Pack returns to Mackay, ready to renew rivalry with Ga. Southern

A look ahead to the Nevada Wolf Pack's football game on Saturday against the Georgia Southern Eagles at Mackay Stadium:

KICKOFF: 4 p.m.

TEAM RECORDS: Nevada 1-1 (0-0); Georgia Southern 0-1 (0-0).

HOW TO WATCH, LISTEN: The game can be seen on TruTV and heard on 105.7 FM.

POINT SPREAD: Georgia Southern is favored by one point; the total is 59.

AT STAKE: The Wolf Pack, which beat Troy 28-26 last week on the road, is looking for its first two-game winning streak since it beat San Diego State (6-0) and New Mexico (34-24) late last October for its only two wins of the season. The Wolf Pack's only two victories of the 2022 season also came in a two-game winning streak to open the year against New Mexico State (23-12) and Texas State (38-14). Georgia Southern, which lost 56-45 to Boise State last week, is hoping to avoid its first 0-2 start to a season since 2017, when it lost its first nine games.

THE RIVALRY: Georgia Southern leads, 2-0, with both victories coming in the Division I-AA playoffs. The Eagles beat the Wolf Pack at Mackay Stadium in the 1986 semifinals, 48-38, and also in the 1990 national championship game at Statesboro, Ga., 36-13. Quarterback Tracy Ham led the Eagles in the 1986 game with 147 yards passing and two touchdowns and 162 yards rushing and two more touchdowns. Eagles' quarterback Raymond Gross had 165 yards rushing and a touchdown in the 1990 national title game and completed just 2-of-5 passes for 69 yards.

THE HEAD COACHES: Nevada's Jeff Choate is 1-1 and in his first season as the Pack's head coach. He is 0-1 at Mackay Stadium losing 29-24 to SMU to open the season. Choate was the linebacker coach for the Florida Gators in 2013 when Georgia Southern came to Gainesville, Fla., and pulled off a 26-20 upset in front of a crowd of 82,459. That Florida team lost its final seven games after a 4-1 start. Georgia Southern's Clay Helton is 12-15 and in his third season as the Eagles’ head coach. He was also 46-24 as head coach at USC from 2015-21.

FALLING EAGLES: Georgia Southern will bring a six-game losing streak to Mackay Stadium dating back to last season. The Eagles dropped their final five games in 2023, including a 41-21 loss to Ohio in the Myrtle Beach Bowl to finish 6-7 for the second consecutive season under Helton. Georgia Southern has gone 9-14 under Helton since it opened the 2022 season with a 3-1 record.

WHEN GEORGIA SOUTHERN HAS THE BALL: Quarterback J.C. French was 28-of-50 for 322 yards and two touchdowns last week in a 56-45 loss to Boise State. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound French started his career at Memphis in 2022 and did not play in a game. He played 48 snaps for Georgia Southern last year, completing 13-of-16 for 122 yards and a touchdown. Running back Jalen White scored three touchdowns last week against Boise State. Wide receivers Derwin Burgess and Dalen Cobb each caught four passes as 10 different Eagles caught between one and four of French's passes.

WHEN NEVADA HAS THE BALL: Quarterback Brendon Lewis has completed 31-of-46 passes for 290 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. Lewis is also second on the team with 111 rushing yards on 26 carries. Savion Red leads the team with 165 rushing yards (23 carries). Patrick Garwo has 59 yards and two touchdowns on just 10 carries while Sean Dollars has 41 yards on 15 carries. Jaden Smith leads the Wolf Pack with 10 catches for 113 yards, followed by Cortez Braham (8-94-1), Marcus Bellon (4-56-1) and Jace Henry (4-36-2).

POROUS EAGLES DEFENSE: The Wolf Pack ran for 214 yards on 34 carries last week against Troy and will likely try to do the same against Georgia Southern. The Eagles allowed 371 yards on the ground on 35 carries against Boise State as Broncos running back Ashton Jeanty had 267 yards and six touchdowns on 20 carries. Boise State piled up 651 total yards on Georgia Southern last week, leaving the Eagles as the worst defensive team (132nd) in the nation so far.

MORE EXPOSURE THREE DECADES AGO: Saturday's game will be broadcast over a minor basic cable station called TruTV. The announcers will be the relatively unknown J.B. Long, Mike Golic Jr., and Nabil Karim. That wasn't the case 34 years ago when the Eagles and Wolf Pack met in the 1990 Division I-AA national title game. The game on Dec. 15, 1990, was broadcast nationally on CBS, starting at 9 a.m. Pacific. The announcers were the popular Jim Nantz, Tim Brant and John Dockery. It was the first nationally televised Wolf Pack football game.

STRANGE SCHEDULE: This will be the Wolf Pack's second consecutive game against a team from the Sun Belt Conference (after playing Troy last week). The last time the Wolf Pack played two consecutive non-conference games against teams from the same conference was 2014 against Washington State (a 24-13 win) and Arizona (a 35-28 loss) of the former Pac-12. The Pack is not currently scheduled to play another Sun Belt team after this Saturday until Troy comes to Mackay Stadium in 2031.

CHOATE QUOTE: "The psyche of winning is something that is learned. This win (at Troy) can catapult us now. We have an opportunity to make some noise now."

PACK FOOTBALL

Who: Georgia Southern (0-1) at Nevada (1-1)

When: Saturday, 4 p.m.

Where: Mackay Stadium

TV: Tru

Radio: 105.7 FM (John Ramey, Mike Edwards)

Line: Troy by 1; total of 59

Series: Georgia Southern leads, 2-0