Nevada quarterback Nate Cox (16) throws against New Mexico State in Reno on Oct. 9, 2021. (Photo: Tom R. Smedes/AP)
How do you make a meaningless college football bowl game played at 8 a.m. on a Monday suddenly interesting and intriguing? Well, you lose half your coaching staff and nearly two dozen players and then travel more than half way across the country and take on a team (the Western Michigan Broncos) that will be basically playing a home game. Are you now interested in the Quick Lane Bowl? Hey, what else do you have to do at 8 a.m. this Monday?
This year’s Quick Lane Bowl, featuring what’s left of the Nevada Wolf Pack, is now one of the most fascinating bowl games in all of college football this year. Their head coach abandoned them. Their coordinators on offense, defense and special teams vanished. Their starting quarterback and tight end and almost all of their wide receivers have either deserted them for other teams or would rather train for their NFL futures than play in Detroit on a Monday morning.
Watching the Wolf Pack in the Quick Lane Bowl will be sort of like watching Bewitched when they changed Darrins, only this time they also changed Samantha, Tabitha and Endora. The Wolf Pack has never had a bowl game this interesting.
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Forget Quick Lane Bowl. For the Wolf Pack it is the Backup Bowl. The Next Man Up Bowl. How about the Can Anybody Here Play Wide Receiver Bowl? There will be more familiar Wolf Pack names in the Senior Bowl (Carson Strong, Romeo Doubs, Cole Turner) than there will be in Monday’s Who’s That Dude? Bowl.
No Pack position, though, has been more depleted than wide receiver. The six names for the three wide receiver positions on the Wolf Pack’s two-deep chart are Evidence Njoku, Carson Walters, Jamaal Bell, Dylan Overstreet, Tyrese Mack and Zeke Robbins. Those six have all of nine catches (seven by Bell) combined this year. Njoku is listed as tight end on the roster, Overstreet is a running back and Robbins is a defensive back so it is really anybody’s guess who new quarterback Nate Cox will be throwing passes to on Monday.
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Yes, of course, it will be surprising on Monday morning to see Cox light up the skies with footballs. It’s not because the 6-foot-9 senior can’t throw. Cox, who might have to duck when entering Ford Field on Monday, has completed 14-of-20 passes this year for 158 yards and a touchdown.
So if Cox, who could be the Pack starter next year, had Doubs, Turner, Justin Lockart, Melquan Stovall and Tory Horton to throw to on Monday, he would likely go over 300 yards and three touchdowns. But he has a bunch of guys who might have donned the Wolfie and Alfie costumes during games this year, for all we know.
What the offense does have, however, is an interim head coach (Vai Taua) that is one of the best running backs in Pack history, a backfield of Toa Taua and Devonte Lee and an offensive line that is just drooling at the mouth to run block and go out and punch defensive linemen and linebackers in the face. They all deserve it after a season of standing around and watching Carson Strong flip 40-plus passes a game.
Give Taua and Lee 65-plus carries combined on Monday and watch then turn into the best ground eaters to hit Detroit since the Corvette and Mustang.
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The Wolf Pack’s choice of Vai Taua as the fill-in head coach on Monday just might be the most interesting part of the Quick Lane Bowl. What, weren’t Alfie and Wolfie available or did they enter the transfer portal, too?
Taua has been a part of the Pack coaching staff the past five years. But the first two were in an administrative role and the last three were spent coaching a position (running backs) that head coach Jay Norvell and offensive coordinator Matt Mumme refused to admit even existed. Taua as a head coach in a Pack bowl game is, well, a bit ironic.
This is a young man (he’s now 33) that once quit the Pack for three weeks as a freshman, had an issue with parking violations a year or so later and then had to sit out a 2009 bowl game because he was academically ineligible. And now he is a head coach in a bowl game?
“I’m upset and disappointed that Vai didn’t fulfill his obligation as a student athlete,” former Pack coach Chris Ault said back in December 2009 when announcing Vai was suspended for the Hawaii Bowl. “He has let his team down.” Ault was not happy with the then 21-year-old Vai. “Vai is set to graduate next December,” Ault added back in 2009. “That is why I’m upset with him. I wanted to punch him right in the mouth.”
Vai had to watch the Wolf Pack’s bowl game in 2009 against SMU from his parent’s home in Lompoc, Calif., presumably with the 9- or 10-year-old Toa. Vai Taua is not letting anyone in silver and blue down now. He has remained loyal and true to the Pack when all around him were stealing everything not nailed down heading out of town. He should be applauded for stepping in as head coach in an extremely difficult situation. Odds are no Pack players or coaches will punch Vai in the mouth on Monday unless, of course, it is brother Toa if he doesn’t get the ball.
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This year’s Quick Lane Bowl game with a depleted Pack roster is reminiscent, albeit in a small way, of that 2009 Hawaii Bowl game against SMU. The Pack in 2009 was not only missing Vai Taua against SMU. Running back Luke Lippincott also missed the game because he just had surgery on a toe. Taua, Lippincott and quarterback Colin Kaepernick became the first backfield in Football Bowl Subdivision history that season with three players with 1,000 or more rushing yards. And only Kaepernick played in the bowl game.
The Wolf Pack also played SMU without a couple of defensive players, backup linebacker Andre Davis and starting defensive back Duke Williams. Davis was arrested for shoplifting in Hawaii and Williams was with him (though not arrested).
New Pack coach Ken Wilson was on Ault’s staff in 2009 and said something at the time that will be even more relevant on Monday. “It (the missing players) doesn’t matter to the guys that are playing in the game,” said Wilson in 2009 of the Hawaii Bowl. “We’re going forward with those guys.” The Wolf Pack went on to lose to SMU 45-10 in Hawaii.
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By Monday night Vai Taua could become just one of six Pack head coaches in history along with Joe Sheeketski, Jeff Tisdel, Chris Ault, Brian Polian and Jay Norvell to win a bowl game. Taua’s 1-0 bowl record would only be surpassed in Pack history by Sheeketski (2-0) and equaled by Tisdel (1-0). Taua’s one bowl win would also put him just one victory behind Chris “Pack A Punch” Ault, who was 2-8 in bowl games.
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Western Michigan has a very capable offense. The Broncos have averaged 31 points a game and can throw (quarterback Kaleb Eleby has passed for 3,115 yards and 21 touchdowns) and run the ball (Sean Tyler has 1,004 yards and La’Darius Jefferson has 750 yards). But this could be a chance for the Pack defense, the one area that has not been gutted by Norvell and the transfer portal, to stand up and steal a bit of the spotlight.
The Pack defense will be without linebacker (and leading tackler) Daiyan Henley, who scurried off this month to join Pack defensive coordinator Brian Ward at Washington State. But other than carpetbaggers Henley and Ward, the Pack defense you will see on Monday is the one that played this season.
Defensive linemen Dom Peterson, Sam Hammond, Zak Mahannah, Tristan Nichols, Daniel Grzesiak, Jack Powers, Amir Johnson, Christopher Love and Kam Toomer will all be in Detroit. Linebackers Lawson Hall and Trevor Price will also be there as will defensive backs Tyson Williams, Christian Swint, Bentlee Sanders, Isaiah Essissima, JoJo Claiborne, Jordan Lee, Emany Johnson, Berdale Robins, Jaden Dedman and Tyriq Mack. Any chance the Pack has of winning Monday (Western Michigan is 1-9 in bowl games, by the way) will start with the defense.
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One of the few surprising developments of the now famous Wolf Pack exodus the last few weeks is that defensive end coach Jackie Shipp did not go with Norvell to Colorado State.
Shipp, after all, was on Norvell’s staff at Nevada the last three years and also coached with Norvell at Oklahoma from 2008-12. He’s done a remarkable job with the Pack defensive line since he’s gotten to Nevada, turning that unit into one of the best in the Mountain West.
Shipp, by the way, a six-year NFL veteran, played alongside former Western Michigan linebacker John Offerdahl with Don Shula’s Miami Dolphins from 1986-88. We haven’t been able to confirm whether Shipp and Offerdahl have bet a Ford F-150 on Monday’s outcome. Shipp, of course, may yet join Norvell at Colorado State or ex-Pack defensive coordinator Brian Ward at Washington State but the Pack is fortunate he is still on this skeleton staff.
