Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Rebels Athletics:

Blog: Hauck’s tenure ends with Fremont Cannon going back to Reno

UNLV-UNR football

L.E. Baskow

UNLV’s Devante Davis makes a touchdown catch over UNR’s Evan Favors during the first half at Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014.

Updated Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014 | 11:03 p.m.

UNR 49, UNLV 27

Game over

Bobby Hauck's time at UNLV ends with a loss, his 49th in five seasons, as UNR turned a competitive game into a 49-27 blowout with a strong second half built on more than 400 rushing yards.

UNLV announced Hauck's resignation on Friday and the release of emotion before the game seemed to help the Rebels (2-11, 1-7), who played a solid first half and trailed 21-20 midway through the third quarter. Soon after everything fell apart as UNR quarterback Cody Fajardo piled up 143 rushing yards with three touchdown passes on top of it.

Check lasvegassun.com later tonight for a full report from Sam Boyd Stadium.

UNLV Defeats Albany

UNLV guard Rashad Vaughn (1) drives to the hoop past Albany players at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014. Launch slideshow »

UNLV 75, Albany 59

Game over

Rashad Vaughn scored a career-high 29 points on 11-of-18 shooting and UNLV's offense reached its highest point total of the season thanks to 56 percent shooting in a 75-59 home victory against Albany.

The Rebels were solid most of the day, shaking off a rough first four minutes to take control of the game and mostly dictate the action. UNLV went with man defense for almost the entire game, with the one possession of zone giving up a 3-pointer. Of course, the Rebels gave up a 3 on the next possession in man so it's not just one defense that allows those.

The Great Danes fell apart beyond the arc in the second half, shooting 1-of-8 to finish 5-of-17 for the game. Overall Albany shot 37.3 percent from the field.

Chris Wood finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds while Dwayne Morgan had probably his best game of a young career with 10 points and three rebounds.

Check lasvegassun.com later tonight for a full report from the Mack and stay tuned to the live blog all night as we head out to Sam Boyd Stadium for the Battle for the Fremont Cannon.

Reader poll

Will Bishop Gorman High's Tony Sanchez be UNLV's next football coach?

View results

***

As if today wasn’t already interesting enough at UNLV, we learned Friday afternoon that tonight’s Battle for the Fremont Cannon will be the final game of coach Bobby Hauck’s five-year tenure.

I expected the decision to happen but figured it wouldn’t be until the hours or days after tonight’s game that we learned for sure. Hauck is resigning effective Monday, a phrasing that helps both him and the university move forward from a change that had to be made.

Hauck will get a one-time payment of $400,000, as opposed to his buyout of $700,000 over two years, and will soon be free to continue his coaching career back at Montana or elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Rebels can move forward searching for their 11th coach, with Bishop Gorman High’s Tony Sanchez, and more importantly the financial support behind him, emerging as a potential frontrunner.

So that’s the new backdrop to an already-loaded day at UNLV featuring the annual men’s basketball-football doubleheader plus more. The women’s basketball team tipped at noon against Delaware State at Cox Pavilion, the basketball team gets started at the Thomas & Mack Center at 3:30 p.m. against Albany on the Mountain West Network and the cannon game kicks off at 7:32 p.m. against UNR at Sam Boyd Stadium on ESPNU.

It’s a smorgasbord of Rebel athletics with each game whetting appetites for the next one. Even in a town where basketball is king, no one could argue that tonight’s football game isn’t the main event.

That was true before UNLV announced Hauck’s resignation, which is effective Monday, and now there’s no question. It will be fascinating to see how hard the Rebels play — one of their few positive traits this season — when everyone in the stadium knows it’s Hauck’s last game. And even if the effort is there, can UNLV be good enough to keep it close or pull off the upset?

But make no mistake, that’s not the only intriguing game. Albany went to the NCAA Tournament last year and should present a difficult task for a Rebel team that has yet to score more than 60 points. The Great Danes aren’t a very big team, but they shoot well and create turnovers.

Bern’s predictions: Albany isn’t going to let the Rebels run away, though I do think they’ll break 60. UNLV 63, Albany 57

Can the Rebels succeed on pure emotion? That’s what they’re facing today in Hauck’s finale. I don’t see a storybook ending. UNR 25, UNLV 19

Basketball season: 1-3 ATS, 2-2 O/U

Football season: 7-5 ATS, 6-6 O/U

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy