Nevada receiver Marcus Bellon (18), a former Truckee star, fights off Boise State safety Rodney Robinson during the Wolf Pack’s conference game Saturday.
Steve Conner | AP
Sports Fodder:
The Nevada Wolf Pack football program might have come of age on Saturday night in Boise. The nearly three years of demoralizing, numbing, non-stop losing might finally be coming to an end soon if what we saw on the hideous blue plastic turf was not a cruel mirage.
It certainly looked real. It felt real. It even tasted, sounded and smelled real. It was at least nothing like we've come to know since the end of the 2021 regular season, when the Wolf Pack football world was flipped upside down and landed on its head and was suddenly drained of all hope, promise and success. On Saturday, though, we could, at least, smell hope and promise again.
Yes, we know the Wolf Pack lost, 28-21, to the Boy-C Boys. But we have to remind you and ourselves after three years of numbing defeat, that not all losses are created equal. This wasn't demoralizing at all. It was, we dare say, a little invigorating. We saw Boise State staggered at times. A little confused and jittery. All the Boy-C Boys had left was to simply hand the ball off to their Heisman Trophy running back and hope for the best. It worked for them because, well, Ashton Jeanty is a human tank in shoulder pads and as unstoppable as any Mountain West running back has ever been.
But the Pack left Boise on Saturday night just the same knowing that they faced the best the Mountain West can offer and clearly showed they belong.
We have, don't forget, seen the Pack lose to Boise State before and emerge stronger, invigorated, more confident and determined and full of hope and promise. Two times in recent decades come to mind.
The first was in 2007 when the Pack went to Boise State and fought the mighty Broncos in an old-school 15-round fight that left both teams bloodied and battered before losing 69-67 in four overtimes. And they did it with a quarterback (Colin Kaepernick) making his first start. That night in 2007 was the foundation for a 13-1 season in 2010.
The second time was, of course, a little less dramatic and didn't involve a generational-type talent at quarterback. But it was meaningful just the same. The 2018 Wolf Pack, coming off a 3-9 season under rookie head coach Jay Norvell and four rollercoaster years under Brian Polian, lost at home to Boise State, 31-27, to fall to 3-4. But that loss, however frustrating, was followed by 26 wins in the next 39 games (one of those wins was at Boise in 2021) before Norvell loaded up the truck and sucked hope and promise and an offense out of the program when he went to Colorado State.
Last Saturday, if we indeed still have the ability to touch, taste and smell after three years of numbing losses, felt like 2007 and 2018 all over again.
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If you still had some doubts about whether Jeff Choate was just another big, burly, overconfident, loudmouth, bully of a coach or the difference-maker the Pack needs, well, Saturday night should put all that to rest.
Choate, we've thought ever since we met him back in December, is that difference-maker. He's not just a guy (Brian Polian) who rode his father's resume to Nevada or a guy (Ken Wilson), who attached himself to his football father's (Chris Ault) Hall of Fame credentials to return to Nevada. Choate is a guy who has scratched and clawed his way to a career the hard way and that's what he's still doing at Nevada.
We don't know how he did it, but he somehow convinced his then 3-7 Wolf Pack to go to the place where all Wolf Pack dreams go to die and beat a team that will likely be playing in the College Football Playoff next month. It didn't start well. The Pack could have taken a knee late in the first quarter, down 14-0. Did you see Ashton Jeanty, a guy who looks like a young Mike Tyson in shoulder pads, obliterate a Pack defensive back (we withhold his name to protect his family) and three other Pack defenders on his way to his first of three touchdowns on Saturday? It was reminiscent of when they blew up the Mapes Hotel on Super Bowl Sunday in 2000.
But Choate's Pack emerged from that rubble and outscored Boise 21-14 over the final three quarters. The Pack’s three highlight-reel touchdowns (Brendon Lewis' 13-yard run, 33-yard pass to Jaden Smith and Marcus Bellon's wide receiver pass for 44 yards to running back Caleb Ramseur) showed the Pack wasn't merely content to keep the score close. They went to Boise to win.
Choate and his staff of buddies he hired as assistants were bold, creative and confident. We haven't seen that since Norvell and Matt Mumme were running the show. That's the type of difference-making coaching staff Nevada has always needed.
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Don't worry about the final two games this season. No matter what happens at home against Air Force on Nov. 23 or at UNLV on Nov. 30, nothing will diminish the good the Pack created this past Saturday. What we saw on Saturday will still matter this offseason as Choate builds another roster for 2025.
We understand that we are probably overstating what happened on Saturday, that Boise likely lost interest and intensity after bulldozing its way to a 14-0 lead. That, of course, has happened before: see 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014. It's what they do. They knock the Pack down, go take a rest and let the Pack in the game and then return to knock the Pack down again at the end. All of the examples we mentioned above happened precisely that way except 2010. It happened that way because the Pack (except for 2010) wasn't ready to win any of those games. They didn't know how. And that was the case again this past Saturday.
That's Choate's biggest task now. He needs to teach his program how to win. He's taught them to believe and buy in. But teaching a program how to win is the most difficult thing a coach has to do. Some coaches never truly figure it out save for a few brief stretches. Choate learned how to win as a Boise assistant from 2006-11 and reinforced that knowledge at Texas the last three years. Now he has to learn how to teach it.
Boise State has known how to win for the past two-plus decades. You can just see it in their confidence and the way they always seem to toy with the Pack before winning at the end.
The Wolf Pack in 2010 also had that confidence, even when they fell behind by three touchdowns at halftime against Boise State. Kaepernick and his teammates just knew they could beat Boise State in 2010 and couldn't wait to show the world.
That's the next step Choate, his staff and his roster needs to take.
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The Pack could immediately take that step in the final two games against Air Force and UNLV and end the season on an extremely high note.
Air Force is a bad football team stuck in a transition season. They should come to Mackay in 10 days or so as the underdog to a 3-8 Pack team. But the Falcons are always tough, physical, disciplined, confident, sure of themselves, extremely well coached and, well, they usually lick their chops against teams that don't know how to win. The Falcons also are getting better and just beat Fresno State, 36-28, last weekend.
We might, after all, witness a Pack team that is overconfident, sloppy and undisciplined despite its 3-8 record simply because they played well at Boise State. If that happens, well, it will be obvious they still haven't learned a thing about how to win. You can stay close in games with nifty wide receivers passes only so often, you know. Choate needs to remind his team this week and next that they actually lost that game at Boise State and the Broncos have already forgotten the Pack even exists.
UNLV is a different story. The Rebels are just as talented and cocky as Boise State, and they might be even more explosive and unpredictable. They might not have an Ashton Jeanty but by the end of the game it can feel like they have three Ashton Jeanty impersonators. Choate has to remind his team that week that UNLV is afraid of the fact that the Wolf Pack only lost by seven at Boise State while the Rebels lost by five at home to the same team. It might make the Rebels even more unpredictable, explosive and dangerous, especially knowing the Pack is coming to Vegas to take home their Fremont Cannon.
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Choate has done a solid job in his first season as the Pack head coach. But he hasn't done the best job of the seven first-year Mountain West head coaches this year, eight if you count Boise State's Spencer Danielson, who was the interim head coach last year that led the Broncos to a conference title.
The title of best first-year Mountain West head coach right now has to go to Bronco Mendenhall of the New Mexico Lobos. Mendenhall's Lobos are a surprising 4-6, 3-3 after winning just three league games over the past three seasons combined. Choate took over a Pack team that won two league games last year and he's still looking for his first Mountain West win.
The Lobos just upset San Diego State, 21-16, last weekend in San Diego and have won four of their last six games after starting the year 0-4 and losing to a Big Sky FCS team (Montana State). They have one of the most underrated payers in the conference in quarterback Devon Damper, who has passed for 2,418 yards and 11 touchdowns and run for 872 yards and 13 scores. They aren't wining with mirrors or gadget plays. They are just out there running up and down the field at will (they've scored 30 or more points six times).
San Jose State's Ken Niumatalolo has also done well in his first year in the Mountain West. His Spartans are 6-3, 3-2 after their former head coach (Brent Brennan) abandoned them after seven seasons for Arizona and the Big 12. Niumatalolo did beat the Pack with a gadget play earlier this year on a receiver pass (did the Pack steal it to use against Boise State?) but he's an old school coach who spent 16 years running the ball at Navy.