Nevada to move quickly on Ault's successor

The coach's hiring is an agenda item for a meeting Friday of the Board of Regents, which oversees the state's higher education system. A head football coach's hiring at a Nevada university is subject to approval by regents.

"This is a critical hire and with the football recruiting season under way we need to act quickly," President Marc Johnson said in a statement. He would not confirm a CBS Sports report Saturday that Texas A&M special teams/tight ends coach Brian Polian was offered the job.

"We're not quite there yet," Johnson told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "Nothing has been negotiated or signed. Everything could fall apart. And we could have to move on to a No. 2 candidate."

The newspaper reported Polian was among five coaches Johnson and Groth interviewed Thursday in Dallas. Others included two coaches with Nevada ties: Chris Klenakis, who was Arkansas' offensive line coach last season, and Tom Mason, who is SMU's defensive coordinator, the Gazette-Journal reported.