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Utah Utes vs UNLV Rebels Football Preview
In his last head coaching stop, Bobby Hauck’s biggest problem was the student newspaper at the University of Montana. This weekend in Salt Lake City, he’ll have a much bigger issue to deal with: the Utah Utes.
Hauck, the head coach of the UNLV Rebels, is moving up the ladder in college coaching, so it’s worth saying a little bit about his history. Hauck moved to Vegas from Montana, where he and the Grizzlies entrenched themselves as an FCS powerhouse. Off the field, though, Hauck did little to enhance his personal standing.
In September of 2009, the University of Montana's student newspaper, The Kaimin, published a news story in September on an alleged assault involving two members of the UM football team. The Billings Gazette picked up on this story; it went on to say that "while the incident went unreported to local authorities, some UM officials were made aware of the situation, including Hauck, who punished the athletes internally and contacted the victim's father."While Hauck evidently and commendably exercised a measure of responsibility by contacting a parent of the assault victim, he then lost whatever goodwill he accumulated by subsequently brushing off a student reporter from The Kaimin at two consecutive weekly press conferences.
In the first of the two pressers, Hauck--standing before those inconvenient microphones and voice recorders journalists have to extend toward a coach's mouth--responded to a billy-basic question about the Grizzlies' quarterback situation by telling the student reporter, "You want something from me now? You've got to be kidding me."
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A week later, that same reporter asked another simple football question, and was met with this gem from Hauck: "I'll give you this, you're persistent. Who's next?" If Hauck thinks that student reporters in a sparsely-populated state are a problem, he’s got to be wondering what things will be like if he loses consistently in Las Vegas. After bowing to Wisconsin in a decisive season-opening loss, his team is very likely to be 0-2 after the coming weekend in Utah.
The Utes played a very sloppy and ragged game against Pittsburgh in their season opener. Coach Kyle Whittingham’s team committed three turnovers and 11 penalties, and it squandered a 21-7 lead with shaky play in its secondary. Yet, because of equally spotty play by Pittsburgh, Utah was able to outlast the Panthers in over time, 27-24, and score one of the more meaningful wins of the young season. Utah’s ability to prevail on a night when it played well below its capabilities should fuel the Utes with ample confidence heading into this conference opener. It is very hard to imagine UNLV coming up with the offensive potency and ball security needed to turn back Utah’s attacking defense. Vegas will also be in for a battle against the Utes’ fleet-footed receivers, who can spread the field and make a lot of opposing defenses look slow.
Bobby Hauck, welcome to Division I-A football. Utah will be a much bigger obstacle than student journalists who were just doing their jobs in Missoula, Montana.
By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer