Fodder: Lippincott key to Nevada's year

Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . . Luke Lippincott just might be the key to the entire Nevada Wolf Pack football season. Yes, the defense will play a huge role. But, really, how good can you expect that defense to become in one year? They'll be better (they can't get worse, right?) but the Pack isn't going to suddenly transform into the 1985 Chicago Bears. If this Pack team is going to make the next huge step to double-digit victories, it will do so because the offense went from great to amazing. And if that happens, it will be because of Lippincott, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards two years ago before missing most of last year with an injury. Lippincott will be used in a variety of roles this year (H-back, tight end, wide receiver, you name it), all designed to get him the football at various spots on the field. This is a guy who could rush for 1,000 yards and pile up 1,000 yards receiving, not to mention score a dozen or so touchdowns.

•••

We are going to see Chris Ault's Pistol Offense in all its glory this season. The first few years of the offense under quarterbacks Jeff Rowe, Nick Graziano and Colin Kaepernick, it was sort of like letting your 16-year-old take the keys to the Porsche. Yes, they could drive it but they weren't allowed to go over 55 miles an hour or take it out on the open road. Well, the training wheels are finally off. Kaepernick is a veteran quarterback now. He'll have two 1,000-yard rushers at his disposal in Vai Taua and Lippincott. And he's going to take Ault's baby out on the highway and blow the doors off everybody else on the road.

•••

We understand that it is a difficult task to select the new Wolf Pack Hall of Fame members every year. And everyone that is in the Hall certainly deserves to be there. But why does the baseball program always seem to be an afterthought? This year six new members will be enshrined and three of them have connections to the swimming program. Three? Couldn't they have saved one of them for next year and slipped in a baseball guy this year? The baseball program had just one Hall of Fame inductee from 1991-2004 (Rob Richie in 2000). Since then four have gone in but just two (Andy Dominique in 2008 and Jim Stassi in 2005) had connections only to baseball.

•••

When Terrell Owens signed with the Buffalo Bills everyone wondered how he was going to survive in upstate New York. Well, now we know. He's going to fake a toe injury and never ever play in a game. That's not entirely true. The T.O. Show will need a little ratings boost for Season Two. Owens will come back for a game, catch a touchdown, do something disgusting in the end zone and then disappear again. Hey, Buffalo's not so bad in the winter.

•••

There seems to be a split in the Minnesota Vikings locker room over who should start at quarterback. Some Vikings like Brett Favre, some like Tarvaris Jackson and some like Sage Rosenfels. There's even a few who still like Joe Kapp and Gary Cuozzo. Here's the deal. Everyone dressed in purple needs to shut up, be a man and do their respective jobs. This isn't some high school cheerleading squad. Nobody cares who your favorite quarterback is. Favre is your quarterback until his head pops off, his right arm is destroyed in a freak hunting accident or he retires again, whichever comes first.

•••

A total of seven rookie quarterbacks (the New York Jets' Mark Sanchez will be the eighth in a couple weeks) started in Week One of their first year over the last 10 seasons. Their record is 4-3. What does it mean? Absolutely nothing. Quarterback is the most overrated position in all of sports. Lazy media members who don't know any better want you to believe that everything connected to a football team, from the won-loss record, to the cost of a beer and the head coach's indigestion, should be credited or blamed on the quarterback. It's just not true. Ryan Leaf started the first game of his rookie year and beat the Buffalo Bills. That's all you need to know.

•••

The Napa (Calif.) police are supposedly investigating the incident where Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable had something to do with a face injury to assistant coach Randy Hanson. The Napa police? They have a police force in Napa? What is going to be their first two questions? Tell me, Mr. Cable, were you drinking red or white wine when the alleged incident took place? And what were you eating, red meat or fish?

•••

Plaxico Burress told ESPN this week that he takes full responsibility for shooting himself in the leg in a nightclub. Amazing. That's the sort of journalism you just didn't get before cable television, folks.

•••

Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino needs to go somewhere and hide. No more press conferences designed to simply scold the media for doing its job. Pitino, though, told the media this week that everything he has said about the incident when he cheated on his wife was true and everything the woman has said is a lie. OK, thanks for straightening that out, coach. He also said that everyone who loves Louisville basketball should stop reading newspapers, watching television stations or listening to radio stations that are reporting something about his ugly affair. Yes, coach, whatever you say. Would you like us all to run four laps around the gym now?