University of Nevada Las Vegas

Former Rebel star player Hunkie Cooper, who served as interim assistant coach over wide receivers for the team's victory at the LA Bowl, joined the program in April 2023 in the newly created position of Director of Football Player Development & Community Engagement. Having just completed his eighth season as an assistant coach overseeing wide receivers at fellow Mountain West member San Diego State, Cooper returned to the school where he famously played six different positions during his two-year Rebel career in 1990-91. An Honorable Mention All-American and two-time First Team All-Big West Conference honoree as a return man, he went on to become a legendary member of the Arizona Rattlers, being named the fifth-greatest player in Arena Football League history by the league’s Silver Anniversary Committee, and inducted to the AFL Hall of Fame in 2011. The Texas native, who quarterbacked Navarro Junior College to the 1989 national championship before joining the Rebels, also served as a UNLV radio analyst in 1998-99. Cooper later began his coaching career in the AFL and eventually spent six seasons as head coach of Canyon Springs High School in Las Vegas before moving to the collegiate level. He was inducted into the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame in 2024.