Murphy Goes Out With Loss to UNLV : Big West: The Cal State Fullerton coach is still able to find humor at the end of a 33-16 setback.

The final chapter of Gene Murphy’s Cal State Fullerton coaching career had a familiar feel--it read much like the ones that have tormented him the past 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, before 3,507 in the Silver Bowl. 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 this season. “The word’s not relief, either. There is no emotion. It might happen tonight, tomorrow, Monday or Tuesday. It might happen if I don’t get another job, too.”

There was levity, though. That has been the 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 next year, 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 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.

The Titans turned down the three-pointer and went for six, but quarterback Trendell Williams overthrew a wide-open Robert Bedford on a play-action pass to the end zone, Danny Pasquil and Hill ran for a yard each, and Williams was stopped short of the goal line.

Las Vegas took over, with speedy quarterback John Ma’ae replacing sluggish starter Bob Stockham, and drove 79 yards before Nick Garritano kicked the first of four field goals, a 37-yarder 9:20 before halftime.

Those were the first of UNLV’s 33 unanswered points, as the Rebels riddled Fullerton’s secondary for 265 passing yards.

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.