Murphy Goes Out With Loss to UNLV : Big West: Retiring coach retains his sense of humor after Titans turn a 10-0 lead into a 33-16 setback.

The final chapter of Gene Murphy’s Cal State Fullerton coaching career had a familiar ring--it read much like the horror stories that have tormented him the last three seasons.

Titans look good for one quarter.

Titans collapse in second quarter.

Titans lose big.

Fullerton followed the same plot again Saturday, losing to Nevada Las Vegas, 33-16, in front of 3,507 in the Silver Bowl, and when it was over, when Murphy was done hugging friends and family members and mugging for photo opportunities, a certain numbness enveloped the 53-year-old coach in the locker room.

“This was disappointing and depressing, but that’s it, there’s no emotion,” said Murphy, who announced Oct. 1 that he would retire at the end of the season. “The word’s not relief either. There is no emotion. There might be tonight, tomorrow, Monday or Tuesday. There might be if I don’t get another job, too.”

There was levity, though. That has been a running theme during Murphy’s tenure, through the highs of 1983 and ‘84, when the Titans won a conference title one season and went 11-1 the following year (UNLV’s victory was later forfeited), and the lows of 1990-92 when Fullerton combined for a dismal 5-29 record.

With the clock winding down, Murphy turned to offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and facetiously “fired” him with three seconds to go.

“He’s been asking me to do that for a few years now,” Murphy said. “But I made him suffer here with me.”

Saturday, the suffering didn’t start until the second quarter. The Titans (2-9, 0-6 in the Big West) played a splendid first quarter, taking a 10-0 lead on Jermaine Hill’s two-yard touchdown run and Julio Ocana’s 35-yard field goal. They outgained the Rebels, 144-4, in the quarter.

Fullerton went ahead, 13-0, on Ocana’s 24-yard field goal late in the quarter, but a roughing the kicker penalty offered the opportunity of a first down at the Rebel three-yard line.

The Titans turned down the three-pointer and went for six, but quarterback Trendell Williams overthrew an open Robert Bedford on a play-action pass to the end zone, Danny Pasquil and Hill ran for a yard each, and Williams, who appeared to lunge over center David Porter on fourth and inches, was ruled short of the goal line.

Las Vegas (6-5, 3-3) took over, with speedy quarterback John Ma’ae replacing sluggish starter Bob Stockham, and drove 79 yards before Nick Garritano kicked his first of four field goals, a 37-yarder 9 minutes 20 seconds before halftime.

Those were the first of 33 consecutive points--Garritano added field goals of 34, 38 and 31 yards--as UNLV riddled Fullerton’s secondary for 265 passing yards. Ma’ae completed 10 of 21 passes for 251 yards and two touchdowns, both to Demond Thompkins, a 35-yarder in the second quarter and a 47-yarder in the third.

Thompkins finished with nine receptions for 212 yards to set a UNLV single-game record, breaking Jeff Spek’s mark of 206 set against Texas El Paso in 1980, and Henry Bailey added a 74-yard punt return for a touchdown in the second quarter.

Fullerton broke into the record books, too, although in a more auspicious way. The Titans lost two of five fumbles to set the NCAA single-season record of 73 fumbles, 41 lost, breaking the previous marks of 68 and 39 set by Texas Southern in 1977.

“That was a blow to us when we didn’t get the touchdown (after the roughing the kicker penalty),” Titan nose guard Jason Wells said. “You could sense the deflation on the sideline. That always seems to happen to us.

“For three years we’ve lost so many times that when we get a lead and something bad happens, we start thinking, ‘Here we go again.’ It’s not that you quit, but you lose the intensity and adrenaline.”

There was one consolation for the Titans--they scored the game’s last touchdown, Steve Danzy going in from a yard out after Hill hit Williams with a 44-yard halfback pass.

There was a mixture of emotions in the Fullerton locker room afterward, disappointment over another losing season and affection for the Titans’ departing coach.

“I’ve played under a lot of great coaches, including George Allen, and Gene Murphy ranks right up there,” said defensive end David Breuninger, who transferred to Fullerton after Cal State Long Beach dropped football last winter. “I wish I had a chance to play for him a little longer.”

Added Wells: “He always had a smile on his face, he always kept up, joking around. There wasn’t a time you couldn’t talk to Gene Murphy about something.”

Linebacker Lorenzo Hailey said: “Gene Murphy is a hell of a man and I’ll never forget him, but I’m kind of relieved. It’s been a long season. When you’re losing, it’s a long season.”

For Mike Murphy, one of Gene’s two sons, it was a short season. Mike went out for the team last spring and quit before fall drills, but when his father asked him to suit up for his final game as Fullerton coach, Mike jumped at the opportunity.

Murphy practiced with the Titans all week and played on the punt return team Saturday.

“I’ll remember this for a long time,” he said. “I’ll be able to show my kids and grandkids film of me on the punt return team. I got one good block, one OK block, and one time I blocked a ghost.”

Gene Murphy was thrilled to have his son in uniform and his other son, Tim, on the sideline for his last game. “We got a nice picture for our Christmas card,” he said.

But to Gene Murphy, who has been rumored to be in line for the Fullerton College job, his final game as Titan coach was hardly of profound significance.

“It’s just, that’s it,” Murphy said. “That’s us, that’s it, that’s all folks.”