Boise St. vs. Nevada Recap

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!!! (as said by Maximus)

What a fun game to watch and an amazing performance but let’s be honest, it takes a little luck, and I love Kyle Brotzman! The game of football is all about how you capitalize when you get a chance and that’s what Nevada did, I’m just glad it wasn’t Ricky Drake kicking our game winner.

The hearts of Nevada fans dropped as somehow Kellen Moore made a hell of a throw downfield and still left 0:02 on the clock to win the game with a field goal. Why we did not have at least 4 men in a deep zone, I still don’t know. But that’s beside the point, the point is that had that kick gone, Boise State would still be getting the praise they deserve. They would hop over TCU and close the gap against Auburn, after what I consider a poor performance on their part. They had a shot at a national title game, although they would have never gotten it, they had a shot.

Boise State is a great team, but so is Nevada, and I’ve been saying that for a while. Do I think Nevada could match up against Auburn or Alabama? Yes, do I think we could win? No, but for so many people to write us out of the Boise State game before it even started, hurt. I never thought I would have to defend myself from my friends who didn’t believe Nevada had a chance. After the first half the odds-makers looked like they overestimated Nevada and that Boise would cover the 14 point spread, thousands of people thought they had just won a nice bet because “Nevada is a horrible team and Boise State is gonna run all over them”. But I said it would be a close game and would be decided on the final possession by 3 points or less…now I may have gotten the score wrong a little but I was pretty spot on.

The first half we played ugly on offense. Their defense had no problem containing us, their offense may not have moved the ball as fast as they usually do but they moved it. The second half though could not have been a different story. After letting them run all over us in the first half we held them to 8…yes I said 8...yards on the ground for the rest of the game. The defense held them to 1-6 on 3^rd downs. This defense who has struggled and people said was horrible was BY FAR the best defense I have seen in college football this year, in the second half that is.

I can only hope that that game showed this Nevada team is better than South Carolina, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Nebraska, Missouri, and Arkansas. Unfortunately we will have to wait till tomorrow to find out but it doesn’t seem like it. Hardly any of the commentators are talking about it today and when they do they just state how Boise lost, not that Nevada played an amazing game to knock them off their throne.

The game is over. Nevada has pretty much assured itself a share of the WAC title and a great bowl game. But what has not been discussed are the records that were set last night.

Congratulations to Colin Kaepernick, you are now the only quarterback in NCAA history to throw for 2000 yards and rush for 1000 in the same season, for 3 seasons in a row. I believe this record will stand for a long time if not forever.

Congratulations to Colin Kaepernick and Vai Taua, you are now the most prolific rushing duo in the history of college football passing Eric Dickerson and Craig James. You still have 2 more games to set that number higher.

For now the biggest game in school history is over, Ault can rest, there won’t be the naysayers like there was after the Hawaii game. You proved you are an amazing coach; the adjustments you made at halftime were perfect. You led your team into battle and beat one of the best teams in D1 football.

To everyone who says Boise State didn’t deserve a shot at a national title, if you watched the game last night you saw nothing but praise for them from the commentators, then they showed quotes from all the coaches whose teams have lost to them this year…all of them said that this is a legitimate team and possibly the best in the nation. You killed a Virginia Tech team that lost to a D2 school, but they play in a BCS conference and will win it and get their BCS game. At the end of the season they will be ranked ahead of you just as you will remain ranked ahead of Nevada. This is the cruel world we live in that makes no sense.

If you truly understand football and you watched the game last night, then you know how good of a team Boise State really is and now you know why I said this will be the greatest Nevada team in its school history.

Oh and how cool is this? I took this screen cap at 3:00am PST (click to see a bigger picture of it)...

In Defense of a Great Coach

Lets all point the finger at Ault!

That’s going to be the talk on campus come Monday and it will probably be echoing throughout the community.

Why do we have to mimic Philadelphia fans? Get real here people, last time I checked Ault doesn’t put on a helmet and shoulder pads and line up in the field of play. This is college football, anything can happen on any given day. If we’re going to start chanting “fire Ault”, then Alabama fans should be chanting “fire Saban” and Ohio State should be chanting “fire Tressel”. I mean come on, those were teams ranked #1 when they lost. We were ranked a measly #19, and quite honestly, with the way we’ve been playing, we didn’t deserve that.

Do we lay the blame on Kaepernick? I mean he did have 2 fumbles, 1 of which should have been a touchdown, and 2 interceptions? Or do we lay the blame on Wimberly because he let the last interception go off his hands? How about Dontay Moch for not having more sacks in this game? No, you move one. These aren’t professionals, they went out there and, maybe not in the 1^st half, but in the 2^nd half played with every last drop of heart and energy they had. So you applaud them on a valiant effort.

Lets face it, if we would have gotten a BCS game, it might have been against Alabama or Auburn, or Ohio state, and as must as I would love to say we would have hung in there (notice I’m not saying win here), we would have been slaughtered. I’m talking 70-3 type stuff here. But that’s not the point, the point is we got the BCS game right? Let me tell you something, I’m a Buffalo Bills fan, we went to 4 straight Superbowls, and lost them all. When I tell someone I’m a Bills fan and they say “Boy I Love Losing Superbowls” or how we couldn’t win one, I say at least we were good enough to get to 4 in a row…and you get laughed at because it means NOTHING. Anyone remember Hawaii’s Sugar Bowl experience? Exactly, its not brought up.

We can only hope that this game was a wake up call for the team, that we go into this bye week focused, and that we come out like a real football team and not one that struggles to pull away from San Jose State and UNLV. We beat Cal and BYU, big deal, I hate to break it to you but those teams suck.

All I’m saying is the man has over 200 wins. He’s had teams lead the nation in passing in one year and rushing in another year, the only coach in history to be able to claim that. He’s in the college football hall of fame. He invented an entire offensive system that’s taking the game of football by surprise. The only thing he hasn’t done is parted the Red Sea. Give the guy a break and think for yourself before you follow the masses.

Nevada vs. unlv

Is it too late to cancel this game and find another team to play?

Last year the unlv game was the turning point in our season. It’s when we started putting up amazing numbers, and interestingly enough, it’s been like that for a few years.

This game should have been played earlier or not at all.

Is there a chance unlv will win this game? Sure, but it’s a 0.0001% chance. Now unlv fans are going to talk about how the rebels put up 45 against a New Mexico team, the same team that lost to Oregon 72-0 in the first week of the season. Should the rebel fans feel good about this win? Of course, they need to have some confidence so that we can demoralize them more. The rebels still have no shot in this game, but you won last week, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and say momentum will score you 10 in this game, ok maybe 13.

NEVADA on the other hand is coming into this game after cracking the top 25 for the first time since 1991, although a scoreboard-poor performance against BYU. And this is a rivalry game, not sure if it’s more so for the fans or the players, if this will be your first trip to one of these games you’ll soon know what I’m talking about.

Every other year, this game is played in Vegas, the ONLY time you will see UNR on the scoreboard and not NEVADA. Ault hates this, as does every NEVADA player, so does every NEVADA fan. Expect Ault to go in there and have no regard for sportsmanship. Kaepernick also needs to make up for the lack of numbers in the BYU game. Expect NEVADA to put up 73 at least, but don’t be surprised if they put up over a hundred…yes I said a hundred.

I expect this game to open in the sportsbooks with NEVADA as a 24 point favorite, which I believe we will easily cover.

Final Score Prediction:

NEVADA 87 – unlv 13

The cannon will stay blue, it's real colors. When you hear them refer to us as UNR don't question our identity, just remember the words from one of the most successful coaches in college football history:

“Our university began in 1874. We are the University of Nevada. For some reason in the mid-70s, this UNR, University of Nevada, Reno deal came in. When I came back to coach, this is the first thing we started on. In '92, we put a major campaign on. We are the Nevada Wolf Pack. That’s what we are.”
- Coach Ault

Nevada vs. BYU Recap and Ranking Implications

Congratulations on the Pack for starting 4-0. Our offense was potent as always, methodical, and unable to be stopped. Our defense stepped it up and was looking good. There are 3 things that have me a little disturbed however:

1. There were too many stupid penalties given up by our team.

2. TURN YOUR HEAD ISAIAH!!!!!!!! (read my blog breaking down the defense if you don’t know what I’m talking about here)

3. Ault…what are you doing? I’m a fan of yours and I’ve always defended you but we needed to run the score up in this game, which we easily could have done, but after going for 4 4th downs you went conservative? I’m having a hard time understanding this, but you’re the coach. Next time however, please take Kaepernick and Vai out of the game, why risk an injury when we’re not trying to pad stats?

Ranking Implications

It was a solid win for the Pack, but the scoreboard doesn’t reflect how uneven this game was. If it weren’t for a stupid fumble and taking it easy in the ENTIRE 2nd half, we could have easily scored the 66 I called, BYU however had no chance of getting the 17 I gave them credit for.

We needed some key losses from teams ranked 20-25 this week and unfortunately we only got 2. This should put us at #24, but there’s a wild card, UCLA. After loosing to #25, they went on to beat #23 and #7 (on the road). Don’t be surprised to see UCLA leap-frog us and push us back to #25. We dominated the time of possession in this game but the score just doesn’t show how one sided this game was, this will hurt us.

In all honestly look for Nevada to be ranked #23-26 (yes, I know we’re ranked #26 right now) when the rankings come out.

Breaking Down Nevada's Coaching

Coaching

If there’s been one knock on the team over the past years from the fans, it’s been Ault. Coach Ault demands respect and I think the fans are finally going to see that this year. Sure in years past we all questioned some of the calls he made and sure his record in big games aren’t great but let’s face the facts. This guy knows how to win. There’s a reason he’s in the College Football Hall of Fame. If you don’t want to buy that then just think about this…who else could we get? Ault has molded this offense around Kaepernick, and guess what…it works. His offensive scheme, the pistol, has been adopted by many other college, high school, and even NFL teams becuase it works.

Andy Buh has taken over the defensive side of the ball and so far the results are much better than last year. It will be interesting to see what ensues the rest of the season. There are a few minor issues with the secondary that if he fixes will result in 7-14 less points given up each game.

Have faith in Ault Pack fans that's all I ask. And don't forget that Kaepernick can audible when he get's to the line.