Santoro: For Pack, rubber meets road with a tough opener

Sports Fodder:

 Jeff Choate, it seems, doesn't believe his Nevada Wolf Pack can beat the SMU Mustangs this Saturday at Mackay Stadium.

"I really don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of this game," the Wolf Pack's first-year head coach said this week. "The only thing that matters is how we play."

Those are not the words of a coach who believes his football team will win. Those are the words of a coach who will feel lucky if his team doesn't trip over the sideline when running out on the field. Talk about setting the bar low. If Choate doesn't care if his Wolf Pack wins or loses on Saturday, who will care?

Well, his fan base certainly cares. His players care. His athletic director and boosters care. Choate, though, will hopefully learn that he needs to at least fake it and act like he cares, even when his team is a 27-point underdog like the Pack is on Saturday. We appreciate his honesty, but nobody wants to hear the head coach say he doesn't care if his team wins or loses.

Choate, though, has spent the last eight months being petted, stroked and put on a pedestal by a fan base and an administration that is desperate for a winner. He has been put on a pedestal and treated as if he is the savior, even though he is just a 54-year-old defensive coach who has never won a single FBS game as a head coach.

The honeymoon, though, ends on Saturday. Choate is like any other newlywed who is a bit apprehensive about bringing his wide-eyed bride home for the first time to his cramped studio apartment and the stark realities of marriage. By telling us that winning or losing on Saturday is not the most important thing, that's just his way of telling his new bride, 'Hey, honey, it's not the size of my apartment or car that matters, it's whether the roof doesn't cave in or the wheels fall off.'"

Choate, though, will certainly care about winning on Saturday if the Pack somehow beats SMU. He'll only not care if his team loses. That's called making sure the honeymoon lasts at least another week. 

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Choate announced this week that Brendon Lewis will start at quarterback on Saturday. That collective groan we heard was just Wolf Pack fans who were reminded that the Ken Wilson era won't simply go away with a few flips of the calendar pages.

The 22-year-old Lewis, who played three years (2020-22) at Colorado before Deion Sanders took over the program, passed for 1,313 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 495 yards and four touchdowns last year for the 2-10 Pack. His best game was against UNLV when he passed for 287 yards and his only two touchdowns of the year and ran for 115 yards and another score. He was intercepted six times last year but none of those errant throws came over the final six games (just 77 attempts).

Forgive Wolf Pack fans if they aren't running to the ticket office to buy season tickets after learning that Lewis will be in control of the offense. Last year, after all, was painful to watch even though it wasn't all Lewis' fault.

Lewis, though, won the job by default this spring and summer because Nebraska transfer Chubba Purdy was limited by a shoulder injury. Choate said all the right things this week when talking about Lewis, saying that the decision concerning the starting quarterback was "really not that hard." What he didn't say was that the decision was easy because Purdy never could compete for the job.

Lewis, though, deserves our patience. He showed flashes of competency last year, especially with his legs. But it also must be pointed out that he ran for 100 yards just once all season and passed for 200 yards just once. He was a quarterback a year ago who simply struggled to put points on the board.

The hope, of course, is that Lewis is not the quarterback he was last year. He has new coaches and new teammates. Those two factors alone should make Lewis better. Lewis tucked the ball away and ran last year at the first hint of trouble because, well, he didn't have much help. And the play-calling the last two years by a coaching staff clearly in over their heads might have been the worst in Wolf Pack history.

Lewis is experienced and talented enough to get the Pack to at least six wins and a bowl game even if their head coach doesn't care if they win or lose.

•••

Purdy now has a David Cornwell (Alabama), Malik Henry (Florida State) and Shane Illingworth (Oklahoma State) feel to him. Yes, it's early and, of course, a bit unfair to compare him right now to a handful of transfer quarterbacks from big-time conferences in recent years who never lived up to expectations at Nevada.

But Pack fans have been burned before by quarterbacks with fancy schools on their resumes.

Purdy, who came to Nevada from Nebraska and Florida State, was supposed to usher in the Jeff Choate era against SMU. He's the brother, after all, of San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl quarterback Brock Purdy. Lewis, don't forget, is still a guy who has to deodorize that Ken Wilson smell off his jersey.

But Purdy, who came to the Pack with an injured shoulder and eight months later is still injured, just can't get on the field for long. Choate is calling it a minor injury right now and Purdy should be back in the mix soon. But if Purdy, who has had numerous injuries during his career, is ever going to realize his potential, nagging stuff like so-called minor injuries just can't keep him off the field anymore.

Lewis is fine right now. Lewis is tough, a leader and will compete on the field. He saw his opening to the starting job this spring and summer and seized it. That is something to be admired and respected. You can bet Choate and the players admire and respect it.

But Purdy, if you believe the hype and the pedigree, is the one who can lead the Pack to the promised land. From what little we've seen, he is sort of somewhere between Ty Gangi and Cody Fajardo. Lewis, from what we've seen, is somewhere between Tyler Stewart and Jeff Rowe.

Cornwell, Henry and Illingworth never really got an extended opportunity to prove their resume was real. Purdy, unfortunately, has taken the first step on that unfortunate path.

•••

Choate's honesty this week was refreshing. Wilson said absolutely nothing the last two years and had the personality of a deflated football. He had no answers, ideas or theories on how to fix the program and looked like a guy waiting to be fired even heading into his first season.

Choate is confident, at times a little cocky, about his coaching abilities. He loves his players and believes in them. And he isn't afraid to address the elephant in the room, that he has taken over a program that won four games over the past two seasons.

"I feel like I'm exhausted," Choate said. "The last eight months (since he replaced Wilson) have felt like an eternity. Year One (for a first-year coach) always has a lot of heavy lifting. I'm looking forward to a year from now."

That, too, is probably something he shouldn't have said. Saying you are already looking forward to next year even before you've even started the current season sounds like you consider this a throwaway season. Once again, Pack fans don't want to hear that. Players in their final college season also don't want to hear that.

But Choate, it seems, isn't going to lie to us. Yes, he has in-your-face energy and enthusiasm but he's also going to tell the truth when the truth is staring back at us. That's the only way a program can grow, even if the growing process is a bit painful at times.

•••

SMU, which is beginning its first season in the ACC, simply cannot afford to lose on Saturday. A loss to the Wolf Pack would destroy the Mustangs' first season back in big-time football (since they were in the Southwest Conference from 1918-1995) almost before it even started.

"I'm sure they want to make a statement early in the season," Choate said.

The Mustangs, who beat the Pack in the 2009 Hawaii Bowl (45-10), have gone 43-19 over the past five seasons under head coaches Sonny Dykes (2019-21) and Rhett Lashlee (2022-23). Lashlee was Dykes' offensive coordinator in 2018-19, where he learned the Air Raid offense. He then spent two seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes before taking over the Mustangs in 2022.

You can bet the Mustangs' offense, which scored 30 or more points in 10 games last year, will want to make a statement on the Mackay Stadium scoreboard. You know, the one Choate says he won't look at Saturday.

It's doubtful the Wolf Pack will be able to stand toe-to-toe in an offensive shootout with the Mustangs. The Pack, don't forget, scored 30 or more points a mere three times in 24 games over the last two years. Those three offensive explosions came against Texas State, Incarnate Word and New Mexico.

If the Pack has any chance to keep the fans in their seats past halftime on Saturday, their defense will have to show up.

"They return nine of 11 starters on offense," warned Choate this week. 

•••

What should we expect this season from the Wolf Pack? How about a little bit of everything and anything?

Choate certainly talks a good game. If you listen to him, he has drastically improved the depth and talent of the roster. "I believe every position on the team has improved," Choate said.

We'll believe him for now. It certainly couldn't have gotten worse.

"There's nowhere to go but up," Choate said at the Mountain West media gathering last month in Las Vegas.

Don't be so sure. We thought that after Wilson and the Pack went 2-10 in 2022. We were wrong.

But there is a renewed sense of energy and hope surrounding the program this summer. That was never really the case with Wilson as head coach. The Wolf Pack coaches don't seem in over their heads and the players run around as if the last two seasons were just another media hoax.

It's been eight grueling months (his words, not ours) for Choate since he got the job, but he's done a remarkable job of changing the culture and mood around the program in those eight short months. That, after all, is all a new coach can do from January to August.

The hard part is now here. The scoreboard might not matter to Choate but he's just lying to us. Choate is big-time competitive. The scoreboard matters to him. You don't spend six years coaching at Boise State, and six at Washington State, Florida, Washington and Texas combined without the scoreboard having the utmost importance.

The Pack cannot afford another 2-10 season. The Pack cannot put their already fragile fan base through another nightmare like that. Somewhere between five and seven wins will be acceptable this year. The talent is on the roster to achieve that modest goal.

Choate is right. The first victory doesn't have to come this Saturday. Don't forget Wilson won his first two games before going 2-20 to wrap up his head coaching career. But the scoreboard has to matter sometime before the Mountain West schedule kicks in for Week Six or else there won't be anybody in the stadium to watch the scoreboard the last two months of the season.

"I'm not going to play this close to the vest," Choate said. "We're going to let 'er rip."