Nevada after Ken Wilson: Pluses and minuses of the job

Nevada needs a new head coach after Ken Wilson was fired Friday.

Wilson went 4-20 in two seasons, with consecutive two-win seasons and a 16-game losing streak. Before his head-coaching stint, Wilson spent 19 years as a Nevada assistant.

“This is not a decision I take lightly, as I know the ripple effect on so many people with a decision like this,” athletic director Stephanie Rempe said in a statement. “For more than two decades Ken and his family have been and will continue to be an integral part of this community and the Wolf Pack.”

So how good is the Nevada job? What names could get in the mix? Here are the factors to keep in mind.

Facilities and support have been behind

There’s a reason Nevada waited a week after the season to fire Wilson — his buyout dropped from $1.5 million to $1 million. This job opened two years ago because Jay Norvell left Nevada for Colorado State, another Mountain West program, for more money and resources.

Wilson’s $950,000 salary was the third lowest in the conference, ahead of only New Mexico and Hawaii (Norvell makes $1.7 million at Colorado State). However, that was more than Norvell made at Nevada ($625,000), and it’s more than several other open head-coaching jobs are expected to pay, like New Mexico, UTEP and ULM.

There is no indoor practice facility, which can be a problem with periodic snow, and Nevada had to move practices to Stanford because of poor air quality during wildfires in 2021. Every other cold-weather school in the Mountain West has an indoor practice field.

“I would say that facility is critical,” Rempe told Nevada Sports Net in May “It’s really unfortunate we do not have an indoor football facility based simply on the weather. And the weather could be the smoke. The weather can be the snow. And that’s a priority, and we need to figure it out. It is obviously very expensive, and there’s a variety of models that we’re working through. And there is an initiative to start to do some studying to see what is feasible to do for athletics and campus, figuring out how that works. But it’s a priority for us.”

This had been a winning program

As bad as the last two years have been, Nevada had been a consistent winner, reaching 14 bowl games over 17 seasons from 2005 through 2021. Only twice did the Wolf Pack win more than eight games in that span, but Chris Ault, Brian Polian and Norvell all took the program to bowl games.

Since then, they’ve lost two games to two (top-10) FCS teams in the past two years. The program fell hard and fast, in part because Norvell took several key Nevada players with him to CSU. Still, the next coach can win here. But it’s going to be a rebuild.

Will Nevada or West Coast ties be necessary?

Ault, the legendary coach and father of the Pistol offense, has played an influential role at the program since he stepped down from coaching. Wilson was a longtime assistant under Ault. Will he play a key role in this next hire or will Rempe have full control?

So what names could get in the mix?

Based on conversations with industry sources, here are some potential candidates to watch.

Texas co-defensive coordinator Jeff Choate was a Boise State assistant during the golden era from 2006 through 2011. He joined Chris Petersen at Washington for two years and then went 28-22 as Montana State’s head coach, turning it from a 4-7 program to an 11-4 and top-five team when he left for Texas. The 53-year-old grew up in Idaho and has spent most of his career in the Pacific Northwest. He’s also interviewed at Boise State.

Former Washington State coach Nick Rolovich may have some local support. He spent 2012 through 2015 as Nevada’s offensive coordinator before a successful run as Hawaii’s head coach. He was fired for cause at Washington State over his refusal to follow the state’s COVID-19 mandate for public employees and unsuccessfully sued the school over it. Rolovich has since coached in high school and was set to become an XFL assistant coach.

Former Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin went 69-19 with the Broncos from 2014 through 2020. He won the Fiesta Bowl and finished with a top-15 team in his first season but never quite reached that level again, though he did go 45-8 in Mountain West play and won three conference championships. Harsin was fired less than two years into his Auburn tenure, a place that never made sense from a fit or culture perspective. His name has been mentioned for Mountain West jobs in this cycle, and some industry sources pointed toward Harsin and this job a few weeks ago.

Former Virginia and BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall was in the mix for the Colorado job last year and has been in the mix for Boise State, Oregon State and New Mexico in this cycle. He went 135-81 as a head coach from 2005 through 2021, a consistent winner with 11 seasons of at least eight wins. The Utah native is plenty familiar with the region and the Mountain West. But if he’s interested in returning after stepping away from the sport in 2021, he’d have to show he’s ready to keep up with the new era of college football.

Former Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo talked with San Diego State about that job and would bring head coaching experience. Currently UCLA’s director of leadership, he went 109-83 at Navy, with nine seasons of at least eight wins, but his tenure ended after three consecutive losing seasons. Niumatalolo has said he can move beyond the triple option if he gets another head coaching job. He has been able to do more with less, something Nevada needs.

Former San Diego State head coach Rocky Long could bring experience and a winning track record. The 73-year-old was 81-38 as SDSU’s head coach from 2011 through 2019. He retired from the job but quickly joined New Mexico as defensive coordinator and spent this season as Syracuse’s defensive coordinator. He won at least eight games in nine of his 20 seasons as a head coach.

Oklahoma analyst Matt Wells had a successful 44-34 run as Utah State’s head coach from 2013 through 2018, winning at least nine games three times. He helped develop Jordan Love into an NFL quarterback and had a 5-3 record in his third season at Texas Tech when he was fired. He was in the mix for the Oregon State job and is in the mix at New Mexico as well.

Montana State head coach Brent Vigen is 32-8 in three seasons, reaching the FCS national championship in 2021 and the semifinal in 2022. Before that, he was a Wyoming offensive assistant for seven seasons and a North Dakota State assistant for 16 years. He knows the Mountain West region, and he has head coaching experience.

Boise State defensive coordinator Spencer Danielson has done an admirable job as interim head coach, with a 2-0 record ahead of the appearance in Saturday’s Mountain West Championship Game. Boise State players have clamored for him to get the job. He’s coached at Boise State since 2017 and could get a look if he doesn’t get the Boise State job.

UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion has done a tremendous job in one season, and UNLV leads the Mountain West in scoring behind his Go-Go offense. The 36-year-old former Tulsa receiver has coached at Texas, Pitt and Hawaii in recent years.

USC defensive backs coach Donte Williams is one of the best West Coast recruiters in the country. He went 3-7 as USC’s interim head coach in 2021, thrust into a difficult position. He’s also coached at Oregon, Arizona, San Jose State and Nebraska.

(Photo: Jordon Kelly / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)