Thomas Ranson/NNG
The Nevada football team takes the field Oct. 30, 2021 to face UNLV at Mackay Stadium in Reno.
A year ago at this time expectations were sky high for the Nevada Wolf Pack football team. There was talk of an undefeated season, a Mountain West championship, a Top 25 ranking and, yes, even a spot in a major bowl game. Some were even predicting a spot in the first round of the NFL draft for quarterback Carson Strong.
Fast forward to today. All of the expectations have disappeared. Nobody is predicting an undefeated season, a Mountain West championship, a Top 25 ranking or a spot in a major bowl game for new head coach Ken Wilson’s program. There are absolutely no expectations on this Wolf Pack football team because, well, nobody can name more than five players on the roster or any of Wilson’s assistants.
The last time we were in this sort of Magical Wolf Pack Mystery Tour was 2017, which was also the last time the Pack had a rookie head coach (Jay Norvell). The time before that was 2013 when another rookie head coach (Brian Polian) took over. The same thing happened in 2000 when Chris Tormey took over the program. Tormey, Polian and Norvell proceeded to crank out a combined record of 9-27 in their first seasons. But nobody was calling for their heads on a silver and blue platter because they were still on their complimentary one-year Wolf Pack honeymoon.
There was absolutely no pressure on the 2000, 2013 and 2017 Pack teams just like there isn’t any pressure on this year’s team. That’s why Wilson and the Pack need to enjoy their one-year honeymoon while it lasts. The next dozen or so pressure-free weeks will be void of expectations starting Saturday night in the season opener at New Mexico State. That will all change a year from now.
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New Mexico State and Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, N.M., it seems, is the perfect setting for a rookie head coach to get his feet wet. The Wolf Pack has never lost in Las Cruces, winning all seven of its games there by an average of three touchdowns. The biggest crowd the Pack has played in front of in Las Cruces is a mere 15,851 fans in 1995. That wasn’t even a big crowd for the Pack to deal with in 1995.
The first time the Pack played at Aggie Memorial Stadium in 1993, a crowd of 3,859 greeted them. Former Aggies head coach Jim Hess said it best after his team’s 45-24 loss to Nevada in 1995. “The biggest mistake we made was not getting Nevada off the schedule,” Hess said.
Aggie Memorial Stadium is the closest thing the Wolf Pack has of recreating Mackay Stadium on the road. It is situated at elevation (about 4,000 feet up), the turf is plastic, not many fans show up and the Pack walks off the field at the end of the game with a victory.
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What will we learn about Wilson and the Pack this Saturday night? Probably not much, good or bad. A victory won’t mean that a Mountain West championship is coming soon and a loss won’t suggest that the Pack should give up football and start a rugby team.
Yes, it is true that the Aggies are one of the worst programs in the history of Division I college football. New Mexico State has been to just four bowl games in its entire history and its last 10 coaches (starting in 1968) compiled a record of 172-418. The Aggies have lost their last 13 games against Mountain West teams. That is extremely hard to do. The Pack should win easily Saturday.
But keep in mind that prediction is just based on the uniforms, not the players and coaches. The Pack is a nine-point favorite in the sports books this week simply because it is Nevada and not New Mexico State. Most everyone is a nine-point favorite against New Mexico State. It doesn’t mean much. But also don’t go running and screaming into the streets late Saturday night throwing away your Pack sweatshirts and hats if the Pack loses. Players and coaches, after all, win football games. Uniforms do not.
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Saturday night in Las Cruces will be the Transfer Portal Bowl. Both Wilson and new New Mexico State head coach Jerry Kill filled many of their numerous roster holes this off-season with transfer portal players. Many of those players came from Power Five programs, where they were given uniforms and not much playing time. So that’s why they are now at Nevada and New Mexico State. These are indeed strange times we find ourselves in the world of college sports. Players are bouncing around the country at will. Coaches don’t know who is on their roster from one day to the next. So get used to it. The transfer portal has changed college sports forever and it’s not going away.
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Carson Strong has 320,000 reasons (the amount of his guaranteed contract) to feel good about his decision to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles after the draft last spring.
But now it looks like the Eagles aren’t giving the former Wolf Pack quarterback a legitimate chance to make the final 53-man roster. Strong has thrown just one pass in the Eagles’ first two preseason games combined. He didn’t play in the first game and then played on just the final two drives in a 21-20 win over Cleveland last weekend.
Is Strong about to be cut when the Eagles have to slice their roster from 80 to 53 this Tuesday? It appears that Strong has fallen to No. 4 on the Eagles depth chart behind starter Jalen Hurts and backups Gardner Minshew and Reid Sinnett.
Another explanation for Strong’s inactivity in games this summer is that the Eagles are trying to hide him before they stash him on the practice squad. That would be a risky move by the Eagles. Any player on a practice squad, after all, can be claimed at any time by any other team willing to put that player on its 53-man roster. It’s basically the NFL’s version of the transfer portal. Would the Eagles make a huge mistake by putting Strong on their practice squad? Probably not. It seems like a risk they are willing to take. Strong, after all, wasn’t even drafted this spring. The Eagles are banking on the theory that no team would want to put Strong and his bad knees and lack of NFL experience on its 53-man roster.
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Romeo Doubs continues to be one of the most pleasant surprises of this NFL preseason. The former Pack wide receiver caught three more passes for 24 yards and a 4-yard touchdown in the Green Bay Packers’ 20-10 win over the New Orleans Saints last weekend. Doubs, it seems, has secured a spot on the Packers’ final roster and with it considerable playing time.
Green Bay is turning into Nevada East. Doubs now might be joined on the Packers’ roster this season by one of his former Wolf Pack teammates. Kicker Ramiz Ahmed, a Doubs teammate at Nevada in 2018, kicked two field goals and two extra points for Green Bay against the Saints. Ahmed, who kicked a USFL record 61-yard field goal this spring for the Pittsburgh Maulers, is on the roster because Packers’ veteran kicker Mason Crosby is recovering from knee surgery. Crosby is expected to return for Green Bay’s season opener but the veteran will be 38 years old next month and the surgery was on his kicking leg.
Ahmed, who had 15 field goals and 40 extra points in 2018 for the Pack, has beaten tougher odds before. The 27-year-old, after all, made the Pack as a walk-on in 2017. He was one of the best kickers in the USFL this summer after not getting drafted in 2019 and bouncing around NFL tryout camps for a few years. The Packers might decide that Ahmed is better than a 38-year-old Crosby even on two healthy legs.
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Predictions for the five Mountain West football games this weekend: Nevada over New Mexico State, UNLV over Idaho State, Utah State over Connecticut, Wyoming over Illinois and Hawaii over Vanderbilt.
That’s right. A clean sweep by the Mountain West. Can’t happen, right? Well, probably not. But keep in mind that New Mexico State was 2-10 last year. Idaho State, a member of the Big Sky Conference, was 1-10. Connecticut was 1-11, Vanderbilt was 2-10 and Illinois was 5-7. The combined record last year of the Mountain West’s five opponents this weekend is 11-48. It’s time the Mountain West grows up and starts beating non-conference teams with losing records.
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