Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Notebook: Fassel hopes to return as Locomotives coach

UFL Championship Game

Justin M. Bowen

Las Vegas Locomotives running back De De Dorsey finds a hole in the Tuskers defense during the UFL Championship game Friday at Sam Boyd Stadium. The Locos eked out a 20-17 victory in overtime.

Locomotives Win UFL Championship

The Las Vegas Locomotives beat the Florida Tuskers 20-17 in overtime Friday afternoon to capture the UFL's first championship.

UFL Championship Game

The Las Vegas Locomotives hold up kicker Graham Gano after he kicked in the game winning field goal in overtime for their 20-17 win over the Florida Tuskers in the UFL Championship game Friday at Sam Boyd Stadium. Launch slideshow »

Unless something unforeseen happens, Jim Fassel said he will be back as the coach of the Las Vegas Locomotives.

Fassel, who spent 15 years coaching in the NFL, said he loved his first year in the UFL.

“I really enjoyed it,” Fassel said. “To me right now, I love coaching. I have a passion for it.”

At the same time, Fassel would not make a definitive statement about coaching somewhere else.

“I can’t say I’d rule it out,” Fassel said. “But it would have to be the very right situation.”

While Fassel made it sound like he would coach in the UFL again, Florida coach Jim Haslett’s statement was a little more open to interpretation.

“I don’t know if they want me,” Haslett said. “You’ve got to be wanted to have a job. We’ll see what happens.”

UFL overtime rules on display

Unlike the NFL, where the first team to score in overtime wins, the UFL guarantees both teams possessions.

If neither team scores after they get the ball once, it turns into sudden death and the first team that scores wins.

In Friday’s championship game, Florida turned the ball over on its possession and Las Vegas scored. But both Fassel and Haslett said they prefer the UFL’s overtime rule to the NFL’s.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Fassel said. “I think the NFL, there’s a lot of bright minds in that league, and they want to go to it.”

Haslett upset with the officiating

Jim Haslett believed a fumble in the fourth quarter that Las Vegas returned to the one-yard line should have been an incomplete pass.

Las Vegas defensive end Adrian Awasom knocked the ball out of Florida quarterback Brooks Bollinger’s hand to force the fumble.

But Haslett said Bollinger’s arm was moving forward, so the play should have been a pass attempt. He challenged the ruling on the field, and the officials upheld the fumble after reviewing the play.

“The guys upstairs must have been drunk,” Haslett said. “I don’t know what they were doing.”

Players now available to sign NFL free agent contracts

NFL teams in need of help at certain positions can now sign UFL players because the season is completed.

Both Fassel and Haslett said they expected a few of their players to sign free agent deals in the NFL.

“There are a lot of guys who have been contacted,” Haslett said. “Myself and a bunch of the coaches have been contacted. We’ll see.”

One player both coaches mentioned was Las Vegas running back DeDe Dorsey. But Dorsey declined to give any hints of where he might end up.

“Only time will tell,” Dorsey said.

Fassel said the chance for players to sign on with an NFL team is one of the best things about the UFL.

“In the past, without this league, guys would be sitting on the sofa watching the game and you don’t know what kind of shape they are in,” Fassel said. “You know these guys are in football shape.”

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