senior from Bishop Gorman High School, who led the nation in punting with a 46.2 average, became the first consensus first team All-American in school history after he was picked to the first team of the American Football Coaches Association All-American squad.

The AFCA team will be honored on Thursday night at Disney World's MGM Studios in Orlando, Fla. The event will be telecast live on ESPN2 from 5 to 7 p.m.

By being selected to his fourth All-American team, Kristosik earned consensus All-American status. Previously, he had been selected to the All-American first teams by Walter Camp, Football News and Football Writers Association of America.

Only current Minnesota Vikings star Randall Cunningham (AFCA & Kodak) was a first team All-American selection by more than one organization during his UNLV career.

Kristosik also was named one of five finalists for the 1998 Mosi Tatupu Award, which goes to college football's top special teams player and earns an automatic invitation to the Hula Bowl.

Air Force's Tim Curry, Kansas State placekicker Martin Gramatica, Wyoming punter Aron Langley and Arizona return star Chris McAlister are the other finalists for the award which will be announced later this week.

Ironically, Tatupu's college coach his final two years at USC was new UNLV head coach John Robinson.