Smatresk won’t silently stand by

I have met UNLV president Neal Smatresk once. I have spoken to him twice. I know he ran track and swam in high school. I know he has a daughter who played soccer and a son who played baseball. I know his wife enjoys watching volleyball.

I know he is a scientist, who while working at the University of Hawaii once rightly called out the almighty June Jones, and if you know the level of holiness the former football coach held on the islands, you know the stones it took for anyone to question him.

I know this about Smatresk today: He has a spine.

For better or worse, and there is undeniable evidence on both sides of the ledger, university presidents have for years run collegiate athletics. There are times when this makes as much sense as a sports writer appointing chancellors or recommending academic policy or preparing and managing budgets.

There are other times when a president's logical view on matters of sport is desired and demanded.

This is one of those times.

By publicly offering his opinion about the UNLV football program this week, by stating words of concern for its fans and student-athletes after a 63-28 loss at UNR on Saturday, Smatresk displayed the level of leadership a president should when evaluating such a critical component of any athletic department.

It also could lead to expediting the naming of a permanent athletic director.

Whether you agree or not, the job status of fifth-year football coach Mike Sanford now should be evaluated on a weekly basis, Smatresk taking a public stand proved UNLV's president perceives seriously his role in setting standards for athletics.

The last thing UNLV needs now is a president who hides silently behind a title while others evaluate the sort of debacle that played out in Reno.

It doesn't appear Smatresk hides from anything.

"The presidents are the ones on the front line," said the late Myles Brand, a former university and NCAA president who died last month. "I know because I have been there. It is presidents who have the ultimate responsibility for setting standards and ensuring that they are followed."

This is true with matters on the field as much as off, with issues ranging from academic reform to wins and losses.

A president shouldn't micromanage any department, certainly not if he thinks there are competent people in place to run them. But the Rebels today have an interim athletic director in Jerry Koloskie, and until the position is settled on a permanent basis, Smatresk needs to be intimately involved with where football heads next, be it with Sanford or another in charge.

A president always should be involved. In this case, more than usual.

Smatresk said in August that his ideal timeline for hiring a full-time athletic director would be after the Final Four in the spring, but a fifth straight losing football season under Sanford could change that to, well, within a few months.

You can't hire a football coach until you hire the person who will lead athletics for the foreseeable future. Athletic directors have this thing about identifying their own coaches, particularly in football. It's one of the fun perks of the job.

You also can't hire a football coach much past mid-December if you have any hope of salvaging the recruiting season. Hire a coach too late in the process and a struggling program could lose two more years of potential improvement.

What this all means: Should the Rebels continue to lose this season and Sanford can't save his job, the prospect of a local hire as athletic director (an option I have and continue to support as the correct path for UNLV) becomes more likely.

National searches for athletic directors aren't run in December. The more UNLV loses, the better chance a local will inherit the athletic director's office. It's a bizarre but probable forecast.

It also means Mike Sanford today knows his challenge more than ever. It's one thing for a sports columnist he tolerates a few times a week to suggest his future should be judged on a weekly basis. It's quite another when his president says so.

There is no doubt in my mind now that should things go wrong this week and next, Smatresk would present Koloskie the power to make a midseason coaching change.

But even at 2-3 and coming off unquestionably the most embarrassing loss of his tenure and staring at consecutive home games against Brigham Young and Utah, Sanford still has every opportunity to produce the bowl-eligible team that probably would earn him a sixth season at UNLV.

He can still make all this talk of his possible firing disappear by doing the one thing he hasn't done: win enough games. Mike Sanford at 6-6 and in a bowl game this year returns next season. Just win.

Sanford enjoys talking about how coaches live in vacuums, uninterested and unaware of anything beyond preparing for the next opponent. But he is well aware of where things stand now. You can believe that.

When a president speaks, a coach listens.

"I don't think there is ever a time when a major coaching move is made and the president isn't involved in the decision," Smatresk said in August, shortly after the Board of Regents unanimously approved him as president and gave him a two-year contract. "A president's career could rise and fall on that. Certainly, I'd want to hear the (interim athletic director's) recommendation and have a good, long discussion about it and put my finger on the pulse of the community."

Neal Smatresk has made his position known. He is concerned. He is watching.

This is a good thing. University presidents in these times should be many things. Silent is not one.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He also can be heard weeknights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on "The Sports Scribes" on KDWN (720 AM) and www.kdwn.com.