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Livengood to UNLV?

by on Dec. 04, 2009, under Sports

Athletic director Jim Livengood will leave Arizona and has accepted the same position at UNLV, a source told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday night.

UNLV school president Neal Smatresk denied to that paper — and to the Las Vegas Sun — that a hire had been made or that an announcement was pending.

UPDATE: Rebel Nation, an insert in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, cites a source saying that Livengood, if hired by UNLV, would give strong consideration to bringing in UA defensive coordinator Mark Stoops to fill the Rebels’ vacant head coaching position in football. Stoops has been mentioned as a strong candidate at Youngstown State.

Livengood, who has been at Arizona since January 1994, has a contract at UA that expires on June 30. In an interview in February with the Tucson Citizen, he said he would like to continue working past that date, when he will be 65 years old.

“The biggest thing right now is, I think I want to go longer,” he said. “I feel good. I’m healthy. I like what I’m doing. … But Robert Shelton and the board of regents will end up making those decisions.”

Or not.

University president Robert Shelton hasn’t moved yet to ask the regents for a new contract for Livengood, even though Arizona State on Friday received a four-year extension for its athletic director, Lisa Love.

Given that, it’s not surprising Livengood would be exploring his options elsewhere.

Shelton, talking to the Star’s Patrick Finley about Livengood for a story in Friday’s edition, said that, “I have great admiration for him and what he’s done, and he is known nationwide. So he and I are talking about what his next step should be.”

A call from TucsonCitizen.com to Livengood on Friday night went to voicemail.

UNLV’s former athletic director, Mike Hamrick, left in July to go to Marshall, his alma mater. Jerry Koloskie has been serving as interim athletic director and is believed to be among the candidates for the permanent position, assuming Smatresk and Livengood don’t already have a deal in place.

The other local candidate is believed to be South Point arena manager Steve Stallworth, a former UNLV quarterback. Two sources told TucsonCitizen.com that interviews were supposed to take place Saturday.

Arizona sports information director Tom Duddleston said Livengood was not on the football team’s charter to Los Angeles on Friday but was expected to attend Saturday’s football game at USC.

At Arizona, Livengood has overseen a department whose budget nearly reached $52 million for the 2008-09 school year. Through recent tough times for the economy and athletic departments — with soaring coaching salaries, travel costs and insurance premiums — Livengood has always kept Arizona in the black, even if just barely.

Arizona had $195,091 left over after its 2008-09 expenses of $51,627,538.

It will immediately be an interesting time for whoever gets the UNLV job because the Rebels are looking to hire a football coach after firing Mike Sanford before the end of the regular season.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Mark B. Evans

    Here’s hoping he takes the job.
    He might be a good fundraiser and money manager but he leaves a lot to be desired as a talent evaluator.
    He saddled us with Mackovic.
    He nearly saddled us with Tim Floyd.
    Hiring Steve Miller was an accident (and so far he’s all hype and no glory (yes, I know, it’s too soon to make any judgment about Miller)).
    And he bungled the Lute Olson leave-returns-retires fiasco because he was afraid to stand up to Lute and tell him it was time to hang ‘em up rather than return from his medical leave.
    And Mike Stoops looks likes he’s the same coach Dick Tomey was, a coach capable of yearly 7-5 records and occasional bowls.
    It took Stoops nearly six years to turn UA into a decent football team. Harbaugh turned Stanford around in two years. Pete Carrol turned USC around in one year. Looks like Sarkisian will get UW turned around in two years. Our cupboard wasn’t any more bare than those teams but it took Stoops twice as long to field a decent team.
    The primary job of an AD is hire decent coaches who field winners. Then it’s to provide those coaches and programs the resources and facilities they need.
    The question now is, what kind of talent evaluator is Robert Shelton?

  • tyler thomas

    as long as he leaves us Sonny Dykes he can take whomever he wants!!

    take mike stoops if you want……then leave us Sonny and his staff!!!!!

  • Ryan M.

    I agree with the poster Tyler Thomas. That alone should prove Livengood is inept. He takes the UNLV job and takes with him our defensive coridnator and leaves us with Sonny???????  Thats about as dumb as him trying to saddle us with Tim Floyd!!!

  • Thomas D.

    But will he leave that ill fitting rug of his??hospital georges

  • Thomas D.

    sorry about the typo on the  comment section password…..please take the rug with you Jim.

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  • Phil

    Has Robert Shelton done ANYTHING good for the University yet??

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