Titans’ Murphy, Notre Dame Assistant Are Two UNLV Finalists

Notre Dame assistant Jim Strong and Cal State Fullerton’s Gene Murphy are the final two candidates for the Nevada Las Vegas football coaching job, sources said Thursday.

UNLV expects to name a coach at a news conference today, but had not scheduled one as of Thursday night. The school would not confirm whether the job had been offered to either candidate.

Murphy said Thursday night he had not heard from UNLV, and that if he were offered the job he would not answer immediately but would take time to consider the offer.

“If it happens, it happens,” Murphy said. “I don’t care. I’m real easy.”

Strong could not be reached for comment. He was in Wisconsin on a recruiting trip, according to a person who answered the phone at his home.

Strong, 35, has coached the backfield at Notre Dame the past two seasons. He also has been an assistant under Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz at Minnesota and Arkansas.

A 17-member UNLV committee met for five hours Thursday before narrowing the list of five candidates.

Other finalists were Rams assistant Artie Gigantino, Fresno State assistant Pat Hill and Houston offensive coordinator John Jenkins. Portland State Coach Pokey Allen, who also interviewed, withdrew earlier this week, and Gigantino withdrew Thursday night.

Murphy has earned praise for building a competitive program on a meager budget at a school that does not have its own stadium. In his 10 years, Fullerton is 54-60-1. His teams have won two conference championships, in 1983 and again in 1984 when UNLV was forced to forfeit a victory over Fullerton because the Rebels had used ineligible players.

Murphy was in demand five years ago after the Titans went 11-1 and was offered jobs at Utah and Oregon State. Murphy chose to pursue the job at Missouri that year, but finished second to Woody Widenhofer, whose tenure lasted four seasons.

This season’s 6-4-1 record has brought another round of speculation that Murphy would leave.

Murphy met with Utah Athletic Director Chris Hill last week to discuss the vacant Utah coaching job, but was not formally interviewed. Utah named Arizona assistant Ron McBride, 50, as its coach on Thursday.