Santoro: ‘Drab and punchless’ Pack gets a win — but what’s next?

Sports Fodder:

When Ken Wilson was handed the job as the Nevada Wolf Pack’s head football coach in December 2021, he talked about restoring the program’s history, traditions and culture. We thought he was referring to the years he spent as Chris Ault’s assistant from 1989 through 2012, as a linebacker coach for 19 years and associate athletic director for five (1999-2003). Little did we know he was really talking about World War II Pack football, before even Ault was born. The Wolf Pack’s turn-back-the-clock 6-0 victory on Saturday at San Diego State is the first time the Pack has won a game while scoring six or fewer points since a 3-0 victory in 1942 over the Santa Ana Air Base at Mackay Field. Marion Motley kicked the game-winning 20-yard field goal in the fourth quarter to beat Santa Ana, a team comprised of players who had played for other college football teams (many had played for USC) before Uncle Sam called on them to serve. The Pack has now won just 10 games over its program’s entire history (since 1896) while scoring six points or fewer. The first nine times were between 1899-1942 for coaches King Dickson, James Hopper, A.C. Steckle (twice), R.E. Courtright, Buck Shaw and Jim Aiken (three times). We had a hunch Wilson was using King Dickson’s playbook and, well, it is now confirmed. “The baseball-like score could indicate a drab, punchless contest,” the Reno Evening Gazette reported after the win over Santa Ana. Drab and punchless was good enough to end the Wolf Pack’s 16-game losing streak on Saturday so, hey, don’t knock it.

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Has the head coach formerly known as Winless Wilson finally found the formula for Pack success? Not quite. If San Diego State’s Jalen Mayden wouldn’t have fumbled the ball away at the Pack 23 with 72 seconds to play, we might still be referring to him as Winless Wilson. One-win Wilson is just a coach that keeps doing the same thing each and every week no matter the opponent, even if he’s on a 16-game losing streak. He didn’t do anything different last weekend except maybe keeping his fingers crossed. He simply finally played a team that also does the same thing week after week and the ball just happened to bounce the right way at the right time. That’s not a formula for success. It’s a roll of the dice that finally rolled the right way. Hey, it was bound to happen, right? A broken college football clock is going to be right at least once every 17 games, isn’t it? So don’t let a drab and punchless 6-0 victory lead you to believe that any of the Pack’s concerns were fixed on Saturday. It’s still a drab and punchless team. It’s now just a drab and punchless team with one ugly victory. It’s not often, after all, the Pack will play a team anytime soon with a 1901 offensive playbook like the Aztecs. But there is one Pack problem that might have gone away on Saturday. Don’t underestimate what winning a game, no matter how ugly, can do for a team’s fragile psyche. The Pack now at least has the confidence it can go out and win a game. You should see a more confident and inspired team this Saturday against New Mexico and the following week against Hawaii. We could be looking at a Wolf Pack team on a three-game winning streak less than two weeks from now.

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The Pack win over Santa Ana Air Base in 1942 was just the second time it had played a service team. The first time was the week before against the Stockton Motor Base, a 33-0 Pack win also at Mackay Field. Armed services teams (there were a hundred or so of them during the Second World War) apparently had better things to do during the week than develop an actual offense. The Pack played 15 games against service teams from 1942-45 and piled up an 11-3-1 record with 10 shutouts. One of the victories and the one tie, though, technically do not count. That’s because the Wolf Pack became a service team itself for the final three games of the 1943 season, games that included a 25-0 win over the Tonopah Air Base and a 0-0 tie with the Salt Lake City Air Base. The bulk of the 1943 Nevada team, like many college teams that season, had been called to service. Nevada, obviously needing players, merged with the Reno Air Base in the middle of the 1943 season to form a team that was called “The Flying Wolves” and “The Flying Wolf Pack.” Rules prohibited players in the armed services to play for college teams (they were older and many had already played in college), so the Pack was actually considered an armed service team for the final three games of 1943. Pack head coach Jim Aiken still coached the team and was assisted by Reno Air Base coaches Dayton Doeller and Edward O’Neill. The Reno Air Base was actually located about 10 miles north of Herlong, Calif., and provided “The Flying Wolf Pack” with talented players such as the 24-year-old William Abdallah, who had previously been a standout player for San Jose State from 1937-40.

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Let’s assume that Wilson’s long-term plan for Wolf Pack success doesn’t involve World War III and turning the program into an armed service team. Nobody wants that. But nobody also wants the 16-game losing streak followed up by another long losing streak. So what, exactly, is Wilson’s plan? Does it involve continuing to run a drab and punchless offense combined with a defense that curls up in the fetal position against teams that attempt more than 14 passes (like a frightened San Diego State last Saturday)? We are probably better served forgetting about trying to decipher Wilson’s plan right now. That’s because there is no real plan other than building character and a work ethic. That, after all, was King Dickson’s plan back in 1899. The Pack plan right now is basically just a week-to-week basic training test of survival. Wilson, it seems, merely coaches high school stuff like attitude and work ethic right now more than he does fancy X’s and O’s. He’s a linebacker coach. He doesn’t know anything about X’s and O’s. Attitude and work ethic was good enough against San Diego State, a team in turmoil, and it might be good enough the next two weeks against New Mexico and Hawaii, who are just Mountain West conference fillers.

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The Wolf Pack has to win its final five games in order to qualify for a bowl game invitation. That is a pipe dream, of course, but it doesn’t seem all that farfetched and ludicrous as it did a week ago, when the task was six wins in six games. Let’s just say the Wolf Pack does what it is supposed to do and beats New Mexico and Hawaii at home. We will then be looking at a 3-6 team on a three-game winning streak that needs to win just its final three games to get to a bowl. It doesn’t sound so ludicrous anymore, does it? The Pack will then have to play Utah State and Colorado State on the road and Wyoming at home. Utah State is now a 3-5 team that just lost to San Jose State, 42-21. Colorado State is a fragile 3-4 team that just lost to UNLV, 25-23. Wyoming is a solid, tough and disciplined team at 5-2 and the best team the Pack will play over the final six games, by far. But the Cowboys also own an offense that is only slightly more explosive than that of San Diego State. It won’t be easy finishing the season with six wins in a row. New Mexico, Hawaii, Colorado State and Utah State actually have competent offenses. And Wyoming might be the best-coached and toughest team mentally and physically in the conference, along with Air Force. But if this Pack team ends up winning three or four of its final six games, the season would have to be considered officially salvaged and not the complete dumpster fire we feared last week. If it wins its last six games and goes to a bowl game, then Wilson just might buy himself a contract extension. How’s that for optimism for a 1-6 team?

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The Wolf Pack men’s basketball team will open its season next week with an exhibition against Stanislaus State on Nov. 1 in the lame duck arena known as Lawlor Events Center. The regular season, at least to start, doesn’t appear to be all that challenging against non-conference teams like Sacramento State, Pacific, Portland, Montana, Loyola Marymount, UC Davis, Drake, Weber State, Fresno Pacific and Hawaii. We could be looking at a start to the season something along the lines of 12-2. That’s the beauty of a mid-major program like Nevada. You can basically schedule yourself a great record in the non-conference portion of the schedule and hide all of your flaws. We have no idea how good this Pack team is because we are now stuck in a college basketball era when mid-majors like Nevada lose their top two or three players every year to the transfer portal and then have to start over. But we trust a veteran and smart coach like Steve Alford to recruit and schedule his way to a winning record every year. It’s why a veteran and smart coach like Alford chooses to coach in a mid-major conference instead of a conference that could eat his program alive in January, February and March.