Unlv Hires Preston

Buzz Preston, who has coached running backs at Washington State since 1994, is the new offensive coordinator at UNLV.

Preston, 41, replaces Charlie Stubbs, who left UNLV last month to become quarterbacks coach at Alabama.

Preston hopes that becoming a coordinator will help him become a head coach. “I’m excited and thankful to Mike Price for giving me an opportunity to come here and then helping me to get what I’ve wanted,” Preston said Friday, as the Cougars prepared to return to Pullman. “It’s tough to get that head coaching job without that title of coordinator. This is a great deal for me.”

WSU has not named a replacement for Preston, who was responsible for recruiting in Los Angeles and throughout the Southwest. While at WSU, Preston helped recruit Michael Black, who rushed for 1,181 yards and 11 touchdowns this season.

Preston, a defensive back and receiver at Hawaii during the 1979 and ‘80 seasons, grew up in Los Angeles and has coached at Hawaii, Washington, Southern Illinois and with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts.

He joins the staff of UNLV coach Jeff Horton, who hired Preston after visiting him twice as the Cougars prepared for the Rose Bowl. Former Idaho receiver Eric Yarber is also on the staff at UNLV.

The Runnin’ Rebels, who finished 3-8 this season, will continue to use a one-back offense that is somewhat like WSU’s.

Preston and his wife, Audrey, are both from the Los Angeles area. They have two children, ages 10 and 7.

The dotted line

Athletic director Rick Dickson said he expected Price to sign a contract extension “in the next week to 10 days.”

The two have agreed on terms, Dickson said, which will wed Price to Washington State into the 21st century and reportedly bump his salary into the $350,000 range. But the pressing concerns of the Rose Bowl - the game for Price, the ticket distribution and ancillary factors for Dickson - has kept them from finalizing the deal.

“He knows what it is and he’s comfortable with what we’ve put in front of him,” Dickson said. “But it’s one thing for us to discuss it. Now it’s a legal contract and he needs to have somebody look at it.”

Price will attend the American Football Coaches Association convention this weekend in Dallas, where the Cougars offensive staff will put on a clinic and Price is up for coach of the year honors.

That other timeout

It wouldn’t have been available to the Cougars at game’s end when they really needed it, but lost in the drama of Thursday’s Rose Bowl was a timeout WSU had to burn before its first defensive series.

Price was still fuming about it Friday.

The Southeastern Conference officiating crew had given Price a list of 15 minor uniform irregularities that had to be corrected before the game. When the defense took the field, cornerback Ray Jackson still had a pantleg folded up above the knee, a rules violation.

“The guy gives me a list and it’s, ‘Y’all this and y’all that,’ and I can see I’m not going to win that argument,” Price said, slipping into his best Southernese. “He’s saying, ‘Yew have him cuht thayat bayult owff - if its seeux eenches owff, he’s gawta cuht it.’

“So it’s a TV timeout and instead of walking by and telling (Ray) to cover that knee, we come to the line of scrimmage and he makes us take a timeout.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos Graphic: Pac-10, SEC, ACC dominate bowls