Ault takes the reins to rebuild in Reno

Steve Guiremand

Friday, July 30, 2004 | 10:25 a.m.

RENO -- Chris Ault said he had no thoughts of trading in his athletic director's duties for a third stint as head football coach at Nevada-Reno when he met with school president John Lilley on the night of Dec. 1.

Why would he? After all, Ault, 57, already had earned his place in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002 after compiling a 163-63-1 record and winning seven conference titles in 19 seasons in Reno. And he hadn't coached a game since a 40-37 overtime loss to Toledo in the 1995 Las Vegas Bowl so that he could devote his full energy to the demanding duties of a Division I athletic director.

"I went into the president's office with five names," Ault said during Thursday's Western Athletic Conference football media day at the Peppermill Hotel here. "I went in there to tell him which candidates I was interested in and what did he think about them? But when I went in there he said, 'Put that away, I want to ask you a question.' "

Lilley asked Ault if he would be interested in coaching again.

"I said, 'Just coach, not athletic director/football coach?' " Ault said. "And he said, 'Yeah.' Then I said, 'I think I'd like that.' And he was dumbfounded.

"I can still see his face. We met for about two-and-a-half hours. I told him, 'John, if you'd like we can keep this thing open and see what other candidates are out there?' But his answer to me was that there wasn't anybody better for the job."

It certainly would be hard to find anyone more passionate about coaching the Wolf Pack than Ault, who once discouraged athletic department staff from wearing red clothing to work because it was the color worn by arch rival UNLV.

Ault, who helped build Nevada-Reno into a Division I-AA powerhouse in the late '70s thru the early '90s, took his alma mater's recent football struggles harder than anybody. The Wolf Pack has had just one winning season in the last seven years --- a 6-5 mark in 1998 under Jeff Tisdel --- and has lost four consecutive Fremont Cannon battles to the Rebels in the bitter in-state rivalry.

Nevada looked like it might finally be turning the corner last season when the Wolf Pack started the season with a 5-2 record including a stunning 28-17 upset of Pac-10 heavyweight Washington in Seattle. But the Wolf Pack dropped four of its final five games to finish just 6-6, a slump capped by an embarrassing 56-3 thrashing at Boise State.

A disgusted Ault didn't bother to even stick around for the end of that game. The next morning he fired head coach Chris Tormey, who compiled just a 16-31 record in four years after replacing the fired Tisdel in 2000.

"The last six years have been really difficult," Ault said. "As an athletic director you keep asking yourself what else can you do? What else can you give them to get it done? It wasn't that the coaches weren't trying and the kids weren't playing. They were all giving an effort. It just didn't work out.

"I really had no plans of coaching. This is probably more personal than anything else. It's not as much about football. It's much deeper than that."

News of Tormey's firing and Ault's hiring caught Wolf Pack players by surprise.

"I was pretty shocked," senior defensive tackle Chris Barry said. "It was the end of the season and it happened so fast and I really didn't know what to think."

All-WAC offensive tackle Harvey Dahl said: "It caught me off-guard a little bit. But I was happy because I grew up in Fallon as a Nevada fan watching Coach Ault win games. So I was happy."

Both players said Ault has brought some much-needed intensity and accountability to a program that has had more than its share of off-the-field incidents in recent years.

"He expects a lot of his players but he also makes it clear what he expects," Barry said. "It isn't anything ridiculous or anything. All his methods are well thought-out. He makes it clear what his expectations are and he holds us accountable for those expectations. He expects there to be no problems off the field and also to represent Nevada football well."

Dahl added: "He's an intense guy. He demands your best. I'd say the intensity level here is the biggest change he's brought. I think he's going to be good for the program."

Ault knows he has his work cut out for him. The Wolf Pack no longer is competing in the Big Sky or Big West but in an underrated WAC that includes mid-major powers such as Boise State, Fresno State and Hawaii as well as up-and-coming Tulsa. Nevada was picked fifth in the WAC preseason poll.

"I feel somewhat like the three-pound chicken trying to lay the four-pound egg," Ault, who says he reports daily to work at 4:30 in the morning, joked. "There are high expectations here. There should be. My expectations are very high. Whether we can accomplish that, go forward, remains to be seen. There's a helluva challenge out there. Let's face it."