Sports fodder for a Friday morning ... You can argue whether or not that this is the greatest Nevada Wolf Pack football team in the greatest Nevada Wolf Pack football season in school history. My vote goes to the 1919 team that went 8-1-1 for coach R.E. Courtwright and outscored its opponents a combined 450-32 with seven shutouts. But there is one thing that you can't argue about when it comes to the 2010-11 football season. It is the longest in Pack history at 129 days. That's nine days longer than Chris Ault's first two seasons as head coach (1976, 77) lasted combined. Well, the waiting is almost over. We want to thank you for your patience. And the Pack will reward your patience with a four-touchdown victory.
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If you praise Andrew Luck for staying at Stanford another year and giving up millions of dollars and a chance at being the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft then, at the same time, you are saying there is something wrong with Luke Babbitt and Armon Johnson leaving Nevada early last spring to head into the NBA Draft. You can't have it both ways. We just have one piece of advice for Luck, who seems to be taking his last name a bit too seriously. Don't get hurt next year, Andrew. Don't get hurt.
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Luck staying in school does help Wolf Pack quarterback Colin Kaepernick. There will now be one less quarterback in the draft. Kaepernick, who could secure himself a spot in the second or third round in the draft with an eye-opening performance on Sunday, has to overcome one huge obstacle with NFL scouts. He has to prove that he is not the next Vince Young. Nobody wants to be Vince Young right now. Not even Vince Young.
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Most NFL organizations, though, have no clue about how to pick a quarterback. They also have no clue how to pick a head coach. The Oakland Raiders fire a guy after his best season. The San Francisco 49ers fire a guy just because he couldn't lead an Alex Smith-quarterbacked team into the postseason. The Miami Dolphins are interviewing a possible new coach even before the old coach is fired. And now Jim Harbaugh is suddenly the hottest coaching prospect in the free world. The guy lucks (every pun intended) into a great quarterback, has one great year and he is now the next Vince Lombardi. Harbaugh might be a great NFL coach. Or he might be Dave Wannstedt. The 49ers might be better off letting the Dolphins find out whether he's Lombardi or Wannstedt.
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The New York Jets, Baltimore Ravens, New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles will win this weekend. And, oh yeah, the Nevada Wolf Pack. And we're not just talking about the Pack football team. This Pack basketball team is about ready to make its move in the Western Athletic Conference. Knocking off WAC- favorite Utah State on Saturday at Lawlor is a good place to start. The Pack is not as bad as its 4-11 record would suggest and Utah State is not as good as its 13-2 record. The game is at Lawlor. Pack in an upset.
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Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven deserve to be in baseball's Hall of Fame. No question. Harold Baines and John Franco, two guys who should be in the Hall of Fame, though, each got booted off the ballot forever because they ended up with less than 5 percent of the vote. Baines is 29th all-time with 1,628 RBI, 58th in doubles with 488, 56th in homers (384), 40th in hits (2,866) and 35th in total bases (4,604). Franco had 424 saves, more than 100 more than Hall of Famers Rich Gossage (310) and Bruce Sutter (300). These guys can't get 5 percent of the vote? Instead of taking players off the ballot, maybe the Hall should start taking ballots away from uneducated voters.
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