Chris Murray

cmurray@rgj.com

Wolf Pack athletic director Doug Knuth will make the most important decision of his nearly four-year tenure at Nevada in the coming days when he hires the team's next football coach after Nevada and Brian Polian parted ways Sunday. Here's a FAQ with everything you need to know about the hire except for the one thing everybody wants to know (who will be the Wolf Pack’s next head coach).

Will a search firm be hired?

No. While many athletic departments hire private firms to lead a search of this nature (as Nevada did when it was looking for its football coach the last time around), the Wolf Pack will not use a search firm. Those can be costly (roughly $40,000 per hire), although they can be a good resource to maintain privacy and do background checks. Knuth has surely had a short list of candidates for months.

How important is this hire?

The Wolf Pack football job is the most important in Northern Nevada and rivaled in the Silver State only by the UNLV basketball position. The Wolf Pack spends $7 million of its $27 million budget on football (the next closest sport is men’s basketball at $2.5 million annually). It’s a huge outlay of money, but also the smallest figure on football in the Mountain West. Football creates, by far, the most revenue at Nevada (basketball creates the most net surplus). With the Wolf Pack facing loan payments from its Mackay Stadium renovation, getting strong attendance numbers is huge. The success of football fuels revenue for each of the department's other programs.

Wolf Pack, Polian agree to mutually part ways

How much does Nevada owe Polian?

Polian had one season left on his contract at a base salary of $525,000. Nevada actually owes Polian 13 months’ pay since his contract ran through January 2017, so he’ll net $568,750 if he doesn’t get another job in the next 13 months (he will get one). Polian’s salary from future employment would be deducted from Nevada’s commitment, but the Wolf Pack will pay a hefty amount to a coach it no longer employs as was the case when it fired basketball coach David Carter and owed him $600,000 (those payments will end shortly).

What happens to the assistant coaches?

They remain on staff until a new coach is hired and evaluates them. The new coach will have free reign to keep or replace any coach he wants (Polian kept three coaches from his predecessor’s staff). All of the coaches have contracts that run through at least March 2017 and some go until June 2017. If all of the coaches are not kept and don’t get new jobs, Nevada could owe them in excess of $600,000 combined. If they do get new jobs, Nevada is off the hook on payments. I’d expect at least one or two coaches to be kept, the most likely being safeties coach Mike Bradeson, who has a long history at Nevada.

How much will Nevada pay its next coach?

No exact figure has been given, but the Wolf Pack will likely stay in roughly the same salary range as Polian made (he made a guaranteed $585,000 per season and incentives usually pushed that to $650,000 annually). While that makes the football coach one of the university’s highest-paid employees, it is in the lower spectrum of the Mountain West. I’d expect the guaranteed salary to staff roughly the same with even more incentives for hitting certain win barriers or academic achievements.

Did attendance play a factor?

Yes, the Wolf Pack’s declining attendance had to play a factor, especially given the pressure to pack Mackay to pay off that previously mentioned debt. Nevada’s season-ticket base fell from a program-record 12,783 fans in Polian’s first season to 9,751 this season, a decline of 23.7 percent. The overall attendance fell 16.6 percent this season. Knuth said in a release announcing the change that the next coach must “build and strengthen relationships within our department, our campus, our alumni and our great community.”

By firing Polian, Pack AD Doug Knuth bets on himself

Who’s the front-runner to replace Polian?

Knuth always plays things close to the vest, so it’s complete speculation at this point. One of the names mentioned most often is Eastern Washington coach Beau Baldwin, who is 93-34 in 10 seasons as a head coach. He led the Eagles to the 2010 FCS championship and has reached the playoffs in six of his nine seasons at EWU, with five Big Sky titles. A bonus: He’s used to winning with a small budget. That being said, it's hard to pinpoint one coach as the "favorite."

Could an heir to Chris Ault take the throne?

It’s an option. Former Wolf Pack assistants Chris Klenakis, Andy Buh and Jim Mastro could be candidates. Klenakis, who was born in Reno, has the strongest résumé of the group and is clearly the fan favorite (I’ve gotten a ton of emails about him). I get the feeling Nevada won’t hire a coach with Wolf Pack roots. It didn’t do so when it reeled in Eric Musselman to lead the basketball team, and that’s worked out just fine.

16 potential candidates to be Nevada's next football coach

Who are some other options?

If Knuth wants to hire a Power 5 coordinator, Tee Martin (USC), Doug Nussmeier (Florida), Chip Lindsey (Arizona State), Pete Kwiatkowski (Washington), Major Applewhite (Houston) or Andy Ludwig (Vanderbilt) could be options, although they would be pushing the budgeted salary. Tops among those coaches could be Ludwig, who overlapped with Knuth when both were at Utah (he was the offensive coordinator for the Utes’ No. 2 team in the nation in 2008). None of those guys have head-coaching experience, so they’d be running a program for the first time.

How long before a hire is made?

Nevada hasn’t set a timetable but it’s moving quickly and a hire should come within two weeks, the earlier the better. We are currently in an open-contact recruiting period but that closes from Dec. 12-Jan. 11 before opening again from Jan. 12-28. It would be beneficial if the next coach is hired before that Dec. 12 date so he could get a jump-start on retaining the Wolf Pack’s current commitments.

What's next for ex-Wolf Pack coach Brian Polian?

Will Nevada lose any players?

Nevada already has lost one commitment in two-way defensive lineman Tucker Robertson, a three-star prospect who might have been the best player in the Wolf Pack’s 2017 class (he had multiple offers from Power 5 schools). The Wolf Pack currently has 16 commitments for the class but those aren’t binding until an official letter-of-intent is signed in early February. The next coach will have to work quickly to hire a staff and fill a recruiting class. Given the chaos of the situation, first-year recruiting classes are usually rough when a new coach is hired.

Does geography matter?

The West Coast is the best coast. The Wolf Pack will be looking for somebody who has a history on the West Coast, so he doesn't have to familiarize himself with the high school coaches who naturally feed into Nevada. The Wolf Pack has long recruited California hard, although Polian was given a larger recruiting budget and spread his recruiting across the country, so somebody with strong ties to The Golden State would be good. Nevada wants a quick turnaround. A coach with West Coast ties can produce that faster than a coach without them.

Wolf Pack loses commitment from three-star lineman

What is Knuth looking for in the next coach?

In previous hires, Knuth has identified three elements every Nevada coach must have: ability to engage the community, recruiting ability and ability to develop talent. He’s typically hired young up-and-coming coaches with Power 5 experience. Head-coaching experience has not been a mandatory résumé item. Knuth has a strong history of hiring good coaches and now makes his most important decision yet as Nevada’s AD.

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at cmurray@rgj.com or follow him on Twitter @MurrayRGJ.