Nevada at New Mexico State
The Nevada football team enters Mackay Stadium on Oct. 9, 2021 to face New Mexico State.
Photo by Thomas Ranson.
A look ahead to Saturday’s (7 p.m.) football season-opening non-conference game between the Nevada Wolf Pack and New Mexico State Aggies at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, N.M.
How to watch, listen: ESPN2, 94.5 FM.
The spread: Nevada by 9.
What’s at stake: Ken Wilson is hoping to become the first football coach in school history to open his career with a victory on the road. The last Wolf Pack head coach to debut with a victory anywhere is Chris Ault, who beat Cal State Hayward, 30-13, at Mackay Stadium in 1976. Wilson, at 58 years old, is the oldest coach in Nevada history to make his head coaching debut.
Last year: Nevada finished 8-5 overall and 5-3 in the Mountain West. New Mexico State, an independent, was 2-10 and went 0-7 against Mountain West teams. The Aggies have lost 13 games in a row against Mountain West teams over the last four seasons.
The head coaches: Both coaches (Wilson and New Mexico State’s Jerry Kill) are making their head coaching debuts at their current schools. The last time a Nevada head coach made his Wolf Pack debut against a coach also making his head coaching debut at a school was in 1947 when Nevada’s Joe Sheeketski beat Northern Arizona’s Nick Ragus, 50-0, at old Mackay Stadium. Wilson, an assistant from 1986-2021 (1989-2012 at Nevada), has never been a head coach before. The 61-year-old Kill, the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2014, has been a head coach at Saginaw Valley State (38-14 record from 1994-98), Emporia State (11-11 from 1999-2000), Southern Illinois (55-32 from 2001-07), Northern Illinois (23-16 from 2008-10), Minnesota (29-29 from 2011-15) and TCU (2-2 last year).
Coaching connection: New Mexico State defensive coordinator Nate Dreiling (31 years old) coached at Oregon as a defensive analyst in 2020 along with current Nevada coaches Ken Wilson (head coach), Kwame Agyeman (defensive coordinator), Nate Costa (quarterbacks) and Jalen Ortiz (cornerbacks). Former UNLV head coach Tony Sanchez, who went 3-2 against Nevada from 2015-19, is now the Aggies’ wide receivers coach.
The rivalry: Nevada leads 14-2 after a 55-28 victory last year at Mackay Stadium on the strength of 377 yards and six touchdowns from quarterback Carson Strong. Nevada is 7-0 against the Aggies in Las Cruces. The only two Wolf Pack losses in the rivalry came in 1998 and 2008 by the exact same score (48-45), both times at Mackay Stadium. Nevada quarterback David Neill passed for a school-record 611 yards (and five touchdowns) in the 1998 loss. The schools were both members of the Western Athletic Conference from 2005-11 and the Big West from 1993-99.
Wolf Pack keys on defense: Both team’s defenses will have the same goal on Saturday: Stop the run and make the other team’s inexperienced quarterback throw the ball. For the Pack, stopping the run starts with tackle Dom Peterson, who is back for his fifth season as the anchor of the defense. Peterson leads all current Pack players with 151 tackles, 22 sacks, 42.5 tackles for a loss, four forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. New starting linebackers Maurice Wilmer and Naki Mateialona will also key the run defense. The Wolf Pack returns an experienced defensive backfield led by returners Tyson Williams (207 career tackles, four interceptions), Jaden Dedman, Bentlee Sanders and Isaiah Essissima. New Mexico State quarterback Jonah Johnson passed for 425 yards and three touchdowns against Nevada last year but is no longer on the Aggies’ roster. New Mexico State is expected to start either true freshman Gavin Frakes or junior college transfer Diego Pavia at quarterback on Saturday.
Wolf Pack keys on offense: Almost the entire Wolf Pack offense from 2021 either transferred away after the season or is now trying to make a NFL roster. The Wolf Pack’s Air Raid offense under former head coach Jay Norvell is long gone and will be replaced, in theory, by a more balanced attack under Wilson, a lifetime defensive coach. Wilson, though, did bring in a half dozen or so offensive skill players from Power Five schools this off-season, mainly from his former employer at Oregon, to help fill some holes. The Pack is expected to rely heavily on an inexperienced offensive line to open holes for returning running backs Toa Taua and Devonte Lee with the hope of controlling the clock and easing the transition at quarterback from Strong to unproven senior Nate Cox and Oklahoma State transfer Shane Illingworth. Kicker Brandon Talton, who might turn out to be the Pack’s MVP this year, is also back to help salvage drives that stumble in the red zone.
Prediction: Wolf Pack 27, New Mexico State 17. Both teams will have new head coaches, new coaching staffs, new starting quarterbacks and new hopes and dreams. So anything could happen on Saturday. But no matter what happens in Las Cruces this weekend, just keep in mind that Wilson has taken over a program that has had just three losing seasons since 2007 and has been to 14 bowl games in the last 17 years. Kill has been given a program that has had just five winning seasons since 1967 and has been to just one bowl game since 1960.
