Sports Fodder: Pack can finish year strong

Sports Fodder … We can now put to rest the silly debate of which Nevada Wolf Pack team is better, the 2010 team that went 13-1, beat a great Boise State team and finished tied for first in the Western Athletic Conference or this year’s Pack team, which is now 5-2 and has only beaten struggling teams. The second loss of the season, 34-32 this past Saturday at Fresno State, ends the 2010 versus 2021 debate once and for all, no matter what happens the rest of this season. The 2010 team is still, without question, the best Pack team in the Division I-A era (since 1992). It was simply a better football team top to bottom, filled with NFL draft picks, and will end up with a better record than the 2021 team. The 2010 team had far more talent on both sides of the ball (especially on defense) and, well, it’s not even close. This year’s Pack team can certainly finish strong (pun intended), win the Mountain West and its bowl game, finish 12-2 and become the second-best Division I-A team in school history.
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Both the 2010 and 2021 teams played (and will play) schedules that were (and are) tougher on paper than on the field. But the 2010 schedule was a bit more challenging than the 2021 schedule. This year’s Pack has played just two teams thus far that have a winning record in Kansas State (4-3) and Fresno State (6-2) and lost both of those games. Just two (San Diego State and Air Force) of the final five regular season opponents will likely finish the year above .500. The 2010 team, though, also had its share of cupcakes, beating eight teams with losing records. But the 2010 Pack also beat a team (Boise State at 12-1) that would have rolled over any team on this year’s schedule. It also beat Fresno State (8-5) and BYU (7-6) on the road, Boston College (7-6) in San Francisco and Eastern Washington, which ended up winning the Division I-AA national title. The only loss in 2010 came against 10-4 Hawaii on the road that tied for the Mountain West title. The combined record of the 2010 opponents was 85-95 (.472) while the record of the 2021 foes right now is 41-48 (.461) and likely to get worse (if the Pack does what it needs to do).
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The loss at Fresno State did almost nothing to keep the Pack from winning the West Division of the Mountain West. Yes, if Fresno State (3-1 in league play) never loses again the Wolf Pack (2-1) will need some Mountain West magic to win the division. But Fresno State must still play San Diego State, Boise State, San Jose State and New Mexico and won‘t likely finish with just one league loss. Pack fans should be rooting for San Diego State (3-0) to beat Fresno State this weekend because that might be the best chance for the Bulldogs to lose another game. If San Diego State beats Fresno the Wolf Pack would then likely win the division by beating San Diego State on Nov. 13 on the road. As long as quarterback Carson Strong is on the field you have to like the Pack’s chances of going 10-2 in the regular season and then winning the conference title game. But what do we know? We predicted 12-0.
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Fresno State deserved to lose on Saturday. The Bulldogs played like a frightened puppy in a thunderstorm hiding under the couch in the final minute. With about a little more than a minute to play the Bulldogs faced a 3rd-and-4 from the Pack 44. Fresno quarterback Jake Haener had already shredded the Pack for 26 completions, 256 yards and two touchdowns, picking up 16 first downs through the air. But the Bulldog puppies simply ran Jordan Mims up the middle for a yard and had to punt the ball away. The Pack, down 34-26, then took over on its own 10-yard line with 53 seconds to play. The Bulldogs, who harassed Pack quarterback Carson Strong all game long with five sacks, then continued to play soft and scared, rushing just three defenders and telling their defensive backs to play even softer. Strong simply played pitch and catch, finding Cole Turner for gains of 21 and 12 yards and Justin Lockhart for 21. His best throw of the drive was a dangerous strike to Romeo Doubs over the middle into double coverage for 24 yards, a bullet that will likely get him taken in the first round of the NFL draft this April. Strong then found Turner again for a 12-yard touchdown. Turner, lined up on the right side with two other Pack receivers, cut over the middle against single coverage while another Bulldog was in the back of the end zone covering nobody. The Pack then should have tied the game on the 2-point conversion on a throw Strong will normally make 99 times out of 100. Doubs beat his defender, turning him around in circles, in the back of the end zone. If Strong would have led Doubs just a little it would have been an easy two points. But the throw was behind Doubs, who somehow made a sensational catch but landing about two feet out of the end zone. Fresno State did nothing to win that game in the final minute except rely on Doubs’ gravity.
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It has been a decade since the Wolf Pack has actually played well against UNLV at Mackay Stadium, winning 37-0 in 2011. The Pack has lost three of four games against UNLV at Mackay since 2011. The only Pack win at home against UNLV since 2011 was an ugly 23-16 affair in 2017 in which UNLV had more first downs by running the ball 50 times and controlling the ball for 36-plus minutes. The Pack win in 2011, though, was a masterpiece as the defense devoured UNLV, holding the Rebels to just seven first downs and 110 total yards. UNLV quarterback Caleb Herring was an embarrassing 1-of-14 for eight yards and an interception. It was the type of game Ault used to go to bed the night before the UNLV game dreaming about. Herring, though, got his revenge two years later at Mackay, throwing for 335 yards and three touchdowns in a 27-22 win over the Pack. The Rebels have basically owned Mackay Stadium ever since.
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Pack coach Jay Norvell has had former Pack coach Chris Ault talk to the Pack players the Monday before each UNLV game the past four years, including this week. Ault’s little speech and history lesson, though, hasn’t motivated the Pack as well as hoped because Norvell is just 2-2 against UNLV. The last time the Rebels, losers of 13 in a row, won a game was at Mackay in 2019 in overtime, 33-30, a game that would have made Ault take over the program if he was, well, still athletic director and not the Pack's No. 1 guest speaker. Maybe Norvell should get former Pack coach Jeff Tisdel to talk to the team each year before the rebel game. Tisdel, after all, was 4-0 against UNLV from 1996-99.
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Ault, though, has the reputation of being a UNLV killer. And that, well, wasn’t always the truth. Yes, Ault won 13 of his last 15 against UNLV against some truly awful UNLV teams (even by UNLV standards). But before those last 15 games Ault was a dismal 2-5 against UNLV. Ault’s most devastating loss against UNLV, though, took place during his final 15 games against the red devils. The Rebels shocked the Pack 32-27 on Nov. 19, 1994 in Las Vegas in the first game Ault matched up against former Pack head coach Jeff Horton. A Las Vegas Bowl berth was on the line. UNLV went 80 yards in 12 plays to score a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to wipe out a 27-26 Pack lead. The Pack then got to the Rebel 32 with five seconds to play but quarterback Mike Maxwell’s pass missed wide receiver Alex Van Dyke in the end zone. Memories of that final pass came flooding back to Pack fans of a certain age this past Saturday with the Strong-to-Doubs near miss at Fresno State. An estimated 9,000 Pack fans left Sam Boyd Stadium stunned in 1994, the Rebels went to the Las Vegas Bowl and the Pack went home without the cannon. “This is the biggest win in UNLV football history,” Rebel quarterback Jared Brown said after the game. Ault would win nine of his next 10 games against UNLV.