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Looking Back At The Tony Sanchez Era At UNLV

How will we remember the Tony Sanchez era at UNLV?

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The Tony Sanchez era at UNLV is coming to a close.

This week UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois announced that Saturday’s game against arch-rival Nevada would be Tony Sanchez’s last. The Rebels head coach for the last five seasons has two years remaining on his contract with a buyout of $600,000.

For his part, Sanchez handled the news with class.

“I’m disappointed that I’m not going to get a chance to continue on. This is not something I wanted, but in competitive Division I athletics, it’s part of the life.

“So my legacy here? I don’t know. That’s not for me to say. All I know is I showed up to work every day, worked as hard as I could. We made a difference.”

It’s not for him to say, but it is for us to say. What legacy does Sanchez leave after five years in Sin City?

The Bad

The Rebels lost a lot under Tony Sanchez, which can be said for most coaches, in what has been a mostly forgettable fifty years of UNLV football.

Win or lose against the Wolf Pack on Saturday, Sanchez will depart UNLV as the school’s most successful coach of the last fifteen years. He was preceded by Bobby Hauck who went 15-49 in five seasons, though did lead his team to the Heart of Dallas Bowl at the end of the 2013 season. Before Hauck, Mike Sanford cobbled together a 16-43 record.

Still, for reasons fair and not, the expectations were different for Sanchez. He was in the spotlight from day one, being one of the few coaches in Division 1 history to make the leap straight from high school.

Sanchez won three games in year one. Four in year two. Five in year three. That’s no small accomplishment. Since John Robinson left as head coach in 2004, UNLV’s only had four seasons of five wins.

So, then the expectation is a bowl game. And that’s fair. The Rebs won four games last season, and that number will be the same if they knock off Reno this week.

Sanchez had a lot of talent in his tenure. Running back Charles Williams has put together a fine career, rushing for over 2300 yards placing him sixth on the all-time list at UNLV. Lexington Thomas is arguably the greatest ball carrier in school history. Thomas is second on that list, carrying the ball for over 3500 yards.

But you don’t have to look hard to figure out why Sanchez is on the way out. His prized recruit was quarterback Armani Rogers. Rogers didn’t produce, UNLV lost games, and now they’re looking for a new head football coach.

After a redshirt freshman year, Rogers played in 10 games in 2017. UNLV won five of those games. Rogers won MWC Freshman of the Year.

The next year, due to injury, Rogers only saw the field for six games. So, a down year can be forgiven.

This season Rogers played, played poorly and got hurt. Bowl game aspirations disappeared and Sanchez will be replaced. It’s that simple.

Kenyon Oblad played admirably filling in for Rogers. But not well enough for Sanchez to be retained. Still, you cannot help but feel like UNLV would be moving forward with its head coach were it not for a handful of dropped passes in 2019. The Rebels have been notorious for this in 2019. A couple catches, maybe Tony’s still around.

The Good

Few first-time head coaches have had an impact on a program the same way Tony Sa

nchez did at UNLV. The Rebels may very soon become a more high-profile destination based on the impact he has had in Las Vegas.

It’s no secret that Sanchez played in important role in getting the Fertitta Football Complex built. The $34 million facility features barbershop, a larger locker room, a 10,000-square-foot weight-room, underwater treadmills, a player’s lounge, a dining hall, and an academic center. It is a benchmark for UNLV athletics and the ribbon-cutting ceremony was held just last month.

Due to Sanchez’s work with the Fretittas top recruits are already expressing interest in playing for the Rebels. Recruits that he’ll not have the opportunity to lead.

That’s a tangible mark that he has had on the program and the community. Often times when head coaches are jettisoned, many like to reference a “change in culture.” I can’t tell you that the culture of UNLV football has changed. What I can tell you is that there is a big, bright, brand new, sparkling facility associated with UNLV football, and he played a critical role in bringing that into existence.

Being able to bring in a player like Armani Rogers, on the field performance aside, made some noise in Las Vegas. He was a highly sought-after recruit. He picked UNLV. That was a big deal.

When Bobby Hauck left UNLV was a middling Mountain West Conference team nobody was talking about. When Sanchez departs UNLV will be a middling Mountain West Conference team that some people are talking about.

His time with the Rebels was a good thing.

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After five years, the Tony Sanchez era at UNLV is officially over.

Sanchez was dismissed as UNLV’s head football coach Monday, though the school announced he would remain in place for the team’s final game against Nevada on Saturday. Sanchez finishes his UNLV career with a record of 19-40, pending his final game Saturday. The Rebels are 3-8 in 2019.

Sanchez arrived at UNLV with fanfare after leading Las Vegas high school football powerhouse Bishop Gorman to back-to-back USA TODAY Super 25 national titles. Sanchez and his brother, Kenny, are credited with transforming Bishop Gorman’s football program into a national powerhouse with annual TV dates on the ESPN networks and a handful of major Division I recruits annually. UNLV essentially bet that the elder Sanchez brother could take the success he had at Gorman and replicate it at the collegiate level provided the same commitment to facilities and his resources. To that end, UNLV built the Fertitta Football Complex, a best-in-class football training facility, which just opened on campus in fall 2019. The building was constructed at a cost of $34 million.

Tony Sanchez’s parting words to the UNLV football program. pic.twitter.com/eZWAA0EUHA

— ESPN 1100/100.9 FM (@ESPNLasVegas) November 25, 2019

While Sanchez may not have driven the results he aimed for, his contract did represent a relative bargain among FBS head coaches: Per the Associated Press, Sanchez has a $300,000 base salary, and is due two more seasons at that rate on his current contract.

For UNLV, the move is likely to be seen as a gross positive. While Sanchez was unsuccessful on the field, he helped instill some of the backbone of other successful programs while also spearheaded the development of significantly improved facilities. Those new practice facilities will be joined by a concurrent move to the Oakland Raiders’ new stadium in fall of 2020, and the combination of brand new practice facilities and a new, sparkling NFL stadium could draw interest from a class of free agent coaches that might have stayed away in years past.

As for Sanchez’s future, there will certainly be at least some speculation that he could return to Bishop Gorman to coach alongside his brother again. Tony Sanchez has provided no indication that’s in the offing, or even a consideration, but he’s also allegedly laser focused on his final game at UNLV, against Nevada, on Saturday.

The secondary questions that are sure to follow relate to larger questions about high school coaches making the leap directly to collegiate programs. In addition to Sanchez, former North Texas coach Todd Dodge lasted less than four years with the Mean Green before he, too, was let go after amassing a 6-37 record.

With those two setting up as the most prominent direct from high school college coaches there’s a natural question about whether another program will be willing to take a similar plunge. It’s instructive to consider the relative profile and similarities of North Texas and UNLV when they made their hires: both were upstart programs coming off abysmal runs under prior coaches. Both were essentially in a no-lose situation where committing multiple years to rebuild the program’s infrastructure would be acceptable, and both committed to the coach for multiple years at the outset.

For what it’s worth, both programs lived up to those promises, too. They just finally reached a breaking point and came to the conclusion that the future looked brighter with someone else at the helm.

Where else could a program like that emerge? There are contenders, but whether they’ll be as bold as North Texas and UNLV remains to be seen.

Tag: Tony Sanchez