Santoro: Wins rare, but Choate shows he has skin in the game

Sports Fodder:

Jeff Choate, it seems, doesn't really know what he got himself into when he accepted the job as Nevada Wolf Pack football head coach.

"I know Wolf Pack faithful and everybody who has skin in the game wants it (a winning Pack program) to happen overnight," Choate said on nevadawolfpack.com this week after his Wolf Pack dropped a 38-21 decision to the Colorado State Rams last Saturday at Mackay Stadium. "But this didn't fall apart overnight and it's not going to be rebuilt overnight."

That, of course, was Choate being his overly defensive self once again, as he's done on a few occasions this year. Remember when the Pack lost by 27 at Minnesota and Choate reminded us it was because the Gophers have a bigger budget?

He was right about Minnesota. The Gophers do have a bigger budget. He shouldn't have said it to a beleaguered fan base that doesn't need to be reminded about its football program's shortcomings. But nobody could say what he said was untrue.

Choate the Throat, though, wasn't right this week when he said the Pack didn't fall apart overnight. The Wolf Pack did indeed fall apart overnight, and it is still picking up the pieces. It actually happened in about a three-week period after, coincidentally, a 52-10 win over Colorado State on Nov. 27, 2021, that completed an 8-4 regular season. Three weeks, by the way, is considered overnight in the world of college football.

That was all it took for ex-Pack head coach Jay Norvell to take the Colorado State job and then proceed to basically steal the entire Pack offense and bring it with him to Fort Collins, Colo. By Dec. 27, exactly a month after Norvell coached the Pack over the Rams, the depleted Pack was getting whipped by Western Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl. It was a Pack team that had an overmatched running backs coach (Vai Taua) serving as head coach, a lifetime backup quarterback (Nate Cox) starting and throwing to a bunch of backup wide receivers behind a patchwork offensive line.

That's when this Pack team fell apart, and it happened faster than you can say “Chris Ault.” The Pack still hasn't recovered despite being on its second head coach since the Norvell coup.

Choate needs to stop making Wolf Pack fans feel guilty about being tired of all the losing. They've earned the right to be tired and frustrated. This program, starting with that ridiculous Quick Fail Bowl, has gone 7-28 overall and 2-18 in Mountain West games. Choate wants patience? Chris Ault would have turned Mackay Stadium into a weekend Flea Market by now if he ever went 7-28 and 2-18 over nearly three years.

Choate shouldn't be offended if he senses Pack fans are getting tired of the losing. He shouldn't ever lecture fans about how long a rebuild should take. The Pack, after all, just lost by 17 to Norvell. That is indefensible. The losing has indeed grown extremely tiresome to anyone with skin in this Pack game. It has been roughly 1,000 days since the Wolf Pack was gutted by Norvell and he now has stuck the knife in a little deeper three times over the last three years by beating the Pack since he left.

So, yes, Pack fans are more than a little entitled to feel a little grumpy after what happened on Saturday and certainly didn't need a head coach with exactly zero Mountain West victories on his resume to tell them to be patient.

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Choate, though, also did endear himself to Wolf Pack fans after the loss.

Choate sent a clear and stern message directly to Norvell. No, he didn't name names or label Norvell a traitor or a disloyal thief of everything that was holy and sacred in Nevada's silver-and-blue universe. But there were a few moments when Choate's lips got tight, his eyes started to burn a hole from Reno to Fort Collins, Colo., and he truly looked like the old menacing, take-no-prisoners Montana Western linebacker he once was.

And it had to make all Pack fans proud.

"I really feel it was kind of an even game," said Choate, whose Wolf Pack trailed by at least 14 points for the final 47 minutes of the game. "I didn't feel like we were outclassed."

Keep in mind that the loss was the Wolf Pack's fourth in their last five games (sixth in their last eight) to fall to 3-7 overall and 0-4 in league play. Colorado State is currently 6-3 overall and tied with Boise State for first place in the Mountain West at 4-0. It would have been easy for Choate to credit Colorado State and its coaching staff for a job well done and then move on to other coaching cliche statements.

But Choate is not a coaching cliche guy when he clearly feels something inside his old Montana Western heart.

"I don't feel like we were outclassed by that outfit at all," Choate continued.

That outfit? He didn't say "program" or "team" or "group of young men" or anything even remotely suggesting he respected what Norvell and Colorado State have built. He called them an "outfit," which is sort of like calling the Beatles a lucky, undisciplined garage band.

But wait, it got even better.

"You give me three years (the time Norvell has been in Fort Collins) and we beat that team by 20," Choate said. "That's a fact. I look forward to that opportunity."

That, alone, is why Wolf Pack fans, even if they express some frustration with all of the losing, firmly believe in what Choate the Throat is doing. He's restored the toughness and grit to Pack football, even if it is more bark than bite right now. Wolf Pack fans might not fill Mackay Stadium in Year 3 of a rebuild that never seems to end. But they will always hate their rivals, whether it's from the stands, their couch or their neighborhood sports bar. And they demand their coaches and their teams hate them, too. See Chris Ault with UNLV.

Pack fans have always had skin in this game and now they know their new coach also has his skin in this game.

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Choate said he is looking for an opportunity starting in Year 3 at Nevada to whip Norvell and Colorado State by 20 points. But he might not get that opportunity.

Norvell basically said after Saturday's game that he's not sure his Rams will play the Pack in Reno ever again. The Rams, after all, will jump to the Pac-12 starting in 2026, which would be Choate's third year at Nevada.

"We just don't know if we'll ever play them again here (at Mackay Stadium)," Norvell told The Coloradoan. "It was good to be able to do that (beat Nevada by 17) here."

In other words, now that the Rams will join the high and mighty Pac-12 in 2026, Norvell's not sure if he would make his program stoop so low as to play a road game in Reno ever again. The last thing he ever wants to do is come back to Northern Nevada, a place that has criticized him unmercifully since 2021 for abandoning them.

Whether the Pack plays Colorado State at all next year has not been officially decided. Mountain West football schedules these days, after all, are as fluid as a leaky faucet. But we do know this. Choate is not a guy that will run away from a challenge or a fight. Norvell, a guy who gutted the first program to give him an opportunity to become a head coach, seems more than happy to take his 3-0 record against the Wolf Pack and run.

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Choate promised Wolf Pack fans this week that his program "is going to be good" eventually, that his plan for revitalizing the Pack is moving along on schedule. And, yes, despite the 3-7 record, we tend to believe him.

But there are a couple things to keep in mind as this Pack rebuild now transitions into Year 4 at the end of this month. We're here to tell you that it's not 1980, 1990 or even 2000 or 2010 anymore. Rebuilding a mid-level college football program doesn't work on such a neat and tidy, predictable and linear timeline anymore.

It's now a year-to-year challenge. Sometimes, during the transfer portal season, it can be day to day and hour to hour. There's no time to feel comfortable or cocky about what you think you are doing. You have to continuously rebuild and reinforce your culture and the bulk of your roster each and every year because, well, everything in mid-major football now is as fluid as a leaky faucet.

Players have all the power now and that is not a good thing for football programs and their coaches at a program like Nevada. The culture you build in 2024 might not necessarily translate or carry over to 2025. We are in the free agency era of college football where players can change their loyalties depending on which way the wind is blowing. Shohei Ohtani might be locked in with the Los Angeles Dodgers for 10 years but college football players, at best, sign year-to-year deals that can turn into day-to-day deals depending on what they read on social media.

The harsh truth is a school like Nevada, which will be playing in a watered-down Mountain West starting in 2026, can never stop rebuilding. Teams don't just lose seniors anymore. They now lose freshmen, sophomore and juniors and even recruits who tell them they are coming to their school but get a better deal somewhere before signing day.

So, yes, Choate can tell us to be patient and wait for the winning to start. But there's no guarantee the winning will ever start. Choate will learn, hopefully, that it is never a good idea to tell your fan base to be patient. That is truer now than ever before.

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The Wolf Pack now gets to play Boise State, a program that never seems to be rebuilding. Patience hasn't been required by Boise State fans for the better part of the last two-plus decades.

The Broncos hired an interim head coach (Spencer Danielson) late last season and all he did within a month or so was win a Mountain West title. All he's done this year is put his program in position to be a part of college football's 12-team playoff.

Broncos fans are never told to be patient. The Pack is on its second head coach in the last three years and the winning, not to mention the championships or playoff berths, have yet to start. And it's the fans who are impatient.

Choate, who spent six years (2006-11) learning how to be a quality college football coach at Boise State, is still more orange and blue than he is silver and blue. That's not his fault. Six years tends to have more of an impact on a guy than 10 games. So, it's likely going to be an emotional night for him walking up and down the blue turf sideline on Saturday.

Unless the Wolf Pack pulls off the biggest upset in its program's history this Saturday, we likely won't hear Choate saying it was kind of an even game. He'll definitely have too much respect for the Broncos to say he'll welcome the opportunity one day to beat Boise State by 20 points when he's in his third year at Nevada. You only say those things about a program and a head coach you have no respect for. Face it, Pack fans. Boise State will always have a special place in your old Montana Western linebacker's heart.

The other thing Pack fans have to face is that Nevada will be nearly a four-touchdown (25 points) underdog on the blue turf. Yes, it was just three years ago Norvell beat the Broncos on that same blue turf. But, as Norvell has reminded us in each of the last three years, it’s not 2021 anymore.

There is a very real chance the Pack will be outclassed on the field on Saturday even if it gives its greatest effort of the season. Boise State is that good, that explosive, that cocky and that hungry to show the college football world it is indeed one of the best dozen teams in the nation.

A Pack win on Saturday, without a doubt, would be the greatest in school history. But don't be shocked if the Pack goes to Boise State and makes the overconfident Broncos sweat it out a little. The Broncos are good. But they are not as good as they think they are, especially on defense. They will likely be focused on everything but the Wolf Pack on Saturday. They will try to run up the score to impress the Top 25 voters and they will be determined to get running back Ashton Jeanty his 150-200 yards and three or four touchdowns to impress the Heisman Trophy voters.

It's all about the optics right now for Boise State. For the Pack it's all about survival. The Pack doesn't have to impress any voters on Saturday. They'll just be out there fighting for their coaches, their impatient fan base and their jobs for next year.

Take the 25 points and keep the faith and your patience.