Santoro: Big losses = big money for Nevada

USC (Sept. 2), Minnesota (2024), Penn State (2025), UCLA (2026) and Ohio State (2029) will combine to pay the Nevada Wolf Pack football program $7.35 million over the next seven seasons.

Yes, it clearly has an Indecent Proposal feel to it for the Pack, with the Power Five schools playing Robert Redford’s role in the 1990s Hollywood movie, the Wolf Pack players taking on Demi Moore’s role and Pack head coach Ken Wilson performing Woody Harrelson’s role. But, hey, a mid-major football program’s got to eat, right? So just close your eyes, grit your teeth, think good thoughts and it will all be over in three or four hours. And, of course, don’t forget to pick up your check on the way out.

Getting blown out five times over the next seven season is a small price to pay for the Wolf Pack. Woody Harrelson (Wilson) needs his seven-figure paycheck every year, doesn’t he? Of course he does. Demi (the Pack players), after all, might even have a good time. This (getting blown out for a seven-figure payday) is simply the price of doing business for the Nevada Wolf Pack’s of the world.

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The Pack might even beat Minnesota and UCLA. Penn State and USC might simply be too bored to inflict much physical or mental cruelty on the brave Sagebrushers from Nevada.

But Ohio State is like putting your kitten in a bag and throwing it in a pit bull cage. The Buckeyes haven’t lost to a non-Power Five school since 1990, a 23-11 loss in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis to Air Force. The non-Power Five kittens simply don’t come home in one piece against the Pit Bull Buckeyes. Ask Arkansas State (45-12) and Toledo (77-21) last year. Akron paid a 59-7 price in 2021. Miami of Ohio had to wear a 76-5 loss in 2019. UNLV got out with some of its dignity in a 54-21 loss in 2017 as did Hawaii in 2015 (38-0) and San Diego State in 2013 (42-7).

So maybe Ohio State has a soft spot in its bloodthirsty heart for Mountain West teams. But Bowling Green absorbed a 77-10 beat down in 2016 and Kent State was dealt a 66-0 knockout in 2014. If Ohio State is going to give you just under $2 million to come to their Roman Coliseum, you better be prepared to get eaten by a lion or two. But, hey, the good news for Wilson is that there’s a very real chance he won’t be around in 2029 anyway.

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The Wolf Pack is 8-35 against Power Five teams since 1992, the year Nevada abandoned the comfort of Division I-AA (Football Championship Subdivision) and sold its soul for the riches of Division I-A. The Pack’s practice of taking pay for play all started in 1993 when it went to Wisconsin and lost 35-17. It wasn’t a total disaster. The Pack felt good about itself after that afternoon in Cheesehead Land and was able to pay some bills. The same was true after losses at California and Oregon in 1996.

But the thrill wore off in 1999 when Oregon obliterated the Pack 72-10. The Ducks did it again in 2000 (36-7), 2011 (69-20) and 2019 (77-6). Florida State flattened the Pack 62-7 in 2013 as did Nebraska in 2007 (52-10). There were other Pack disasters that not even a shower afterward could wash the stink off.

All eight Pack wins have come against mediocre to bad Division I-A teams, mostly at home. A $1.8 million payday and a loss on the road, by comparison, would benefit the program much more.

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Former Wolf Pack football head coach Brian Polian is now the athletic director at John Carroll University. Polian was relieved of his duties after just one year as LSU’s special teams coach after the 2022 season, likely ending his coaching career at the age of 48.

The Wolf Pack has the honor of being the only school in the nation who thought Polian, a lifetime special teams coach, was a head coach. And, for a few, brief moments, he wasn’t awful. He could recruit, was entertaining on the sideline and he was never boring. Polian was 23-27 in four years (2013-16) as head coach and was clearly in over his head at Nevada, like Wilson is now. Polian was a low ceiling, high floor guy, again, like Wilson. Polian and Wilson have a lot of similarities. Polian’s biggest problem at Nevada was that he never mastered the art of hiring assistant coaches who could cover up his shortcomings. Wilson, too, seems to be on the same path.

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Assistant coaches never get enough credit in college football. They are the ones who do all the coaching and build all the relationships with the players. They also do the recruiting. The head coach, especially now, basically just collects paychecks.

Chris Ault was a success at Nevada as a head coach because he knew how to hire great assistant coaches. Yes, of course, he never publicly credited his assistants (especially on defense) for his success so almost all of those assistants (except Wilson) would eventually leave. But Ault could hire an assistant.

He couldn’t hire a head coach (see Jeff Horton, Jeff Tisdel, Chris Tormey and, now, Wilson) but he always had a quality staff under him doing all the work. Wilson’s success or failure at Nevada will be determined on how well or poorly he hires assistants. Right now, it seems, he is simply hiring his buddies. Hopefully, for his long-term success as a head coach, some of those buddies will turn out to be great assistants.

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The Las Vegas Raiders and San Francisco 49ers could struggle this year.

The Raiders have to play at Denver, Buffalo and the Los Angeles Chargers and will host Pittsburgh, Green Bay and New England all in the first six weeks. The 49ers will play at Pittsburgh, the Chargers, Cleveland and Minnesota and host the New York Giants, Arizona, Dallas and Cincinnati in the first eight weeks.

The Raiders have to play Kansas City twice as well as Denver, Minnesota, Indianapolis and the Chargers in the final six weeks. The 49ers play at Seattle, Philadelphia, Washington and Arizona and host Seattle, Baltimore and the Los Angeles Rams in the final seven weeks. Too bad the Raiders and Niners can’t handpick non-Power Five teams and pay them $1.5 million each to lay down in front of them and play dead four or five times a year.