Monday, March 31, 2003 | 9:03 a.m.
Bruce Snyder sat on a couch inside the Lied Athletic Complex following an intense, hot and hard-hitting UNLV football spring practice and smiled.
"The highlight of my day is what I just went through the last couple of hours," Snyder said.
The 1996 consensus national coach of the year, Snyder coached Arizona State to a 11-1 record and within a couple of plays of a national championship. He also helped resurrect a struggling Cal program before that.
One more challenge awaits, as Snyder has decided to join longtime friend John Robinson's coaching staff as an offensive assistant after spending the past two years in the UNLV broadcast booth.
If there was any doubt that Snyder, who just turned 63, had lost any of his love for coaching, it was dispelled during the first week of UNLV spring practice.
Snyder, who is responsible for coaching tight ends and contributing to the overall offensive scheme, has been the most animated and vocal Rebels coach.
"For a couple of years I've been in broadcasting and that type of thing," Snyder said. "That was fine. But this is really different. This is really fun for me."
Although his goal is to once again become a college head coach -- he was head coach at Utah State (1976-82), Cal (1987-91) and Arizona State (1992-2000) -- Snyder says there is one aspect that he enjoys in being an assistant.
"Teaching," he said. "I really like to teach. As a head coach, what you are really doing is teaching your assistant coaches. That's OK, too. But your job is so full.
"I like to coach and I like to coach enthusiastically. Coach Robinson has created an environment where we're allowed to coach a broader portion (of the team). It's not just, 'I've got my guys.' You have a broader perspective and that's what I feel I've been trained to do."
Snyder has been working with everyone from quarterback Kurt Nantkes to a running back or an offensive lineman.
"I've got a great relationship, I think, with the other coaches on the staff," Snyder said. "You can't have a thin skin doing it this way. We're all a bit possessive. In coaching you like 'your guys' and 'your ideas.' You become possessive.
"If somebody else corrects that or whatever, people can get thin-skinned. But this staff is tremendous in that we're all pulling on the rope in the same direction. If I say something to the quarterback about this read or that read, everybody is OK with it. If somebody says something to the tight ends, I'm OK with it. The idea is to just coach them."
Although he started his coaching career with Robinson at Oregon in the late 1960s and worked with him for one year under legendary John McKay at USC on the 1974 national championship squad, this marks the first time since the 1980s that Snyder has worked with Robinson.
He left his head coaching job at Utah State to become Robinson's running backs coach with the Los Angeles Rams in 1983. He remained there for four years, before accepting the head coaching position at Cal.
"I actually could have stayed at Utah State but I thought that if I ever wanted to move any more I better get going," Snyder said.
One of Robinson's first assignments for Snyder was to go to Texas and scout a running back the Rams were thinking about drafting.
"He told me that there's a guy at SMU and to go test him out," Snyder said, referring to future NFL Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson. "I had had some good players at Utah State, but when I went down and checked him out and ran him I was thinking, 'Holy smokes!'
"So when John called me to ask what I thought, I told him I didn't know where (Dickerson) stacked up with the rest of the backs in the nation. But if we can get this guy, I think he can be really good."
Dickerson was the cornerstone of a Rams team that reached the NFL playoffs six times and went to the NFC championship game twice during Robinson's nine-year reign.
Although there has been speculation that Snyder has been brought in to replace Robinson, 67, as UNLV's head coach, Snyder says that is not the case.
"The reason I'm back into coaching is one, I like teaching, but also to be a head coach," Snyder said. "John has not given me any timeline for his career. I've watched him the past two or three months and he's the most vibrant and excited intellectually when it comes to football. He loves football. I wouldn't be surprised if didn't coach for years and be another Joe Paterno. Really. He loves it that much.
"So that is not in my equation. If he were to say he is resigning or retiring, then I certainly would want to put my name in there. But there's no guarantee that I'd get it. I know that. That's not what the deal was. The deal was to teach, to help and let's see where it leads."
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