Question: Why is the Athletic Department and intercollegiate sports important to the mission of educating students at UNLV?

Answer: I think that athletics and sports teach you things that you can't learn in the classroom. I think there's things about competitive sports that you learn how to work with people. You develop leadership skills. We're in the process of developing leaders on our football team, that's a huge thing. We actually have a leadership committee on our team and we've had a course on our team called Leadership 101 that our coaching staff teaches, and so I think there's a lot of things we're doing to develop our young men to be successful in the world, regardless of what they do.

I think the interdependence that happens in the game of football is important. It's probably the most interdependent game that there is. A lot of games are interdependent. Basketball is interdependent, baseball is interdependent. But football, because of the nature of it — you have 11 guys and if one guy doesn't do his job, it can make all the other guys look stupid, including the coach. I think the interdependence you learn in the game of football is very similar to what you need to know to apply in other areas of life.

... The way I look at education, both in high school and college, is the classroom. It's books, it's taking notes, it's listening to lectures, being tested and all that. But looking back at my high school and college career, and I learned a lot of things outside the classroom that were part of my education, if that makes any sense. So I think being a part of an intercollegiate athletic program on a team, especially a football team because I'm partial, provides a lot of lessons.

[Question:] What will it take to revive fan support for UNLV football?

[Answer:] I think it's a two-way street. I would appreciate it and love it if people would come out and support us because we're the university in Las Vegas. We are the university here, we are the Division I football team here. I would love it if a bunch of people did that. Then, on the other side of it, we need to be successful. We're in the process of turning this program around and making it something people will be proud of. As we do that, as people see what we're doing, I think we will gain a lot of support. So it's definitely a two-way thing.