There is only one great candidate to be the next UNLV football coach.

Hire Chris Ault from the University of Nevada.

He kicks UNLV's butt every year.

He goes to a bowl every year.

His kids don't get in trouble.

He invented the Pistol Offense and rolled up about 700 yards in offense against UNLV! That was so obscene that Sanford should have been fired on the spot.

He is a consistent winner in a small budget program.

He makes stars out of kids others pass on, like Colin Kapernick. Nobody wanted him out of Turlock, Calif. Remember Frank Hawkins? Just wait, he'll make Mike Ball an NFL running back.

He commands a small salary, when compared to other schools in the WAC or MWC.

He knows Nevada and has great politcan connections.

He knows the recruiting grounds of Las Vegas and So. Cal, the Fresno area and the Sacramento area.

All he has to move down from Reno. Since he already works in the university system, the transition could be very smooth.

It's a no-brainer. But since this is UNLV. It will never happen.

Take a closer look at the lyrics of "Home Means Nevada."

It makes no mention of anything that has to do with Clark County or Las Vegas.

It deals with images only from Northern Nevada...the Kit Carson Trail and the Truckee River.

Some state song.

ralston ...the watchdog of the rival newspaper. What a great public service..like he's never made a mistake.

I was at the game yesterday with some old friends who flew up from Las Vegas. I live in Reno and am a huge University of Nevada football fan.

And I love keeping up with the UNLV Rebels on the Sun website because the sportswriter here is really good.

I root for UNLV all weekends that they don't play Nevada. Many folks in Reno recognize that Las Vegas is a great city, the economical engine of our state.

That's why beating the UNLV football team means so much to us. Nevada's offensive line moved UNLV's front at will Saturday. I can see why UNLV fans get so frustrated with the coach.

Plus, by reading the Sun and RJ, you've got a dirt, dusty parking lot for your home games? That's terrible!

Really, if the University System was not in such a budget crunch, your sad sack coach would already have been fired. So I guess you can blame the economy as much as anything else.

I thought that UNLV had some good players. The WR Wolfe (sp?) could start at Notre Dame.

I heard some Las Veges folks at the game mumble that UNLV should drop its football program. We would hate to see that in Reno. This rivalry is a good thing for our state.

Nevada's 1969 team, which played (and won) in the first Nevada-UNLV game was honored at halftime. We respect the UNLV football legacy in the North, Mike Thomas, Coach Ireland, Glenn Carano, Mike Whitemaine, Icky Woods and especially Randall Cunningham. The coaches up here used to call him Superman.

There have been many years that UNLV has kicked Nevada's butt, that's for sure. But lately, wow.

I would pin the blame for the UNLV loss on the UNLV coach.

The officials obviously missed the call when Bellfield tripped and the ball went out of bounds.

Kruger got very angry about it and it seemed from TV that he could not let it go.

It seemed like he never got his head back in the game after that blown call.

Wow. Here's Meich calling a Kentucky sportswriter a "homer." That comment will come back and bite him on the ass.

This should erode any support Gibbons has left. While asking state workers and teachers to take a pay cut, and crowing about how he will do the same, Gibbons has quietly given his inept staff big raises.

Ex-Sen. Joe Heck must be loving this: Gibbons is giving him more ammo to use to blow up Gibbons in the 2010 GOP primary.

Gibbons will be hammered by the media when he has to go out and face them on the campaign trail. Ipod telecasts are not a viable option when campaigning for re-election. Gibbons' spokesman Dan Burns (his third or fourth press secretary as the governor) can't do his campaigning for him. Gibbons' Wizard of Oz approach won't work during the campaign.

Rogers' column in the Nevada Appeal is over the top.

Rogers' personal feud with Gibbons is harming our university system. It is only making the job more difficult for those well-meaning legislators who are struggling to get back funding that is so lacking in Gibbons' proposed budget.

Rogers goes out of his way to personally attack Gibbons as a greedy dunderhead. OK, it's funny but it is also a terrible legislative strategy when the university system is facing a major financial crisis.

Some say Gibbons "is no longer relevant," but as long as is governor, he runs Nevada's executive branch of government and has the juice that could end up cutting and stinging our university system.

What ever happened to Dennis Finfrock and Robert Maxson? Didn't Maxson recently get the boot as president of Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe?

It is easy to grumble about Gibbons for a lot of reasons.

But in this tug-of-war, it is hard to find sympathy for Higher Education when the Sun reported last August that UNLV President David Ashley has a desk layout in his office that cost nearly $16,000 and two lounge chairs that were $2 Grand each.

That is almost $20,000 for office furniture. In the debate between Gibbons and Higher Ed, Gibbons and his munchkins can always throw the Ashley furniture obscenity in the faces of the Higher Ed lobbyists.

The munchkins can argue that the waste doesn't stop there.

Our highly-intelligent Board of Regents just approved a new contract for the UNLV football coach that gives him a base salary of $150,000. And this guy is the Jim Gibbons of football: He bumbled away his only chance to go to a bowl game, has never had a winning record and gets bitch-slapped every season by our in-state rivals up north.

Let's not forget the car allowance and country club golf membership the Regents also threw in for the guy.

A Gettysburg-level battle will be fought in the Legislature over Higher Ed funding.

So it is sad for those who understand the importance of higher education to realize that Gibbons holds the high ground in certain areas.

He can point to these two examples (or others that would probably be easy to find) and justly accuse the Higher Ed system of being wasteful during a time when so many people are struggling financially.