The Nevada football team takes the field at Mackay Stadium at the start of the 2020 season. (Photo: Steve Ranson/Nevada News Group, file)
This year it will be Texas State and Incarnate Word. Last year it was Idaho State and New Mexico State. Two years ago it would have been UC Davis and UTEP but the pandemic saved us.
It has been three years since the Nevada Wolf Pack football program treated us with a legitimate, recognizable, entertaining non-conference opponent at Mackay Stadium. You know, the type of team that is worth throwing your empty beer cup as it enters the stadium. The last time that happened was when the Wolf Pack beat Purdue 34-31 to open the 2019 season.
Since then, however, it has been one sleep-inducing opponent after another to come to Mackay Stadium in the non-conference portion of the schedule. The Pack, it seems, obviously believes you will buy a ticket to watch any garbage can, doormat opponent it can dig up from the depths of college football’s bargain bin as long as it is early enough in the season.
If you are old enough to remember test patterns on your television screen in the middle of the night, well, the likes of Texas State, Incarnate Word and New Mexico State will bring back fond memories. What can we surmise from the Pack’s penchant for scheduling snooze-fest non-conference home games? This suggests that the Wolf Pack is deathly afraid to lose in front of its home fans if it can avoid it. Former coach Chris Ault subscribed to this philosophy, theorizing that if Pack fans saw its team lose at home early in the season they just might not buy another ticket the rest of the season.
It also suggests that the Wolf Pack can’t offer a big enough dollar guarantee to entice an actual living, breathing college football team who can walk and chew gum at the same time to come to Mackay Stadium. It also suggests the Pack needs two non-conference home games to make sure it will win the minimum six games to become bowl eligible. Is going to a bowl game on the backs of the UC Davises, Incarnate Words and New Mexico States of the world really such an accomplishment? Well, yes, if your contract gives you a bonus for doing it.
These non-league Pack schedules are not for the fans. They are for the already overpaid coaches who need some extra cash.
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The Wolf Pack used to have more respect for its fans than this. The Pack football program used to offer at least one delectable appetizer on its non-conference schedule most every season, enticing Pack fans to buy season tickets and exciting them about the coming year.
From 1997 through 2019, teams such as Oregon, Oregon State, BYU, Washington State, Arizona, California, Missouri, Northwestern, Purdue and Texas Tech came to Mackay a total of 13 times. The Pack even won six of those games, beating BYU (2002), Northwestern (2006), Cal (2010), Washington State (2014), Oregon State (2018) and Purdue (2019).
Those victories and even some of the losses are some of the most memorable and thrilling in Pack history. All of those games made Mackay Stadium feel like it mattered and was part of the actual college football world for one day or night at least. They made Pack fans feel like they mattered, giving them an opponent they wanted to see if their own backyard. Playing New Mexico State, Incarnate Word, Idaho State and UC Davis matters nothing.
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The Pack does play a meaningful non-league game this year but you will have to get to Iowa City to see it in person. The Pack is playing Iowa this year on the road because former Hawkeye defensive back Jay Norvell used to be the Pack head coach. Playing the Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium will net the Pack $1.5 million, so nobody in silver and blue (except maybe new head coach Ken Wilson) was begging to get out of that game even after Norvell headed to Colorado State.
The Wolf Pack, and all teams stuck in college football’s vacuum outside the power-hungry Power Five conferences, will play anybody anywhere at any time for $1.5 million. The Pack would play six SEC and six Big Ten teams all on the road and finish 0-12 if it would net them $18 million at the end of the year. Hey, the Pack still has to pay its 58-year-old rookie head football coach and bored basketball coach looking to play out the string on his career without pressure each $1 million a year, after all.
The Pack will play at USC next year, Minnesota in 2024 and UCLA in 2026, in an effort to pay its coaching staffs. In case you were wondering, the only non-league football games at home from 2023-26 scheduled right now are Idaho in 2023 and Georgia Southern in 2024. Plenty of seats available.
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The Pack game at Iowa is one of about 20 big-name matchups (15 on the road) for Mountain West teams this fall. While there are a few matchups that look like potential YouTube fail videos (Utah State at Alabama, San Jose State at Auburn, UNLV at Notre Dame, Hawaii at Michigan, New Mexico at LSU), don’t be shocked if the Mountain West wins more than half of those 20 games.
No, we’re not predicting Nevada to beat Iowa, but we do feel the Mountain West will leave those 20 games with something to be proud of, you know, other than with a big check. Wyoming can go to Illinois and win, Utah State can do the same at BYU and Boise State should win at Oregon State and can knock off BYU at home. San Diego State can beat Arizona at home and Utah on the road and Hawaii could start the year with a win over Vanderbilt at home. Air Force can certainly beat Colorado at home, Fresno State can beat Oregon State at home, Colorado State might put a scare into Washington State on the road and even UNLV might put up a gallant fight at Cal.
Beating mediocre teams from big-name conferences is the Mountain West way.
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The Wolf Pack will likely be 3-0 heading into its Sept 17 game at Iowa. But you can also expect the Pack to be a double-digit underdog. Rookie Wolf Pack head coaches like Wilson, after all, have not fared well against schools from current Power Five conferences. The last time a Wolf Pack rookie head coach beat a Power Five opponent was Joe Sheeketski in 1947, who beat both Oregon and Arizona State. Of course, nobody knew what the term “Power Five” meant in 1947 and Arizona State was then struggling program in something called the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association along with the likes of Hardin-Simmons, Northern Arizona, New Mexico and New Mexico State. So that win really doesn’t count as a so-called Power five win.
But the win over Oregon certainly does count. The Ducks in 1947 were in the Pacific Coast Conference along with eight other schools that would later comprise today’s Pac-12. No rookie Pack head coach before or since Sheeketski has beaten a Power Five school. George Philbrook lost 66-0 at USC in 1929, Brick Mitchell was beaten 38-0 at Cal in 1932, Buck Shaw lost 54-0 at Cal in 1925. Since Sheeketski’s win at Oregon in 1947, Jeff Horton lost at Wisconsin in 1993, Jeff Tisdel lost at both Oregon and Cal in 1996, Chris Tormey lost at Oregon in 2000, Brian Polian was thrown to the wolves at both UCLA and Florida State in 2013 and Jay Norvell lost at Washington State and Northwestern in 2017.
A rookie head coach named Chris Ault only had to deal with such powerhouses as Montana Tech, Cal State Hayward and Willamette in 1976. Ault the athletic director made up the rookie schedule for Horton, Tisdel and Tormey and retired just in time for Polian to take a beating in 2013.
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Former Wolf Pack basketball forward Cam Oliver turned 26 years old on Monday.
One of the most popular and arguably the most talented player to ever wear the silver and blue has traveled a long and winding road since leaving Nevada after the 2016-17 season at just 20 years old. Oliver, who wasn’t drafted into the NBA, has played all over the world over the last five seasons. Oliver, who now plays in Spain, has also played in Australia, Israel, Delaware and Wisconsin in addition to a six-game NBA career with the Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks.
Oliver clearly has the ability to play in the NBA. He stands 6-foot-8, can shoot threes, rebound and block shots. He seems to be what the present-day NBA is all about. He has scored 10 or more points in five of his six NBA games, averaging 11 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists a game. Playing for Houston, he had 17 points against the Lakers on May 12, 2021 and a double-double (10 points, 12 rebounds) against Atlanta four days later. At 26, he should be in the NBA right now. He deserves a legitimate shot to make a NBA roster. It’s time the NBA wakes up and gives him that shot.
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Major League Baseball gives us the best all-star game by far. The NBA, NFL and NHL star games are a joke and border on embarrassing. But baseball All-Star pitchers still try to get hitters out, hitters still try to get a hit and fielders still try to catch the ball.
Baseball’s secret to making its all star games competitive is probably due to the fact that it puts a dozen or so players on its All Star rosters every year that don’t really belong there. Those players, knowing they have stolen someone else’s Willy Wonka golden ticket to the game, then try hard and hope to make the most of their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Among this year’s golden ticket players are Jose Trevino, Andres Gimenez, Andrew Benintendi, Ian Happ, William Contreras, Garrett Cooper, Alejandro Kirk and former Aces reliever Joe Mantiply.
If you know which teams those players are on in the regular season, consider yourself a baseball expert. Nobody, other than their wives, girlfriends, parents and agents, wants to see them at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday. But they will be there and likely on the field in the late innings as the real stars head out to the airport.
Benintendi has three home runs for a horrible team. Mantiply, who spent eight days with the Aces in May 2021, is a long reliever on a bad team. Kirk, Contreras and Trevino are backup catchers. Cooper, Gimenez and Happ are guys normally left on your waiver wire in your fantasy league. The former Aces player who does deserve to be at Dodger Stadium but won’t be there is Brandon Drury, who has 18 homers and 50 RBI for the Reds.
