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twitterUNLV FOOTBALL:
Hamrick: “Wasn’t the right time to make a change”
UNLV AD discusses Sanford extension
Sam Morris
UNLV head coach Mike Sanford and offensive lineman Sifa Moala head to the band section to sing the school fight song after beating New Mexico 27-20 on Nov. 8, 2008.
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008 | 2:12 a.m.
Expanded coverage
Related stories
- Sanford, UNLV agree in principle on three-year extension (Dec. 9)
- UNLV football: Making the (final) grade (Dec. 9)
- Postseason with Mike: Sanford, Rebels head into offseason with hope, questions (Dec. 3)
Sun coverage
This season
- 2008 season stats
- Week 1: Utah State, W 27-17
- Week 2: Utah, L 42-21
- Week 3: ASU, W 23-20 OT
- Week 4: ISU, W 34-31 OT
- Week 5: UNR, L 49-27
- Week 6: CSU, L 41-28
- Week 7: Bye
- Week 8: Air Force, L 29-28
- Week 9: BYU, L 42-35
- Week 10: TCU, L 44-14
- Week 11: New Mexico, W 27-20
- Week 12: Wyoming, W 22-14
- Week 13: SDSU, L 42-21
UNLV athletics director Mike Hamrick sat at the ESPN Zone Tuesday afternoon as the 2008 Las Vegas Bowl participants — Arizona and BYU — met the media.
Seated at a table just right of center stage following the press conference portion of the event, he was able to use both the Wildcats and Cougars as examples in discussing his decision to give Rebels coach Mike Sanford a three-year extension.
Sanford, who next season enters the final year of his original five-year pact, agreed in principle to the new deal on Monday.
"Look at Arizona here," Hamrick said of the 7-5 'Cats, making their first bowl appearance since 1998. "This is their coach's fifth year, and he's got it turned around. And it took them five years, now they're very competitive, playing in a bowl game. I just didn't feel it was the right time (for change).
"We've got momentum, we're recruiting well, to help Mike and the football program in recruiting with the assistant coaches, they needed to know what their future was. That was one of many reasons why I felt that we needed to extend Mike's contract."
As for tying BYU into things, Hamrick glanced over at Cougars coach Bronco Mendenhall, who is on the verge of winning 11 games for the third consecutive season in Provo. He took over a team four years ago that had losing records in its three previous campaigns, but that wasn't the argument here.
"Three years ago, we played at BYU -- They could have beat us 100-0," Hamrick said, referring to the 52-7 defeat UNLV suffered in 2006. "This year, we played at BYU, we got the ball on the 14-yard line, it came down to the final play. That, to me, is improvement."
The decision to give Sanford the extension came a few days after the two met for between three and four hours on Dec. 1. In that session, they discussed the overall direction of the program and exactly what progress had been made.
One piece of tangible evidence was the Rebels' 5-7 record in 2008. Instead of looking at just the highs -- a promising 3-1 start with wins over two BCS conference foes -- or the lows -- a five-game losing streak and an embarrassing 42-21 loss to San Diego State to finish the season -- the two looked at the whole palette.
"You don't evaluate your football program on one game," Hamrick said. "That's why I always wait about a week afterwards and let that week go by. And that San Diego State game was just one of 12. I was disappointed, he was disappointed, we all were disappointed. That was probably the difference between going to a bowl game, but that was just one part of an entire four-year evaluation.
"Academics, excellent. Knock on wood, we don't have off-field problems. Every program has them, we're gonna have them. But we haven't had those for awhile. You throw all those things into the pot, and then you evaluate it."
Hamrick said he would not decide the future of his head football coach based simply on a set amount of wins in 2009, but overall improvement needs to continue. If the recruiting class the staff has in place for 2009 so far is any indication, the Rebels have done a good job in addressing their most glaring needs -- team speed and defensive help. UNLV currently has 10 commits in the class, with a handful of scholarships yet to be given out. Six of those 10 players come on the defensive side of the ball.
Monetary details are still being finalized on the new deal, and it needs to be approved by the board of regents at the start of the new year.
But Hamrick was able to shed some light on one of the more popular topics regarding the contract -- the buyout clause.
"It's reasonable," Hamrick said of the buyout amount. "It's reasonable for both parties."
Discussion: 10 comments so far…
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Hamrick likes to use BYU as a measuring stick but he refuses to do so with other teams on our schedule. BYU isn't the only measuring stick Hamrick!
Lets take a look at how the team has supposedly improved from 2005-2008:
2005 vs. Utah: 42-32 Rebel Loss
2006 vs. Utah: 45-23 Rebel Loss
2007 vs. Utah: 27-00 Rebel WIN!
2008 vs. Utah: 42-21 Rebel Loss
NO IMPROVEMENT! We were actually more competitive in 2005.
2005 vs. Nevada: 22-14 Rebel Loss
2006 vs. Nevada: 31-03 Rebel Loss
2007 vs. Nevada: 27-20 Rebel Loss
2008 vs. Nevada: 49-27 Rebel Loss
NO IMPROVEMENT! We were actually more competitive in 2005.
2005 vs. Colorado State: 31-27 Rebel Loss
2006 vs. Colorado State: 28-07 Rebel Loss
2007 vs. Colorado State: 48-23 Rebel Loss
2008 vs. Colorado State: 41-28 Rebel Loss
NO IMPROVEMENT! We were actually more competitive in 2005.
2005 vs. TCU: 51-03 Rebel Loss
2006 vs. TCU: 25-10 Rebel Loss
2007 vs. TCU: 34-10 Rebel Loss
2008 vs. TCU: 44-14 Rebel Loss
Slight Improvement! Team improved in 2006 but regressed by 2008.
2005 vs. Air Force: 42-07 Rebel Loss
2006 vs. Air Force: 42-39 Rebel Win!
2007 vs. Air Force: 31-14 Rebel Loss
2008 vs. Air Force: 29-28 Rebel Loss
Did Not Improve! We beat them at home in 2006 but lost at home in 2008. No Improvement!
2005 vs. San Diego State: 13-10 Rebel Win!
2006 vs. San Diego State: 21-07 Rebel Loss
2007 vs. San Diego State: 38-30 Rebel Loss
2008 vs. San Diego State: 42-21 Rebel Loss
No Improvement! UNLV got worse each year. We were actually beating the pathetic Aztecs in 2005 but by 2008 we get blown out against them.
Mike Hamrick, the RJ and LV Sun can skew the numbers however they want to make it look like improvement for Sanford. It is a lie.
Mike Sanford has never won a MWC road game in four years on the job! His overall record vs. MWC opponents is 5-27 which is a 15% win percentage. The guy should have been shown the door!
We have seen little to no improvement since he has been here. Hamrick talks about close games vs. BYU in 2008 but ignores blowouts vs. UNR and TCU where we have seen ZERO progress.
The 0-4 record vs. UNR is enough to have Sanford removed from the state legally. Does anyone believe that UNR would keep a Football coach that is 0-4 vs. UNLV? Absolutely not!
As for the BYU argument by Hamrick!
2005 vs. BYU: LOSS!
2006 vs. BYU: LOSS!
2007 vs. BYU: LOSS!
2008 vs. BYU: LOSS!
You call that improvement Hamrick?
I applaude the move.
Why go out and sign a new coach, set us back a few more years while the players adapt to a new system and watch the attendance go down even further?
Wake up. If you can't see the improvement, your blind or just trying to stir up sh!t. I'm guessing the latter from your history of posts...
We need to address the D, which it looks like that is the focus this offseason. Hire Rocky Long as the D Coordinator and Sanford needs to take over the play calling. It worked at Utah, so I'm confident it can work here.
Word.
Attendance will improve with a new coach. Apathy within the fanbase is at an all time low because of Mike Sanford.
A new coach and new system will get us more wins.
You need to wake up if you believe you are seeing improvement. The program was much stronger before Sanford and had much better talent. A 5-27 Conference record is NOT improvement. Beating up on a bunch of weaklings who all fire their coaches is NOT improvement. Losing to UNR every year is NOT improvement. Never EVER having won a conference road game is NOT improvement.
In case you didn't know, the UNLV Football program is at an all time low right now under Mike Sanford. The man benefitted from a cakewalk schedule in 2008 and was able to barely avoid being fired because of the favorable schedule. Next year (2009) you will see a return to the norm under this bum Sanford as the team will only win 2 or 3 games.
We absolutely need to address the defense. But first you must address the HEAD COACHING problem. If you continue to allow a loser to hire other losers all you get is LOSSES.
No quality coaches will come work under Mike Sanford. The only people who will consider this job are unemployed and unwanted by anyone else. No qquality people will put themselves or their families in this disaster of a mess.
Sanford is incompetent and needs to be removed from the program. That is the only fix for UNLV Football. Utah under Urban Meyer would have been successful with or without Sanford. Sanford is a loser and has been nothing but a loser everywhere he has been throughout his entire career. Every program Sanford worked at the coach either was FIRED or the Football program was SHUT DOWN until Sanford lucked into getting the job under Urban Meyer.
Hiring Sanford was a horrible decision and one that has set this Football program back LIGHT YEARS! The sooner we move on from this disaster the better. Next November Sanford will be FIRED!
appreciate the article..... good to hear hambrick's veiwpoint at least. i dont agree with it, but at least we can hold him accountable now. sure wish i didnt agree with sufferin' for once. we arent getting better. not sure why the scramble for defensive players in the 11th hour. didnt we always need defensive playmakers? oh well, nothing we can do now but sit through another miserable season and another loss to unr. go rebs, please prove us negative guys wrong. :)
Also, this is for Hamrick and his BYU nonsense!
Here are the records UNLV had against BYU the four years before Mike Sanford arrived at UNLV.
2001: UNLV Lost 35-31
2002: UNLV WON! 24-03
2003: UNLV Lost 27-20
2004: UNLV WON! 24-20
So Mike Sanford has lost four times in a row against BYU while the previous four years before he arrived UNLV was 2-2 against the Cougars with TWO WINS IN PROVO!
Sanford has sunk the program. Not improved it.
Sanford has never beaten BYU. UNLV beat BYU in Provo the year before Sanford arrived, that is a fact!
Mr. Negativo,
5-7 is an improvement over the previous years. It takes time. Shore up the D next year and we'll be alright.
The funny thing Sufferin', is that no matter what moronic stats you put up, they don't prove anything. As much as you complained about the byu comparison that Hamrick made slanting towards the positive, your stats always leave out the positive and slant towards the negative. You're not an AD anywhere, you're probably not even a fry cook. But I here there is an opening for guys like you on I-15 to walk out into. Have a nice stroll a-hole.
I don't have any issue with an extension, but I would really appreciate it if the media would toughen up and press Hammy on what constitutes a 'reasonable' buyout.
It's a public contract, which means the buyout number is public information. We're paying for it, and we have a right to know.
IMHO, any number above one (1) year's salary to buy Sanford out next year is NOT a reasonable number and should not be approved by the Regents.
If Sanford wants more than one year's salary as a buyout, let him EARN it on the field.
to mr. hamrick,"what must be done eventually should be done immediately",famous words of one jeremy foley-florida gators a.d. and future national champions,again!
Very ballsy move by Hamrick. Most AD's would cave to the boo-birds. Sanford is a big-time talent and now he has time to get his kids and his system firmly in place.
I can't tell you how much I look forward to watching UNLV run the Sanford version of the Spread Option... Its a beautiful sight to see.
I look for substantial improvement in '09, and MWC championship contention in '10 and beyond.
Job well done, Mr. Hamrick.