Ken Wilson (Photo: Nevada Athletics)
Chris Ault didn’t do it.
Joe Sheeketski, Jim Aiken and Jay Norvell also came up short. Dick Trachok, Jeff Tisdel, Chris Tormey, Jerry Scattini, Jeff Horton and others also missed the mark.
No coach, in fact, in the history of Nevada Wolf Pack football, has ever won his first three games as head coach.
Ken Wilson could be the first.
Wilson’s first three games as Pack head coach this fall will be against New Mexico State (Aug. 27) on the road and Texas State (Sept. 3) and Incarnate Word (Sept. 10) at Mackay Stadium. The Wolf Pack, which finished 8-5 a year ago, will likely be heavily favored to win all three games.
New Mexico State, a Football Bowl Subdivision independent program, was 2-10 last year and has gone 8-30 over the last four seasons. Nevada has won 14-of-16 games in the rivalry dating back to 1992.
Texas State, of the Sun Belt Conference, was 4-8 last year and has gone 19-65 over the last seven seasons. The Wolf Pack won the only game in the rivalry, 34-21, in 2012, when Wilson was a Pack assistant under Ault.
Incarnate Word, a Football Championship Subdivision team, has only had a football program since 2009. It played in Division II through 2013 and has been in Division I-AA since 2014. The Cardinals went 12-30 over four seasons in Division II and have gone 42-55 in the FCS over the last nine years, though they did finish 10-3 last year, beating Texas State.
The Wolf Pack’s 2022 football schedule, however, does get considerably more difficult after the first three weeks. The Pack will go to Iowa on Sept. 17 to close out its non-conference schedule.
The Pack’s Mountain West schedule includes road games at Air Force (Sept. 24), Hawaii (Oct. 15), San Jose State (Oct. 29) and UNLV (Nov. 26) and home games against Colorado State (and head coach Jay Norvell on Oct. 8), San Diego State (Oct. 22), Boise State (Nov. 12) and Fresno State (Nov. 19).
The best debut season overall as Wolf Pack head coach belongs to Sheeketski, who went 9-2 in 1947 and won the Salad Bowl in Phoenix over North Texas. Sheeketski and Tisdel (1996) are the only rookie Wolf Pack head coaches to lead their team to a bowl game. Ault was in his 17th season when he guided the Pack to the Las Vegas Bowl in the school’s first year as a Division I-A school in 1992.
Ault did come close to winning his first three games as Pack head coach. Ault, who hired Wilson as a Pack assistant coach in 1989, was 2-1 after three games the first time he took over the program in 1976 and also the second (1994) and third (2004) times.
Jack Glascock (1915) and Norvell (2017) are tied for the worst head coaching start in school history (both 0-5).
PACK STARS RETURNING TO MACKAY STADIUM: Quarterback Carson Strong, wide
receiver Romeo Doubs and tight end Cole Turner will be among 11 former Pack players participating in the school’s NFL Pro Day March 21 at Mackay Stadium.
Also taking part in the workouts will be Tristan Nichols, Berdale Robins, Jermaine Ledbetter, Lawson Hall, Tyler Orsini, Kam Toomer, Harry Ballard and Douglas High graduate Reagan Roberson. The players will work out in front of NFL scouts and personnel in preparation for the NFL draft April 28-30.
Strong, Doubs and Turner did not play in the Pack’s 52-24 loss to Western Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit after the 2021 season, though they did play in the Senior Bowl earlier this month.
Orsini, Ledbetter (both offensive linemen), Robins (defensive back), Toomer (defensive end), Hall (linebacker) and Roberson (tight end) did play in the Quick Lane Bowl.
WASHINGTON EXPECTED TO RETURN: Wolf Pack men’s basketball coach Steve Alford said last week that he expects center Warren Washington to return to the court soon.
“Hopefully we’ll get him back sooner rather than later,” Alford said. “We need him.”
The 7-foot center broke two fingers falling down in the lane in the first half of Nevada’s 82-72 loss at Colorado State on Feb. 8. He missed the next eight games going into Tuesday night’s game at Lawlor Events Center against UNLV.
Washington, in his second season at Nevada, is averaging 10.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks a game in 16 games this season for the 12-13 Wolf Pack.
There are just four games remaining in the Wolf Pack’s regular season. The Pack will be home against UNLV (Feb. 22) and San Diego State (March 5) and on the road at Wyoming (Feb. 26) and Boise State (March 1) before heading into the Mountain West tournament March 9-12 in Las Vegas. The top five teams in the conference will debut in the tournament on March 10.
ALFORD SONS MAKING DAD PROUD: Kory Alford, son of Wolf Pack head basketball coach Steve Alford, is enjoying a successful debut season as a head coach.
The younger Alford, who was the Wolf Pack’s director of player development under his father during the 2019-20 season, has a record of 21-9 at Huntington University this season. Huntington (Indiana) is a member of the NAIA’s Crossroads League. Kory also played four seasons at UCLA for his father. Alford’s other son, Bryce, played two seasons for his father at both New Mexico and UCLA, and now plays for the Windy City Bulls in the G-League, averaging 10.2 points a game.
“Shout out to my son (Kory),” Steve Alford said last week. “They just won their (21st game) and are getting close to punching their ticket to the tournament.”
Alford’s Wolf Pack beat San Jose State at home on Feb. 15 (81-72), the same day Kory’s Huntington team beat Goshen College, 87-67, and Bryce’s Windy City Bulls beat the Wisconsin Herd, 111-101 (Bryce had 10 points and four assists).
“I got to watch (Kory’s game) and got to watch Bryce play so it (was) a good day,” Steve Alford said on Feb. 15. “We got three wins.
“You know, we’ve (the Wolf Pack) been the ones letting the guys down this year. So it was good we held our own.”
RICE, ODOM HAVE WORDS: Boise State men’s basketball coach Leon Rice and Utah State coach Ryan Odom had a brief interaction late in Saturday’s 68-57 Boise State victory.
Odom, it seems, took issue with Rice standing too close to Utah State’s bench during a timeout when the officials were reviewing a call.
“I don’t know,” said Rice, when asked about the incident after the game. “I think he was just telling me ‘great game.’ I’m not sure I heard him right. In the heat of the battle this is a tough deal. There’s stuff that happens throughout games. We don’t ever want to disrespect another program. Our guys know that.
“There’s a lot of things that get under my skin, too. There’s been times when I didn’t get an A-plus grade for my behavior.”
