Nevada head coach Jay Norvell, center, looks on from the sidelines in the final minutes against Tulane during the Potato Bowl on Dec. 22 in Boise, Idaho. Nevada won 38-27. (Photo: Steve Conner/AP, file)
It is official. The pressure of having to win a Mountain West division title is now firmly on the backs of each member of the Nevada Wolf Pack football team and coaching staff.
The Wolf Pack has been picked by the Mountain West media to win the West Division and face the Mountain Division champion Boise State Broncos in the Dec. 4 conference title game. No more excuses. No more “we beat the odds.” No more “nobody believed in us” cliché garbage. Everyone believes in this Wolf Pack football team.
And the odds are squarely in favor of the Pack. It’s time for the silver and blue to put up or shut up. Anything short of a division title will be a huge disappointment this year. If the Pack is not in the Mountain West title game on Dec. 4 the season will be a letdown. This is the season coach Jay Norvell has been promising Northern Nevada since he got here in December 2016. This is what he has been building, piece by agonizing piece, since he took over the program. As one of Norvell’s bosses once said, the time has come to just win, baby.
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The Pack season will likely come down to its two games against Boise State. One is already scheduled.
The Pack will open its Mountain West schedule at Boise State on Oct. 2. That game should determine which team hosts the Mountain West title game. The second game between the Pack and Broncos, if all goes as planned, will take place Dec. 4 with the conference title and a possible New Year’s Day bowl game on the line.
The last time the Wolf Pack played Boise twice in a season (the only time it has happened) was 1990. The Pack lost at Boise State in the regular season 30-14 and 28 days later beat the Broncos 59-52 in triple overtime in the Division I-AA playoff semifinals at Mackay Stadium. It would be fitting if the Wolf Pack gives a free game ticket, a couple nights in a hotel and air fare (if needed) to every member of that 1990 team to make sure they are on the sideline for the Dec. 4 game.
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The Oct. 2 game at Boise State will be the most important Pack-Broncos game since, you guessed it, the 34-31 overtime Pack win at Mackay Stadium in 2010. The 1990 playoff game, just because it sent the Pack to the I-AA national title game, was the most important Boise State-Nevada game in history.
But there were two other important Boise-Nevada showdowns that Pack fans quickly tried to forget that took place between the 1990 playoff game and the 2010 game. The Pack met Boise State in big games in 2005 and 2009, both at Boise State, with the Western Athletic Conference title on the line and, well, Boise State won both times. Boise State beat the Pack 49-14 in the middle of the 2005 season and both teams ended up tied for the conference title at 7-1. Both teams were 7-0 heading into the final game of the 2009 season and Boise State won 44-33.
The moral of this story? You don’t want to play Boise State at Boise State with a championship on the line.
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The Wolf Pack, though, can certainly beat Boise State at Boise State this year. The Pack will have the more talented and deeper team. It will have the more experienced head coach.
Boise State coach Andy Avalos has yet to win a game as a head coach. The Boise State that has won 16 of its last 17 games against Nevada, well, that Boise State team doesn’t really exist anymore. They lost the Mountain West title game last year to, of all programs, San Jose State. The Broncos program last year was in a state of confusion most of the year with about a dozen players sidelined each week because of COVID-19 protocols. Their head coach (Bryan Harsin) bolted from the program for Auburn just three days after the loss to San Jose State. The Pack could beat Boise State more times this year (twice) than it has in the 17 meetings combined between the two schools since 1998.
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Which team, Boise State or Nevada, has the easiest path to a division title this year? Boise State has a slightly easier path, simply because it hosts Nevada on Oct. 2. The rest of the league schedules for the two teams is eerily similar.
The Broncos and Wolf Pack will each play at San Diego State, Fresno State and Colorado State and will each host Air Force. The only real differences between the Boise State and Nevada conference schedules is that Nevada will host Hawaii, San Jose State and UNLV while Boise State will play at Utah State and host Wyoming and New Mexico.
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It was a surprise to nobody that Nevada quarterback Carson Strong, wide receiver Romeo Doubs, tight end Cole Turner and kicker Brandon Talton were named to the Mountain West Preseason First Team this week.
It was a bit of surprise that Pack defense tackle Dom Peterson was not named to the team since he is talented enough to win Defensive Player of the Year this year. Another Pack player that got slighted was running back Toa Taua.
Wyoming’s Xazavian Valladay and Fresno State’s Ronnie Rivers were named as the two running backs on the First Team, even though Taua had more rushing yards last year (675) than either Valladay (550) or Rivers (507). The league ranks its running backs based on average yards gained per game, which sort of explains why Valladay and Rivers were named to the preseason team. Taua played more games (eight) than either Valladay (five) and Rivers (six) last year, though he had just 15 more carries than Valladay and just 14 more than Rivers and averaged more yards per carry (5.9) than either Valladay (5.6) or Rivers (5.1).
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Excell Sports Management reminded us all this week that college sports has turned into a circus when it announced it has signed high school basketball player Mikey Williams to an endorsement deal.
In case you haven’t heard, high school and college players can now make money off of their name, image and likeness. They could make enough money to basically retire by the age of 22 and not even play pro sports. That is how destructive the new name, image, likeness (NIL) rule is to college sports.
Excell also announced that Williams, who is all of 17 years old, could end up making millions of dollars off of endorsements during his high school and college career.
Who needs an education? Williams doesn’t. If you are a college coach, do you really want to coach a kid who is already a millionaire? Well, that coach just might be Nevada’s Steve Alford. Williams has yet to make his college choice because, well, he has been busy choosing a sports management team. The Wolf Pack, apparently, is in the mix (somewhat) for Williams’ services, though there is probably a better chance that the Oakland A’s move to Reno and play at Greater Nevada Field.
The Pack, according to the Charlotte Observer (Williams, who is from San Diego, is currently playing for a high school in North Carolina) has offered Williams a scholarship. The Observer didn’t mention whether or not the Pack offer to Williams included a car dealership or two on Kietzke.
