Keep it blue: RB Ball leads Nevada over UNLV

Mike Ball stepped to the podium Saturday afternoon for his first post-game press conference as a Nevada Wolf Pack player sporting a huge grin that seemingly stretched from Reno to Las Vegas.

"I'm a little nervous," the redshirt freshman running back said.

His youthful emotions in front of the media were fitting since he spent the previous three hours or so making the UNLV Rebels sweat.

Ball, who had just one carry in his college career at the start of the day, shredded the Rebels defense for 184 yards and five touchdowns on the ground as the Wolf Pack whipped UNLV, 63-28, in front of 24,078 fans at Mackay Stadium.

"(Running backs) Coach (Jim) Mastro just told me to be ready before the game, that Luke (Lippincott) would need some rest," the 19-year-old Desert Pines High (Las Vegas) graduate said. "I just tried to do my part."

Ball's part consisted of scoring on runs of 10, 1, 32, 4 and 89 yards as the Pack set a school record with 559 rushing yards. The previous record was 545 yards against Sacramento State in 1977.

"I give credit to the offensive line," Ball said. "My mother could have run through there."

At times it seemed like anybody's grandmother could have run the ball on the Rebels. In addition to Ball, quarterback Colin Kaepernick (173 yards) and Lippincott (170) also rushed for more than 100 yards. The Pack (1-3) has now rushed for 1,003 yards and 12 touchdowns in beating UNLV by a combined score of 112-55 the last two years. The Pack's 63 points on Saturday and the 91 combined points by both teams are both records for the 40-year-old, 35-game (the Pack leads 20-15) rivalry.

"Our offensive line was outstanding," said Pack coach Chris Ault, who is now just one away from his 200th career head coaching victory. "The difference in this game wasn't Kap (Kaepernick). It's not Luke. It's not Ball. It's that O-line."

"Breaking the school rushing record speaks for itself," said Kaepernick, who completed 15-of-18 passes for 208 yards. "Our O-line just dominated."

That domination took the form of a memorable day by anyone who touched the ball for the Pack. Courtney Randall even got in the game just in time to run for 34 yards on two carries, including the final touchdown of the day from 26 yards out.

"I was a little surprised they didn't do some different things to try to stop us," said Lippincott, who now has two 100-yard games since starter Vai Taua went out with an elbow injury two games ago. "I watched last year's game about five times this week and I saw Vai and Colin have great games. I knew they'd try to stop our running backs. But I also knew that we have the best backs in the nation on our team."

They were for one afternoon at least.

The Pack, though, needed a standout performance from its stable of running backs to be able to overcome an old problem - turnovers. The Pack turned the ball over three times in the first half (four for the game) as UNLV (2-3) somehow found itself in a 21-21 halftime tie.

"We're trying to get that extra yard, doing everything we can to get in the end zone," said Kaepernick, who lost two fumbles. "Things like that will happen. But they are things we have to try to correct."

The Pack, which did not punt in the game and was a perfect 7-of-7 on third down, outgained UNLV 288-197 in the first half and 773-346 for the game. The 773 total yards is just 21 short of the school record of 794 also against UNLV in 1993.

"We kept (UNLV) in the game with our fumbles," Ault said. "At halftime there was no rah-rah stuff, no win-one-for-the-Gipper speeches. We just came out and played good, solid football."

The four turnovers gives the Pack 14 on the year in four games. It came into the game tied with 14 other teams at 91st in the nation in turnovers lost.

"I just told them, 'We're going to keep giving you the ball. You are Nevada football players and you are going to tough it out.' And that was the end of the conversation," Ault said.

Kaepernick and the rest of the Pack got the message.

Eventually.

The Pack's fourth lost fumble, by Ball, set up UNLV's fourth touchdown (a 23-yard run by C.J. Cox) and helped tie the game at 28-28 late in the third quarter.

From that point on, though, it was just a huge Pack party. The Pack went 80 yards on eight plays, ending in a 4-yard Ball score for a 35-28 lead. Kaepernick then hooked up with Virgil Green on a 17-yard scoring pass for a 42-28 lead early in the fourth quarter.

And then the real fun began.

The Pack made it 49-28 as Kaepernick caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Lippincott. Ball (89 yards) and Randall (26) closed out the scoring on the Pack's sixth and seventh rushing TDs of the day.

"We worked on that all week," said Kaepernick of his TD catch. "I had confidence it would work."

"I haven't done that (thrown a TD pass) since I was a freshman in high school," Lippincott said.

Ball's 89-yarder (the Pack record is 98 yards by Johnny Gordon in 1984) might have been the highlight of the day.

"Coach Masto is always telling me, 'I want to see your speed,'" Ball said. "I was thinking about that after I hit the hole. I wanted to show him how fast I could run."

The Wolf Pack, which will open Western Athletic Conference play against Louisiana Tech on Friday night (6:05 p.m.) at Mackay Stadium, all but called beating UNLV a season-saving victory.

"I win like this excites everybody," Ault said. "It rejuvenates everybody."

"There's no better game to get your first win," smiled Kaepernick.