First and foremost, congratulations goes out to this Nevada team that has started the season 5-0. At the same time, I’m worried and torn about what to think. Coming into every season the Pack has two goals in mind:

1. Beat unlv
2. Beat Boise St. / Win the WAC (this is usually hand-in-hand)

But this year is different. Coming into this year, if you knew how good this team was, as I had been saying, there was a 3rd goal:

3. Get a BCS game (this is hand-in-hand with beating Boise St. this year, granted we are undefeated going into the game)

This team is more than capable of playing in a BCS game. If you really watched the last 2 games however you would have noticed that we’re not playing up to our full potential. The UNLV game should have never been close. The second half of the BYU game was average. The team needs to go back to playing how they played against Cal. That is Nevada football, and that is what this team needs to not only get that BCS game, but also to beat Boise St.

Remember a few blogs ago when I said we need to “blow out” teams? Well that’s not happening. When it comes down to the BCS computations, we are not going to rank as high as we should because of this. Cal being ranked #24 when we beat them has no relevance anymore as they are 2-2. Furthermore the combined records of the teams we have beaten so far is 8-16. The sad thing is that Division 2 opponent Eastern Washington is contributing 3 of those wins. The Division 1 opponents combined record is only 5-14.

As of now, there are only 4 games remaining against opponents with winning records (>.500), and one of these is Boise St. I can not stress how “perfect” we have to look against these teams. Playing like we have the last 6 quarters will not cut it anymore.

Now you might think I’m being pessimistic towards my team, but I’m not. I have high hopes and high expectations because I know that this is the best team we’ve had in the 8 years I’ve been following this team, and it will the best we have for a while. I am a Nevada fan through and through and have stood by this team through thick and thin. The team needs to stop being content with being ranked and move on to the bigger picture. We need to make this a year that people will talk about for years to come.

Tomorrow: SJSU game preview
Wednesday: Ranking Implications