The 2010 UNLV Rebels football team was the 43rd varsity football team to represent the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

. The Rebels played in the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

and compete each season against the remaining eight members of the conference and one permanent interstate rival:

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. The Rebels played a 13-game schedule due to their non-conference road game at

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. The Rebels also had non-conference games against

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and at

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

and

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

Bobby Hauck Robert Lawrence Hauck (born June 14, 1964) is an American college football coach. He is the head football coach at the University of Montana, a position he held from 2003 to 2009 and resumed before the 2018 season. Hauck was also the head footba ...

was in first season as the head coach of the Rebels football program, having previously coached at the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

. The Rebels played their home games at

Sam Boyd Stadium Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a football stadium in the western United States, located in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the hote ...

Whitney, Nevada Whitney (formerly East Las Vegas) is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in Clark County, Nevada, United States. The population was 38,585 at the 2010 census. Background Stowell E. Whitney, a dairy farmer from Bunkerville, Nevada ...

. The Rebels finished the season 2–11 (2–6 MW).

Pre-season

At the 2010 Mountain West Conference Media Day, UNLV was picked to finish eighth in the conference, due to their tough schedule which consisted of nine teams that went to bowl games in the previous season and included tough games with

, at

Hawai'i Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and Nevada-Reno. Also at the Media Day, junior wide receiver Phillip Payne was voted to the preseason All-Mountain West Conference team, marking the fourth consecutive season that a UNLV wide receiver had been selected to the preseason All-MWC team. At the end of August 2010, linebacker Ronnie Paulo, safety Alex De Giacomo, offensive tackle Matt Murphy and center John Gianninoto were named as team captains for the 2010 season. Less than a week before the start of the season, first-year head coach Bobby Hauck announced that junior Mike Clausen had beat out senior incumbent

Omar Clayton Omar A. Clayton is an American football quarterback. He played college football for the UNLV Rebels at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Early life Clayton was born on July 30, 1989 in Decatur, Illinois to parents Dameon Clayton and Kelly Bra ...

for the starting quarterback position and would start in the season opener against

Coaching changes

On November 15, 2009, the ''

Las Vegas Sun The ''Las Vegas Sun'' is one of the Las Vegas Valley's two daily Subscription business model, subscription newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group. The paper published afternoons on weekdays ...

'' announced that Mike Sanford would be let go as head coach following the completion of the season on November 28, 2009. In five years as UNLV's head coach, Sanford posted a 16-43 overall record, a 7-32 record in the Mountain West and a 0-5 record against UNLV's arch rival, Nevada-Reno. Sanford's overall winning percentage of .271 was the second worst in the program's history, only

Jeff Horton Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

's .228 (13-44 in five years) was worse. Jerry Koloskie, at the time UNLV's interim athletic director, stated that Sanford's dismissal was a "performance-based issue" In Sanford's five seasons as head coach at UNLV, the team didn't have a single winning season, with their best records under Sanford's tenure being back-to-back 5-7 records in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. On December 22, 2009, Sanford was hired by new

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

head coach,

Charlie Strong Charles Rene Strong (born August 2, 1960) is an American football coach who is currently the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at the University of Miami. He recently served as the assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach ...

, to be Louisville's offensive coordinator. On December 22, 2009, newly hired athletic director, Jim Livengood, hired

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

head coach to become the tenth head coach in the program's history. Hauck and former head coach

Dennis Franchione Dennis Wayne Franchione (born March 28, 1951), also known as Coach Fran, is a retired American football coach. He is the former head football coach at Texas State University, a position he held from 1990 to 1991, when the school w ...

were interviewed for the vacant position, Hauck on December 20, 2009 and Franchione on December 21, 2009. Hauck would receive a second interview on December 22, 2009 to iron out contract negotiations. Hauck's contract was for three years which would be a three-year contract with a $350,000 annual salary and $150,000 in completion bonuses. Other coaches other than Hauck and Franchione that were rumored as candidates for the head coaching position were

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...

defensive coordinator

Dirk Koetter Dirk Jeffrey Koetter ( ; born February 5, 1959) is an American football coach who is currently serving as the interim offensive coordinator at Boise State University. He was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football Lea ...

's head coach

Robb Akey Robb Alan Akey (born July 24, 1966) is an American football coach, currently the defensive coordinator at Central Michigan University. He was the head coach at the University of Idaho from 2007 to 2012. Early years Born and raised in Colorado ...

and former

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

head coach

Tyrone Willingham Lionel Tyrone Willingham (born December 30, 1953) is a former American football player and coach. He was the head coach at Stanford University (1995–2001), the University of Notre Dame (2002–2004), and the University of Washington (2005–2 ...

. On January 4, 2009, it was reported that six of Hauck's assistants from Montana would join his staff at UNLV, including former offensive coordinator Rob Phenicie and defensive coordinator Kraig Paulson who took the same positions with UNLV. Ty Gregorak was named recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach, Chad Germer (Offensive line), Dominic Daste (Tight Ends) and Cedric Cormier (Wide Receivers) were hired by Hauck as well. Utah defensive backs coach J.D. Williams was hired by Hauck to be his assistant head coach, pass defense coordinator and defensive backs coach. Currently, Hauck still has two vacant positions, but Hauck stated that filling those voids would not be an immediate priority.

Recruiting

Hauck met with most of the returning Rebels players within the first few days of his introduction as the new head coach and the players stated that they had quickly become fond of their new head coach. Within a month, Hauck was able to receive commitments from high school prospects in Southern Nevada, a problem that plagued Sanford during his tenure. Hauck was even able to get three star defensive end Ian Bobak who had originally committed to in-state rival UNR.

Schedule

References

{{UNLV Rebels football navbox

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

UNLV Rebels football seasons

UNLV Rebels football The UNLV Rebels football program is a college football team that represents the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The team is a member of the Mountain West Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) conferenc ...