The Air Force Academy caught up with Ault on a recruiting trip in Los Angeles in December 1977 and talked with the Pack coach for over three hours about becoming its new head coach.

“I told them I still had a job to do in Reno,” Ault told the media just over 34 years ago. “I really mean that. I’m very loyal to Reno. I owe everything to the university.”

After his second season as the Wolf Pack’s defensive coordinator, a 38-year-old Andy Buh — like Ault a former Pack player — abruptly left Nevada last week to become the linebackers coach at Wisconsin.

“That was a big surprise to me,” said Ault, who added that Buh also was offered the defensive coordinator’s job at Washington State and turned it down. “I knew he went to interview with (Wisconsin) but when he told me he was going to take the job, it caught me off guard.”

Ault then uttered some familiar words when discussing Buh’s sudden departure, words that he spoke just over 34 years ago when he told Air Force he wasn’t interested (the Falcons eventually gave the job to a 36-year-old Bill Parcells).

“The job is not done yet,” said Ault, referring to the present-day task of building the Pack defense. “He (Buh) left here too early. No question. We made nice strides on defense with Andy the last two years. But the job isn’t done. No question about it. When I hired him I never thought he’d leave in two years.”

The last thing Ault thought he would have to do this off-season — after finishing 7-6 and getting ready to join the Mountain West Conference in the fall — is find a new defensive coordinator.

“I’m very concerned about this,“ Ault said. “This sets us back. I hated to lose Andy. I felt we were building something here. In all my years of coaching Andy was the most complete coordinator I’ve ever had. He was very accountable. I could go to him and talk about anything.”

The average tenure of a Wolf Pack defensive coordinator under Ault is slightly less than two years. In Ault’s 27 seasons as head coach, a total of 15 men have held the title of defensive coordinator.

Ken Mizell did it for five years (1988-92). Marty McGuffey (1976-78), John Smith (1979-81) and Barry Sacks (2004-06) did it for three. Mike Dolby (1982-83), Bill Miller (1984-85), Don Wnek (1986-87), Tim DeRuyter (2005-06), Nigel Burton (2008-09) and Buh (2010-11) did it for two. Five only did it for one year. Don Dunn and Steve Caldwell shared the job in 1994, Mike Gillhamer did it alone in 1995, Dave Fipp was a co-coordinator in 2004 with Sacks and Ken Wilson took over in 2007.

“Coach Ault hasn’t been too involved with the defense the last two years because he trusted Andy and our staff,” said Wilson, the current Wolf Pack Associate Head coach as well as defensive ends and special teams coach and a Nevada assistant for 18 seasons. “His involvement with the defensive coordinator all depends on his comfort level. He hasn’t been too hands on lately because he had a great comfort level with Andy. There have been years when he’s been more hands on, like with Dave Fipp and Nigel (Burton) but that’s only when he feels things aren’t going well.”

Ault just smiles when asked about his relationship with his defensive coordinators down through the years.

“If I was a defensive coordinator I’d love to coach on my staff,” Ault said. “With the way our offense controls the football, if I was a defensive coordinator I’d love to be a part of that. I leave those guys alone. I let the defensive staff take charge of the defense. I had a great relationship with Andy and we still do.”

Ault, who also has to find a new offensive line coach (Cameron Norcross, who doubled as the running game coordinator, also left last week for Fresno State), said he can go a few different directions with his two new openings.

“We are rare in Division I college football in that we have five defensive coaches and four offensive coaches,“ Ault said. “Most schools have five on offense, four on defense.”

The Wolf Pack has had five defensive coaches since 2006 when Sacks and DeRuyter were co-coordinators, Wilson coached linebackers, Marty Long took care of the defensive line and Kim McCloud coached the secondary.

“I did it because I wanted to put extra emphasis on the defense,” Ault said. “I invested more resources in the defense. But I haven’t gotten the results on defense that I expected.”

Ault hinted that he might go back to four defensive coaches and five on offense, possibly hiring a quarterback’s coach to relieve some of his own duties on offense. Ault is currently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and spends all his time on the practice field with the quarterbacks.

“That’s kind of where my mind is at,” said Ault of the possibility of adding an addition offensive coach. “That’s something I’d like to do eventually, possibly hire an offensive coordinator/ quarterback coach. That is not what we are offering right now, but it is something I’m thinking about. But a lot of things have to happen before we can do that.”

A switch back to five coaches on offense and four on defense would mean that one of the four remaining defensive assistant coaches would take over as defensive coordinator. And there are plenty of qualified candidates because all four have been a defensive coordinator at some point in their career.

Wilson was the Pack coordinator in 2007 under Ault and from 1996-98 under head coach Jeff Tisdell. Sacks, who now coaches defensive tackles, was a co-coordinator from 2004-06 under Ault. Secondary coach Mike Bradeson was UNLV’s defensive coordinator from 2000-04 and cornerbacks coach James Ward was Idaho State’s defensive coordinator from 1999-2003.

Sacks said Friday that he doesn’t want the job.

“Not at all,” Sacks said. “Everybody has to have a defined role on a staff and I love my role right now.”

Wilson said he would “do whatever Coach Ault thinks is best for the program.”

“The job as coordinator is a lot of fun,” Wilson said. “It’s exciting, designing different defenses. That last time I did it (in 2007) we had a lot of injuries and our defense just depended each week on who was healthy. We were scrambling that year. But the first time I did it (1996-98) we had things going pretty good.”

Wilson’s defenses from 1996-98 included such standout Pack players as linebackers DeShone Myles and Mike Crawford, defensive tackle James Cannida and defensive back Don Morgan. It was Wilson’s defense that turned in one of the top defensive performances in Pack history in an 18-15 victory over Ball State in the 1996 Las Vegas Bowl.

Ault, though, said Wilson is much too valuable in his current role.

“He’s my Associate Head Coach and that’s where I want him,” Ault said. “He does a great job with that.”

That leaves Bradeson or Ward as Ault’s top candidates if he decides to stay in house to find his next coordinator.

“Hopefully one of the guys on the staff gets it so that we can keep that continuity,” Wilson said. “Mike (Bradeson) would make a great coordinator. He knows our defense inside and out. James would also be very good. We have a very unique staff in that all four of us have been coordinators. We have a lot of good minds on that side of the ball.”

Continuity, Wilson and Ault both said, is the key on defense.

“We have to do what’s best for our players and the best thing would be to keep our continuity on defense,” Wilson said. “It’s important that we don’t force our kids to have to learn a brand new defense.”

Buh’s departure has definitely threatened the Pack’s defensive continuity.

“Continuity and longevity is the key factor in college coaching,” Ault said. “Our offense has been successful for many years because we have that continuity and longevity on that side of the ball. It’s been me. We haven’t had that on defense.”

Giving the job to Bradeson or Ward would guarantee the continuity that Buh started to build the past two years would continue. And it would also allow Ault to tinker with his offensive staff.

“I love Andy Buh,” Sacks said. “We were on the right track with Andy.”

Ault said he expects to name a defensive coordinator by Feb. 15.

“Probably sooner,” he said.

“Coach Ault knows what he’s looking for,” Sacks said. “He always finds the right man for the job.”

And just like in 1977, that job isn’t close to being finished.

“We are going into a very critical era for this football program,” Ault said. “We’re going into a new conference and that is always a tough thing to do. We need to get the right people in here.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:  We apologize for the delay between the Elite 8 and Final 4 match-ups; the past few weeks have marked the beginning of a new business venture for one of our writers (Scott), and Madness fell to the bottom of the priority list.  No worries, my friends.  We’ve given the inaugural Midwinter Madness a fitting conclusion, and both Andrew and Scott will be up and running with fresh new interviews and Cannon Fodder in the coming days.

The Final Four

Stalking a Title: Jordan Jefferson and the Tigers Rocket Past TCU in the Second Half to Advance to the Rose Bowl

Andrew Maurins/NEW ORLEANS, La. (S&B) –  With his senior season’s rocky start firmly in the past, it was sweet validation for Jordan Jefferson to bask in the cheers of tens of thousands of purple and gold-clad Tiger fans after another well-deserved victory.

The Tigers celebrate after earning a trip to the first Rose Bowl FPS National Championship Game. (Photo credit: USA Today)

The fact that it came immediately following one of the best performances of his career — passing for three touchdowns and 244 yards on 21 of 29 attempts — and with the right to play for a national title at stake made it even sweeter to experience. Now Jefferson and his teammates have an impressive 38-20 win over upstart TCU in the Allstate Sugar National Semifinal to go along with all the other convincing wins they’ve racked up thus far. They’ll travel to Pasadena next week for a rematch against Oregon and with the inaugural FPS National Championship on the line.

“I haven’t always made good decisions while I’ve been here,” said the visibly emotional Jefferson, acknowledging his involvement in a bar fight last August that nearly cost him his place on the LSU roster. “My parents taught me to give people the benefit of the doubt, that people can and do change. And I wouldn’t be here today if Coach [Les Miles] didn’t believe that same thing.”

Crisp, efficient and electrifying, the senior quarterback seemed to always have an answer whenever the Tigers needed a third down converted or a big play to keep the Horned Frogs at arm’s length.

But it was sophomore running back Michael Ford who helped start off the evening on the right foot — literally — for LSU, taking a counter play hand-off from midfield, breaking one tackle, juking past another defender with his right foot and galloping the rest of the way to the end zone. Ford finished with 141 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, part of a blistering rushing attack the TCU defense never quite found a way to contain.

The Horned Frogs, so accustomed to being labeled underdogs and relishing the chance to add another improbable win to their playoff resume, pulled within one point of LSU twice in the first half. The first came on a field goal to make the score 7-6, and the second came on a Matthew Tucker touchdown run that made it 14-13. The Tigers responded with a field goal of their own as the quarter expired to go up 17-13 at the half.

“They more than lived up to their hype, and that’s keeping in mind our players didn’t need to be told how good they were,” said Miles afterwards. “There wasn’t worry in that locker room as much as there was this quiet confidence, that feeling that ‘When we come to play, we’re pretty darn good, too.’”

And in turn the Tigers made good on that confidence in the second half. With the TCU offense spinning its wheels, LSU broke the third quarter stalemate when Jefferson left the pocket on a long third-and-goal, saw that Russell Shepard had shed his defender and the two connected for an easy touchdown pass.

“He had been covering me all night long,” said Shepard with a smile, “but I knew he couldn’t do it forever.”

Senior TCU dance leader Stacy Nicolette (22) of Round Rock, Tex. hides her disappointment under a tough poker face. (Photo credit: Blogspot)

Though the Frogs offense had some success in the second half, they were never able to match the Tigers’ intensity on either side of the ball the rest of the way. The game followed what’s become a predictable sequence of events in many of LSU’s wins: a close, tight first half, followed by an all-Tiger second half.

“They do halftime adjustments better than anyone I’ve ever seen,” said coach Gary Patterson. “You have to be able to do that to win a championship at any level.”

The fourth quarter was merely a glorified coronation for the Tigers. Rueben Randle caught the last of Jefferson’s touchdown throws on a 16-yard fade route to the corner, and Ford took in a draw play from 21 yards out to make the score 38-13. Even when TCU’s Josh Boyce ran in an 85-yard touchdown pass with :09 seconds remaining, the partisan crowd’s enthusiasm wasn’t dampened in the slightest, as chants of “S-E-C!” and “Pa-sa-de-na!” continued to echo inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

“I told them to enjoy this win tonight and share it with their families, but be ready for practice on Sunday afternoon just like always,” said Miles. “Next week is the one that really matters, and everything they’ve done up to tonight will be in the past.”

By a Feather: Rose Bowl Awaits the Ducks After a Missed Field Goal Ends Wisconsin’s Frantic Comeback Bid

Andrew Maurins/MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (S&B) - At Sun Life Stadium on Saturday night, the difference between overtime and crushing defeat was as slim as the length of a football.  Or maybe a few feathers, if you’re a Duck fan.

But for Wisconsin kicker Kyle French, the length of those imaginary feathers meant the difference between being forever celebrated in Badger football lore and being forever tormented by thoughts of what might’ve been. And when the redshirt freshman’s 44-yard attempt at a game-tying field goal curled wide left by the smallest of increments as time expired, it was Oregon’s players — not Wisconsin’s — who rushed the field in delirious triumph with a 38-35 victory preserved.

Oregon wideout Lavasier Tuinei (80) runs away from Wisconin defenders during the Discover Orange National Semifinal in Miami. (Photo credit: CBS News, Inc.)

It might’ve been easier to accept had the Badgers not clawed and fought all the way back from a 24-point deficit with a furious fourth quarter rally that brought them within three points of doing what had been unthinkable an hour before. It might’ve been easier to swallow if an appearance in the FPS National Championship game and trip to Pasadena weren’t both on the line. But as it stands now, the Big Ten Champions are left to wonder — painfully — what they could’ve done differently.

“Absolutely, emphatically not,” said coach Bret Bielema when asked if French’s kick was what cost Wisconsin the game. “Talk about our defense not getting more stops, talk about our offense not playing with more consistency, talk about any other little thing we could’ve done differently tonight, but don’t single out that kick and don’t single out Kyle.”

After Montee Ball scored the game’s first touchdown, the Ducks proceeded to put on a clinic, outscoring the Badgers 38-7 over the next two quarters to take a commanding 38-14 lead into the fourth. LaMichael James and Kenjon Barner led the way for Oregon, combining for 251 rushing yards and four touchdowns as the Ducks dominated on both sides of the ball.

“That’s what our coaches talk about when they tell us to win every practice,” said De’Anthony Thomas, whose leaping one-yard score in the third quarter ended up being the decisive blow in a slug-fest which pitted Oregon’s speed against Wisconsin’s strength. “‘Win every practice and you’ll win on the field,’ that’s the mantra.”

But then, as if a switch had suddenly been flipped, the Badgers seized the fourth quarter, and very nearly the game itself. It began with a run-heavy drive punctuated by James White’s 21-yard option pitch touchdown run. That made the score 38-20, and when Wisconsin’s defense stopped the Ducks on three straight plays, suddenly there was a new spring in their step.

Quarterback Russell Wilson took control of the next drive, connecting with Jared Abbrederis and Manasseh Garner to bring Wisconsin inside the 20. Then, on a second down crossing pattern, Wilson threaded a high pass to Nick Toon, who collected the ball in his outstretched fingertips before getting sandwiched between two defenders at the goal line. The half of the stadium clad in red erupted in a deafening call of “TOOOOOON!” With 8:50 left in the game, the lead had been cut to 38-27. The Badgers had seized all the momentum, and suddenly it was Oregon who was scrambling for answers.

“For a second, it definitely crossed my mind. I thought ‘We’ve lost control of this game,’” said coach Chip Kelly.

Oregon linebacker Dewitt Stuckey celebrates Oregon's return to the Rose Bowl -- this time, as the culmination of a championship playoff. (Photo credit: Pac-12)

The following two drives only ratcheted up the tension further, as each team traded three-and-outs. When the Ducks moved the ball enough to pin the Badgers inside the five on their next drive, Wilson, Ball and company knew that time wasn’t on their side.

Twice Wisconsin faced third-and-long and twice they converted with high-pressure catches from Jacob Pedersen. Then Ball bookended his prior rushing touchdown with another on third and goal from the four. 38-33. The following play action pass to Jeff Duckworth tacked on another two points, and the comeback was almost complete.

The whole stadium fell quiet for the onside kick that next took place. When the Badgers executed it to near perfection, the Wisconsin fans in attendance once again exploded in cheers. It seemed as though fate would remain on their side, and it was merely a matter of setting up the ball in the middle of the field and using their final time out with :03 seconds left.

“I was already thinking about what to run in overtime,” said Bielema. “That’s how much confidence I had in Kyle, and how much I still have in him. Now we’ll just have to wait until next year to make good on it.”

The Rose Bowl that never was…

by Scott Daniel

Yesterday in Pasadena, Oregon and LSU squared off for the second time this season in the most meaningful national championship game, and the most meaningful Rose Bowl, in the history of college football.

But that’s in another Pasadena, in another lifetime, in a game watched by other versions of us.  My trans-dimensional HDTV cut out just before the coin flip, and I missed the entire game.  My trans-dimensional TiVo failed to record it.  Fortunately, a few hours later my trans-dimensional 3G kicked in, and I was able to get the final score off my trans-dimensional iPhone app.  No stats.  No photos.  Just a final tally with the two most important numbers.

I’ll tell you at the end who won.  But first, a few words on all this Madness, and why I decided to devote nearly two months of writing to it…

…last August, I picked up, for the umpteenth year in a row, a copy of Phil Steele’s College Football Annual.  The thing is hardly readable.  Our friend Phillip isn’t a writer, and he admits as much.  He’s a stats junkie, and he fills his book every year with enough quantitative information to send the Swiss hadron collider into a tailspin.  It’s magic.

And, to my surprise, I made use of it.  The Steele annual provides space to track the score of every single Division I FBS game.  And I did.  In the intervening months between taking the bar exam and deciding to hang out my own shingle, I had some extra time.  So, every Sunday morning, I would huddle at a table at the Squeeze In in Northwest Reno and, using my iPhone, recorded the final score of every single game from the previous week.  I read up on match-up history and tried, as best as I could, to predict the winner and loser every game, including Sun Belt and MAC games, just to see if I could.

I had a fair hand.  I was accurately probably 70% of the time.

But as the end of the season neared, I had to ask myself what in God’s name I would do with all of this information.  It seemed to me to be the beginning of a long descent into a benign-yet-isolating bout with obsessive compulsive disorder.  I had to channel it into something productive.  It had to actually benefit my product – our product – at Silver & Blue.

My first idea was to run my own top-to-bottom rankings at the end of the regular season, something I wanted to call the “S&B 120″.  While the process of comparing team after team itself seemed like an interesting intellectual exercise, I didn’t think a laundry list was something that you all wanted to read.  I also had little to no interest in writing it.  Any writer can do a list.  Just go onto Blogger or WordPress, and you’ll find countless talentless hacks who happen to be “professional bloggers” whose posts consist of nothing but random lists of things they like or dislike.  No thank you.

If I had spent that much time and energy with the left side of my brain, I needed to tap into the creative vault that occasionally lies rusty in the other hemisphere.  One day, I found myself pondering the mascot bracket we did last spring, and the idea of using a homemade ranking to pair off teams gave me an admittedly not-so novel idea: we would do a mock playoff.

But I didn’t just want to do a mock college football playoff.  Scores of web sites do that already.  They run simulations with all of their stats and spit out winners and losers.  Which is perfectly fine, if you’re into that sort of thing.  But that’s just bare bones.  I wanted to wrap flesh around that bone, and breathe life into it.  I wanted to actually create the storylines that would emerge so that Silver & Blue readers could actually taste what a playoff might be like if they read about it every morning in their papers.

That’s when I decided to reach out to fellow writer Andrew Maurins, who has performed superbly in helping me with this project.  I explained the concept to Andrew, and he literally (okay, maybe just figuratively) jumped at the opportunity.  We hashed out the concept over e-mail.  32 teams.  11 automatic bids from 11 conferences.  21 at-large teams.  Selection criteria not wedded to any poll or ranking – AP, BCS, USA Today, Harris, or otherwise – but rather the old-fashioned way, the way the NCAA Tournament committee does it for basketball.  We then agreed that each of us would do our own independent ranking of the Top 32 teams in college football, including the 3 automatic outliers of Louisiana Tech, Arkansas State, and Northern Illinois.

On the first Friday in December, Andrew and I met with our rankings at my office downtown.  For three hours, we carefully scrutinized who we had in, who we had out, and why.  We then placed our teams into our four brackets, seeded 1-8, utilizing the infamous “S curve” to create a default 1-4, then pairing those teams with 5-8 seeds on the basis of geography, rivalry and best possible match-ups.  Then it was off to JJ’s to toast our little creation, and then to Lawlor to watch the Pack beat the Washington Huskies.

Before we split the articles up, each week I ran several simulations to ensure a reasonably realistic result.  First, I utilized the AccuScore mock playoff bracket on ESPN.com.  Each match-up we created carried with it a probability of one team winning over another.  For example, for our Midwest Regional match-up between LSU and Michigan State, LSU had a 72% chance of winning compared to Michigan State’s 28% chance.

For each match-up, then, I ran it either 25, 50, or 100 times (fewer for the earlier rounds with more games, more for the later rounds with fewer games).  I assigned the underdog a 3-point margin of error on the upset.  If their win total fell below that margin of error, they lost.  If their win total was within that range, I had the option of picking them for the upset.  If their win total exceeded the margin of error, I automatically gave them the win.  So for our LSU-Michigan State tilt above, Michigan State entered with a 28% chance of emerging victorious, +/- 3%.  The Spartans had to win at least 25% of the time to be considered for victory.  Anything above 31% was a guaranteed Spartan win.  Under the AccuScore simulation, Michigan State won only 18% of the time.  I had no choice but to allow LSU to kick the hell out of them.

After winners were determined, I ran the simulation again through the game scenario generator at Whatifsports.com; not to determine a winner, but to get a workable set of stats and a realistic score. The box score that came with each was incredible: literally, a play-by-play breakdown as if produced by the stat geeks in the press box, and unbelievably accurate.

Andrew and I then split the box scores and individually brainstormed what each game would look like in the flesh.  What it would feel like.  What it would smell like.  Because while these stat sites provide us with abstract concepts, I wanted this to be concrete.  I wanted to hear Brent Musburger calling an Oklahoma State-Wisconsin regional final or to picture Erin Andrews’ post-game interview with Gary Patterson after TCU upset South Carolina.  And I wanted to experience the schadenfreude of seeing Boise State’s championship aspirations end on a field goal for the third time in two years.

We have done our best to provide that to you but, alas, it’s a cheap imitation…

Why Can’t We Have This Rose Bowl?

It’s quite simple, actually.  Institutional inertia and resistance.  The bowl system we have in place now is little more than an accident of history.  When college football emerged in the first half of the twentieth century, it did so in the context of a sports culture that decided its “champions” largely the way the gladiators did.  If you beat the champion, you are the champion…as in boxing, perhaps the most popular sport not called “baseball” in the first half of the twentieth century.  The concept of a “single-elimination bracket” or playoff was still in its nascent stages.

Given the travel constraints of a train-bound country constantly engaged in foreign conflicts (i.e., World War II and the Korean War), the time-and-toughness constraints of the game of football itself, and the now obsolete seriousness with which college administrators took academics, it’s no surprise that developing a comprehensive system for determining a national champion didn’t factor into their priorities.  Instead, teams played regular seasons largely for…ahem…”sport”, and journalists insisted upon crowning their own “champions” in order to have something to write about.  That’s why the AP and UPI polls were created: to sell newspapers.

The bowls themselves were not originally intended to serve as fora for determining the national champion.  The Rose Bowl, originally the “Tournament of Roses Game”, was founded in order to promote tourism in Southern California.  Ditto for winter vacation destinations like New Orleans (Sugar), Miami (Orange), Dallas (Cotton), Houston (Bluebonnet), San Diego (too many to count), Phoenix (Fiesta), and Orlando (Tangerine & Citrus).  These were exhibition games, no more meaningful than any other non-conference match-up.  Several teams were crowned national champions by the newspapers after undefeated regular seasons, only to fall gloriously in their bowl games.

But, hey, they did get a week on the beach for their troubles.

Our insistence today upon determining a “true national champion” is somewhat of a modern notion. All other sports have contracted to determine one ultimate champion, like the league is a spin-off of Highlander.  The BCS, bless its heart, actually has that noble aspiration.  The major complaint in the 1980s and 1990s wasn’t that “mid-majors” couldn’t make it to the Rose Bowl (that would have sounded absurd), but that the conference tie-ins to bowls made it impossible to stage a true national championship game.  The Big 8 Champion played in the Orange Bowl; the Big Ten & Pac-10 Champions played in the Rose; the SEC played in the Sugar; the Southwest played in the Cotton; the rest was just a mad dash to fill in the blanks with also-rans and highly-ranked independents.

The BCS has at least partially addressed this, and has produced national championship games that couldn’t have been in the old era.  In 2002, Ohio State would have been stuck playing Washington State in the Rose Bowl, with no chance to knock off Miami in overtime.  In 2003, LSU would have been bound to the Sugar and Oklahoma to the Orange, further complicating the fact that USC had an equal record and had to play Michigan in the Rose.  In 2004, USC, Auburn and Oklahoma would have been split.  In 2005, Texas would be Cotton-bound, USC Rose, and we would have been denied Vince Young’s amazing performance in the upset.

I could go on.  But this is not a defense of the BCS itself.  The BCS has only “solved” one part of the problem: freeing up #1 and #2 to play on the same field after New Year’s.  But it hasn’t adequately addressed the aformentioned access problem.  If there are truly 120 teams in “Division I” football, then all 120 teams, including the likes of New Mexico, should theoretically have the opportunity to play their way into a national championship game, and simply by winning the games on their schedule.

That’s the way it works in every other NCAA-sponsored sport, and at every other level of NCAA football.  In basketball, if Nevada wins every game on its schedule, including non-conference opponents, wins the WAC, then wins the WAC tournament, then wins another six games…guess what?  The Nevada Wolf Pack are your national champions.  Same goes for the likes of Cal State-Fullerton, Middle Tennessee, Butler, George Mason, VCU or Monmouth.  Unlikely?  Hell yes.  But because each of these schools is technically classified at the same level with Duke, Syracuse, North Carolina, Kansas and UCLA, they are respectfully afforded the opportunity, however remote, to compete for the same national championship.

If Nevada wins every game on its schedule next year, it is likely headed for the Las Vegas Bowl. Which is nice, no doubt.  But if we can’t play our way into the championship discussion by winning alone, without resorting to traditional biases, schedule strength, or style points, then did our move from I-AA to I-A in 1992 mean anything at all?

In this respect, the major bowls comprising the BCS concerned themselves only with addressing the concerns of the power conferences in ensuring that their best teams have an equal shot at the title game, (somewhat) free of the encumbrance of automatic tie-ins.  Admission of the top non-AQ, beginning in 2006, was a stopgap measure designed to fend off legal challenges and Congressional prodding.  Without that collateral activity, there is no chance in hell that Boise State is now a household name.

Which is a shame, because the stodgy bowl representatives who subsist on dollars are missing out on a gold mine.  The 32-team scenario we presented is probably unrealistic: 16 at most is the most likely. But nonetheless, it serves as a “real life” example of the universe we are missing out on, the universe next door.  The universe where Baylor is celebrated for knocking off Alabama in overtime on the road, rather than playing arcade football with Washington.  The universe where TCU beat South Carolina, Stanford and Virginia Tech in short order to fall just shy of returning to Roses.  The universe where Oklahoma State’s loss to Iowa State wasn’t critical, where they had a shot to get back to glory.

But we don’t get that universe.  We got the rematch of Alabama and LSU, and some other fun games, too.

We will run Midwinter Madness every season until our demands are met.  We want an equal opportunity to playoff for all of Division I football.

Oh yeah…the score.  Hey! The headline and a photo downloaded.  Wow.  Great game!

DUCKS SOAR OVER TIGERS’ ROAR

Oregon Avenges Opening Loss with 38-34 Double-Overtime Victory to Secure the First FPS National Championship; LaMichael James Named Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player

Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports

We have gone back and relived the Top 20 most meaningful team games and the Top 20 most impressive games by individual players over the past 12 years.

In the third and final installment of our Look Back at the Pack in the WAC we examine the Top 35 individual careers in the Pack’s dozen seasons in the conference . . .

35. MATT HINES, defensive line

Matt Hines waited his turn for two seasons as a reserve (30 tackles combined in 2004 and 2005) and when he got his chance he made the most of it. Hines, a starter in 2006 and 2007, finished his Pack career with 111 tackles and 13 tackles for a loss. Hines also had 4.5 sacks and blocked two kicks in his career and was rewarded for his hard work by being named to the All-WAC Second Team in both 2006 and 2007.

34. ISAIAH FREY, defensive back

Isaiah Frey was always a stabilizing influence in a roller coaster Wolf Pack secondary. Frey had seven interceptions in his four years (2008-11), including five in 2011. He had 141 tackles and also 48 passes defensed in his career to go along with 5 tackles for a loss. Frey was named to the All-WAC First Team in 2011 and Second Team in 2010.

33. ZACK THREADGILL, quarterback

Zack Threadgill came out of nowhere to have one of the top seasons for a Wolf Pack quarterback in school history in 2002. Threadgill was brilliant in 2002, completing 275-of-451 passes for 3,418 yards and 26 touchdowns but did not make an All-WAC team that season. All four of those numbers (completions, attempts, yards and touchdowns) rank in the Top Six in Wolf Pack history. Threadgill played with the Pack from 1999-02 and completed 365-of-622 passes for 4,219 yards and 28 touchdowns.

32. CODY JOHNSON, offensive lineman

Cody Johnson played four seasons for the Pack (2000-03) and helped the Wolf Pack make the transition to the WAC. Johnson was also a key member of the offensive line that helped freshman Chance Kretschmer lead the nation in rushing in 2001. The center was a  Second Team All-WAC pick in 2002.

31. ROOSEVELT COOKS, linebacker

Roosevelt Cooks had two very productive seasons for the Wolf Pack in 2004 and 2005. Cooks had 135 tackles in his two seasons, including a team-high 98 in 2005. He also had 17.5 tackles for a loss in his two seasons and 6.,5 sacks and forced two fumbles. Cook was an All-WAC Second Team selection in 2005.

30. JOSH MAUGA, linebacker

Josh Mauga never made an All-WAC Team but he still was one of the most valuable Wolf Pack defensive players during his four seasons (2005-08). Mauga had 224 career tackles with 20 tackles for a loss and four interceptions. Mauga also had six sacks and forced five fumbles.

29. J.J. MILAN, defensive line

All J.J. Milan did in his four-year Pack career (2002-04, 06) was make plays. Milan had 135.5 tackles in his career with 30.5 of those tackles coming for a loss. He had 16.5 career sacks. Milan missed all of the 2005 season with a foot injury and returned in 2006 to have his best year with 13.5 tackles for a loss and nine sacks and was named to the All-WAC First Team.

27 (tie). VIRGIL GREEN, ANTHONY PUDEWELL, tight ends

Virgil Green is yet another Pack player in the WAC era who simply got better and better with each passing season. A special teams player in 2007, Green ended up catching 72 passes in his last three seasons for 939 yards and 11 touchdowns. His best year was his senior year in 2010 when he hauled in 35 passes for 515 yards and five touchdowns. He was named to the All-WAC team in both 2009 (Second Team) and 2010 (First Team). Anthony Pudewell was a solid contributor at tight end from 2003-06 for two coaches and two different offenses, helping with the transition to the pistol in 2005. Pudewell was named to the All-WAC Second Team in both 2005 and 2006 and finished his career with 73 catches for 820 yards and six touchdowns. His best year was in 2005 working with quarterback Jeff Rowe and catching 27 passes for 308 yards and two scores.

26. DARYL TOWNS, linebacker

Daryl Towns was one of the more consistent and active linebackers for the Pack in the WAC. Towns’ 322 career tackles are the third most in school history since 1980. He also had 13 tackles for a loss and three sacks in his career. Towns was named to the All-WAC First Team in 2003, the first Pack linebacker to earn All-WAC status.

24. (tie) BRANDON MARSHALL, JAMES-MICHAEL JOHNSON, linebackers

It is fitting that Marshall and Johnson are lumped together here since they will always be a dynamic duo in Pack history in their four (2008-11) seasons.  Johnson had 294 tackles and 37.5 tackles for a loss to go along with 7.5 sacks, 14 passes defensed, 3 interceptions and 5 forced fumbles. Marshall had 259 tackles, 33.5 tackles for a loss, six sacks, 14 passes defensed, seven fumble recoveries and one interception. Johnson was Second Team All-WAC in 2008 and 2009. Marshall never made an All-WAC team despite leading the Pack with 102 tackles in 2011.

23. CALEB SPENCER, wide receiver

Caleb Spencer was the most consistent of the Wolf Pack wide receivers in the early years (2004-06) of the pistol offense. He caught 67 passes in both 2004 and 2005 and 55 in 2006 for a total of 189 catches (seventh all-time in school history) for 2,214 yards (11th all-time). Spencer averaged 63 catches for 738 yards in his career and scored 13 touchdowns. Spencer led the Pack in receiving in both 2005 and 2006 and was named to the All-WAC team in both 2005 (First Team) and 2006 (Second Team).

22. MARKO MITCHELL, wide receiver

Marko Mitchell played three seasons with the Pack (2006-08), catching 153 passes for 2,763 yards and 22 touchdowns. His 2,763 yards are eighth in school history and his 22 TDs are tied for sixth. Mitchell improved every season at Nevada (from 39 to 53 to 61 catches) and led the team in receiving in both 2007 and 2008 as Colin Kaepernick’s first go-to receiver. He also had a knack of getting into the end zone, scoring a touchdown once every 6.9 catches. Mitchell was named to the All-WAC First Team in 2008.

21.  B.J. MITCHELL, running back

B.J. Mitchell’s patience paid off in a big way. A backup his first three seasons, Mitchell finally became the No 1 back in 2005 and had a break out season. He gained 1,399 yards and scored 12 touchdowns in 2005 and was named the WAC’s Offensive Player of the Year. For his career (2002-05), Mitchell had 481 carries for 2,395 yards (10th in school history) and 25 touchdowns (8th in school history).

19 (tie). BRETT ROY, DEREK KENNARD, defensive tackles

Brett Roy just kept working hard and improved his game every season. A backup in both 2008 and 2009, Roy jumped into the starting lineup in 2010. He finished his four-year career with his best season in 2011, with 66 tackles, 18.5 tackles for a loss, 10 sacks and a fumble recovery. He was named to the All-WAC First Team. In four seasons, Roy had 149 tackles, 35 tackles for a loss and 18 sacks. Derek Kennard played four seasons (2000-03) and finished with almost identical numbers as Roy with 18 sacks, 38.5 tackles for a loss, 152 tackles, two interceptions. His 17 tackles for a loss in 2003 were a school record. Kennard was named to the All-WAC Second Team in 2003.

18. NICHIREN FLOWERS, wide receiver

Nichiren Flowers’ 214 career receptions are sixth in Pack history and his 2,648 yards are ninth. Flowers, who played four seasons, had to split his career between two head coaches (Chris Tormey in 2002 and 2003 and Chris Ault in 2004 and 2005). He also seemingly had to learn a new offense every year with the biggest change coming in 2005 with Ault’s pistol. Flowers had nearly half his receptions (91), yards (1,126) and touchdowns (six of 14) in 2004. Flowers led the Pack in receiving in 2003 and 2004 and was named to the All-WAC team2004 (First Team).

17. HARVEY DAHL, offensive tackle

Harvey Dahl became the Wolf Pack’s first two-time All-WAC offensive lineman when he made the First Team in both 2003 and 2004. The physical, aggressive tackle started 27 games over two-plus seasons. Wolf Pack running backs combined for 14 individual 100-yard games in Dahl’s 27 starts. Chance Kretschmer had 10 of them. Dahl was the best Pack offensive lineman in the team’s pre-pistol days in the WAC.

16. JONATHAN AMAYA, defensive back

Jonathan Amaya was one of the most productive defensive backs for the Pack in the WAC era. In his four seasons (2006-09) Amaya had 239 tackles and 9.5 tackles for a loss. He also had seven interceptions and 10 passes defensed in both 2008 and 2009. Amaya was named to the All-WAC Second Team in 2009.

15. JOE GARCIA, defensive back

Joe Garcia made the most of his two (2005, 2006) seasons in a Wolf Pack uniform. Garcia was named to the All-WAC First Team both years, the only Pack defensive back to make the WAC First Team in more than one season.  Garcia was as productive as any Pack defensive back in recent memory with 123 tackles, 7.5 tackles for a loss, 3.5 sacks, 10 interceptions and 21 passes broken up in his two seasons. Garcia also blocked a kick, forced two fumbles and recovered three fumbles.

14. JEFF ROWE, quarterback

Jeff Rowe was one of the most important players in Wolf Pack history. Rowe was the quarterback that was the guinea pig when head coach Chris Ault implemented the pistoil offense for the first time in 2005. If Rowe had failed, the pistol might have failed with him. Rowe didn’t fail and the rest is Pack history. Rowe played parts of five seasons (2002-06) for the Pack, including the last three as a starter under Ault. He completed 682-of-1,122 passes for 7,862 yards and 54 touchdowns. He is in the Top 10 in Wolf Pack history in all of those career categories. Rowe started the Pack’ current seven-ear run of going to a bowl game by leading them to the postseason in both 2005 and 2006 He was named to the All-WAC Second Team in 2005. When he passed for a career-high 2,925 yards and 21 touchdowns.

13. KEVIN BASPED, defensive line

Kevin Basped dominated the WAC in his three (2007-09) seasons. The talented defensive lineman had 132 tackles in his three seasons with 42.5 tackles for a loss (third in school history). Basped also had 23.5 sacks (third in history) and forced five fumbles.  He was named to the All-WAC team in 2008 (First Team) and 2009 (Second Team).

12. ALONZO DURHAM, offensive tackle

Alonzo Durham was instrumental in the success of quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s career as well as the explosion of the pistol offense starting in 2007. A three-year full-time starter beginning in 2007, Durham started 39 games in his career (2006-09) and was a big reason why the Wolf Pack’s running attack became one of the best in the nation from 2007-09. Durham was named to the All-WAC team in both 2008 (Second Team) and 2009 (First Team).

11. CHRIS BARKER, offensive lineman

Chris Barker will go down in history as one of the Wolf Pack’s greatest offensive linemen in school history. Barker, who will take his talents to the Mountain West Conference in 2012, stepped into the starting lineup at guard the first game of his freshman year in 2009 at Notre Dame and has never left. Since Barker became a starter (40 games), the Wolf Pack has become one of the top running offenses in the nation. With Barker, the Pack has had 52 individual 100-yard rushing games by seven different runners (Cody Fajardo, Stefphon Jefferson, Mike Ball, Lampford Mark, Colin Kaepernick, Vai Taua, Luke Lippincott). Barker was named to the All-WAC First Team in 2011 and the Second Team in 2010.

10. RISHARD MATTHEWS, wide receiver

Rishard Matthews definitely made his mark at Nevada despite playing just two seasons in a Wolf Pack uniform. Matthews led the Wolf Pack in receiving in both his seasons, grabbing a combined 147 passes for 2,243 yards and 13 touchdowns. His 91 catches in 2011 are tied for eighth place on the Pack’s all-time list and his 1,364 yards are sixth. Matthews also returned two punts for touchdowns and scored on two end around runs in his career, giving him 17 total touchdowns in two seasons. He was named to the All-WAC team in both 2010 (Second Team) and 2011 (First Team).

9. LUKE LIPPINCOTT, running back

Lippincott battled through various injuries to become one of the top running backs in team history.  The tough, physical back played from 2005-09 in a Pack uniform and rushed for 3,014 yards, good for seventh in school history. His 1,420 yards in 2007 are also the seventh best in school history for a single season. Lippincott also scored 39 touchdowns (sixth most in school history) in his career.  Lippincott compiled his impressive numbers despite only getting 20 or more carries in a game just nine times in his career. He rushed for over 100 yards in all nine of those games and scored a combined 16 touchdowns. The one year he was the unquestioned No. 1 back (in 2007) he was named to the All-WAC First Team.

8. EZRA BUTLER, linebacker

Butler had an outstanding career at Nevada from 2004-07. He basically, though, only played three full seasons (2005-07) and made the most of it with 239 tackles. His 50.5 tackles for a loss are second in team history behind Dontay Moch’s 63. It was Butler, though, who broke Jorge Cordova’s school record of 42. Butler’s 17.5 tackles for a loss in 2006 were also a school record when he did it though it has been eclipsed three times since (twice by Moch and once by Kevin Basped). Butler also had four interceptions and 16.5 sacks in his career in 47 games. He was named to the All-WAC team in 2006 (First Team) and 2007 (Second Team).

7. DOMINIC GREEN, offensive lineman

Green was the most versatile and productive offensive lineman the Pack had in the WAC era. He started 44 games over four seasons (2005-08) at three different positions (guard, tackle, center). He was a guard in 2005, a tackle in 2006, a center in 2007 and in 2008 he started games at both center and guard. Green was also the only Pack offensive linemen to make the All-WAC team in three seasons (Second Team in 2006 and First Team in both 2007 and 2008). He helped pave the way for 35 individual 100-yard rushing games in his 44 starts for six different runners: B.J. Mitchell, Robert Hubbard, Brandon Fragger, Luke Lippincott, Colin Kaepernick, Vai Taua.

6. NATE BURLESON, wide receiver

It took Nate Burleson just three seasons to become one of the greatest wide receivers in school history. Burleson, who played with the Pack from 2000-02,  had 248 receptions for 3,287 yards and 22 touchdowns to lead all Wolf Pack players in the WAC era. He also caught a school-record 138 passes in 2002. His 1,629 yards in 2002 are also a high for the Pack in the WAC. Burleson was named to the All-WAC First Team in 2002.

5. CHANCE KRETSCHMER, running back

Chance Kretschmer had one of the more remarkable careers in school history. The walk-on from Tonopah led the nation in rushing as a freshman in 2001 with a school-record 1,732 yards on 302 carries. He also returned from a 2002 knee injury to rush for 1,162 yards in 2003. Kretschmer finished his career with 3,782 yards, good for sixth place in school history and good for third place in the WAC era behind Vai Taua and Colin Kaepernick. Kretschmer also scored 35 career rushing touhdowns, including a school-record six in one game against UTEP in 2001. Kretschmer was named the WAC Freshman of the Year in 2001 and was a Second Team pick in 2003.

4. JORGE CORDOVA, defensive end

Cordova was the backbone of the Wolf Pack’s defense for four seasons (2000-03) in an era when the Pack was looking for an identity. Cordova gave them that identity. Cordova’s 31 career sacks are a school record and his 301 tackles are fifth in school history. He also owns the single-season record (with Dontay Moch) with 11.5 sacks (2003) and his 42 career tackles for a loss are fourth in school history. Cordova had one of the best defensive seasons in school history in 2003 with 97 tackles, 17 tackles for a loss, 11.5 sacks and four forced fumbles. He was named to the ALL-WAC First Team in 2003.

3. DONTAY MOCH, defensive end

Moch became one of the most destructive forces on defense in Wolf Pack history. He owns the school record with 63 tackles for a loss (for 307 yards in losses) as well as 22 tackles for a loss in a season (2010) and 11.5 sacks in a season (2008). Moch’s 30 career sacks are also second in school history behind Jorge Cordova’s 31. The undersized defensive end also had 189 career tackles (playing basically just three seasons, 2008-10) and forced nine fumbles. He was named the WAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2009, was a Second Team pick in 2008 and was named to the First Team in 2010.

2. VAI TAUA, running back

Taua, playing his whole career in the shadow of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, finished his career as the Pack’s second all-time leading rusher with 4,588 yards behind Frank Hawkins’ 5,333. Taua started for just three seasons (2008-10) and turned in three of the top nine rushing seasons in school history.  His 45 career rushing touchdowns and 53 total touchdowns are both third best in school history for a running back (behind Chris Lemon and Charvez Foger in both categories). His 132 points scored and 22 touchdowns in 2010 are both single-season school records. Taua scored 30 touchdowns and averaged 135 yards rushing in each of his 23 WAC games. Taua was a First Team All-WAC selection from 2008-10, the only player in school history to be named to the First Team three seasons in a row.

1. COLIN KAEPERNICK, quarterback

Arguably the greatest player in school history, Kaepernick rewrote the Wolf Pack and NCAA record book in his four (2007-10) seasons. Kaepernick rushed for 4,112 yards and 59 touchdowns and passed for 10,098 yards and 82 touchdowns, completing 740-of-1,271 passes. He ran or threw the ball 1,340 times for 14,210 yards (an average of 10,6 yards) and 141 touchdowns (an average of one TD every 9.5 passes or runs). No player in Pack history has rushed for more touchdowns or passed for more touchdowns than Kaepernick. Kaepernick also had a record of 32-16 (17-5 at home) as the starting quarterback. In his 48 starts, Kaepernick either passed or rushed for at least one touchdown in all but two games. He was also the only Pack player to be named to the All-WAC team in all four of his seasons. He was the WAC Freshman of the Year in 2007, the Offensive Player of the Year in 2008 and 2010 and was named to the Second Team in 2009.

Did a frightening chill just fly up and down your silver and blue spine?

Well, it should.

Imagine, if you will, a Wolf Pack football program without Ault. Scary, huh? Visions of 2000 through 2003 just flashed through your mind, right? Your heart skipped a beat, didn’t it? That’s OK. We get it. Just the thought of a Wolf Pack sans Ault is enough to make a grown man sleep with a night light on.

Well, as of right now, we are a mere 24 months away from such a bloodcurdling scenario. In just 12 months Ault will be officially into his lame duck season. Time flies when you are trying to build a nationally ranked football team with a limited budget and a fickle fan base, doesn’t it?

A year ago the Wolf Pack was riding the wave of a 13-1 season, a magical victory over Boise State, a bowl game party by the bay and a can-you-believe-it No. 11 national ranking.

“I’m proud of how this football team brought this community together,” Ault said last January.

One community. One Pack. For once, it wasn’t just a cheesy marketing department slogan.Everyone was swelling with Pack pride. And everyone thought it would never end. Heck, nobody was worrying about it ending back in January 2010. The fun, after all, had just started.

All of the years of frustration, of near-misses, of broken hearts and wait-till-next-years were over. Every year from now on was going to be one Pack party after another. That’s what climbing the mountain means, right? You get to the summit, you plant your flag, you set up camp and you live there forever. The string of 10-win seasons, bowl victories, conference titles and Top 25 rankings were just beginning for the Pack 12 short months ago.

The Pack had become the new Boise.

Or so we thought.

Ault, though, warned us. Just minutes after his Wolf Pack climbed its Boise mountain, stuck its flag right between the Broncos’ shoulder blades on the night of Nov. 26, 2010, Ault issued a buzz kill reminder.
“The thing about Boise,” Ault said, “is it’s not a one-year deal.”

He’s never been more right about something in his life.

Boise started winning in 1999 and has never stopped. They’ve won so much that they’ve been wooed by three conferences in the last 12 years. Since 1999, the Broncos have never lost more than four games in any one season. They’ve had seven seasons with no more than one loss. That’s seven Wolf Pack miracle seasons for those of you keeping score. Since the start of the 2006 season, when the rest of the nation began to notice them, they’ve gone 73-6.

What did the Pack do after its landmark season in 2010? It went 7-6 and lost every meaningful game that didn’t have a cannon as a prize. OK, now 7-6 does sound a little like 73-6. But that’s where the similarity ends.

The Pack went backward in 2011. It went from a landmark season straight into a landmine season. The Pack didn’t win its conference in 2011. It didn’t sniff the Top 25. It lost games it shouldn’t have lost. And it didn’t win its bowl game. Yes, 2011 felt an awful lot like most of those seasons before 2010.

One community. One Pack. One-year wonder.

That’s why Ault cannot possibly retire in two short seasons. We found out this past season that the Wolf Pack football program is no closer to being ready to go Ault-less than it was in 1993 and 1996 the last two times the old ball coach supposedly retired from coaching.

There is more work to do, more mountains to climb, more foundations to build, more Boise victories to attain. And the only one who can do it is the old ball coach.

“It’s about the program,” Ault said a year ago. “I know what we need. And we still have a ways to go.”

That’s why Ault can’t go. Not now. Not in two years. Not in four years. Maybe not ever. So change the marketing campaign. One community. One Pack. One coach.

The first thing that needs fixing is this annoying contract issue that, for some reason, the athletic department wants to revisit every two years. The Pack is going to give a four-year deal to two dozen or so high school kids next month to come play football at Nevada. Ault deserves at least the same deal to coach them, don’t you think?

Ault, who turned 65-years-old in November, has repeatedly said in recent years that he won’t coach when he is 70-years-old. Well, he also said he was retiring from coaching two times before so take that for what it’s worth.

Age wasn’t a concern for Ault when he took the Pack job for the first time at the ripe old age of 29. So why should it be a concern for him now?

But if he does stay true to his word this time and won’t coach when he’s 70, it seems obvious that he’ll sign another two-year extension after 2012, keeping him on the sideline through the 2015 season and his 69th birthday.

If that’s the plan, well, he better get to work. But will that be long enough for him to fix all that ails the Pack? Will this program become a turn-key operation by then and ready for Ault to hand off to another coach?

Those are questions that nobody knows the answers to. Not even Ault. So, just to be safe, he better revise his coaching retirement age to 80. That should be enough time for us to get used to sleeping without a night light.

For now, though, the Pack needs Ault as much as it ever did. Probably more so because the goals are higher. They are headed to the Mountain West Conference, a conference that insists it should be included in the BCS. It’s imperative that the Pack be a player in the Mountain West if this program is going to thrive moving forward.

But, again, there are still huge problems that need to be fixed.

The first thing is community support. Yes, last January was a glimpse of what could be. The Wolf Pack nation was truly a nation and not just a bunch of guys hanging out at the Little Wall. But it was only a glimpse.

As soon as the fan base saw that 2011 schedule, with road games at Oregon, Boise State and Texas Tech in the first month, that glimpse began to fade. This season there was absolutely no momentum of support from 2010. The losses at Oregon, Boise State and Texas Tech took care of that. So, just one year after the dream season, the Pack averaged just 15,776 fans at Mackay Stadium, its lowest average attendance since 2005.

Again, Ault warned us.

“It’s about building community support,” he said last January. “We need to get the community involved in this football program.”

If 2010 didn’t do it, when will it ever happen?

Ault needs to stick around to find out.

The second thing that Ault needs to fix before he spends the rest of his life playing golf at 7:30 a.m. and eating dinner at 4 p.m., is the roster. It’s simply not deep enough to compete for a Top 25 spot year after year.

We all saw what injuries did to this football team in 2011. It turned the pistol offense at times into the popgun offense. And when this team doesn’t score points in truckloads it, well, doesn’t win. We also saw what happens when four or five key players graduate in the same season, like they did after 2010.

Injuries and graduation — coaches like to call it depth — turned a 13-1 team into a 7-6 team.

That hasn’t happened to Boise. Not since 1999, that is. And even if it does happen to the Broncos this fall (they lose a ton of talent off the 2011 team) they already have had an unbelievable 13-year run. They are already headed to a BCS conference (the Big East in 2013). They already have unbelievable community support. Their head coach already makes $2 million a year.

Mission accomplished for the Broncos. They can now afford to take a breath.

The Pack, on the other hand, can’t afford to take a breath. Not yet. And Ault, you can be sure, won’t let them. That’s another reason why Ault continues to be the best and only man who can guide this football program.

The fire burns hotter and brighter in his belly than ever before. He doesn’t scoot around the practice field in a golf cart. He still yells at everyone in practice from the quarterbacks to the ball boys and the media. He still now and then will even run a pass pattern to show his wide receivers how its done. You know any other 65-year-olds like that?

Ault is as motivated as ever. Maybe more so. That’s because he’s seen what Boise has accomplished on and off the field. He knows down deep in his heart that Boise’s success should have been the Pack’s success. The Pack was on the verge of doing everything that Boise has done a full decade before Boise even dreamed of it. But while Ault was busy being athletic director from 1996 through 2003, Boise passed the Pack by.

Ault is now making sure his football program catches them again, like it did in the 1980s through the late 1990s, before he hands over the keys to the Pack car to the new owner. And he won’t go anywhere until that happens.

“We have to find a way to get there,” he said last year. “We will find a way.”

The other issue that proves that Ault is the only one who can lead this program right now and into the foreseeable future is what, exactly, happens to the pistol offense when Ault does retire. That question is quickly turning into the 350-pound offensive tackle in the room that nobody wants to talk about.

Ault has called the pistol the savior of this football program. It would be a shame for the pistol to retire with Ault in 2-4 years (remember, he’s not coaching when he’s 70). That’s why before he goes kicking and screaming into retirement, he has to make sure his football program is taken care of. And that means taking care of the pistol.

Has he taken steps to do that yet?

Does Ault trust any of his current assistants to be the caretaker of the pistol once he’s gone? Don’t forget that this is a 65-year-old coach who is his own offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. What do you think?

Ault’s staff, it seems, is built to serve him. It’s a great staff for Ault, full of loyal career assistants. It is probably the best staff that Ault has compiled in his three decades of coaching. But are any of them head coaching worthy?

And will the new head coach keep the pistol? There are a ton of coaches around the country — in high school, college and the pros — who run some facets of the pistol but nobody runs it like the Pack and knows it like Ault.

Therefore, without Ault, the future of the pistol would seem to be in jeopardy. That’s another reason why he can’t go anywhere anytime soon.

You can be sure that nobody knows how much this program needs Ault more than Ault. It’s the main reason why he keeps coming back. That’s not cockiness or arrogance on his part. That’s just a guy who tried to retire from coaching twice before and wasn’t able to because he saw his football program slipping into obscurity.

“I came back in this thing to build it up,” Ault said last year of his decision to come back to coaching in 2004.
Well, mission accomplished. The Pack, despite the little speed bump in 2011, is built back up. They will no doubt compete for a Mountain West title next year and will likely go to their eighth consecutive bowl game (hopefully nowhere near Honolulu).

But that’s not the issue right now because, well, Ault is still here. And if all Ault wanted to do was build this thing back up, he would have left after 2010. It would have been the perfect time to go.

But he stayed because he knew the job wasn’t finished. He knew down deep, even when he could have run for Governor in January 2010 and won, that the community had yet to truly buy into the program. He knew the Pack was merely one loss to Boise away from all of those Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl ticket buyers to start saying, “Same old Wolf Pack. Same old Ault.”

So he stayed.

And we better hope he’s not going anywhere until the job is done, whether he’s 70 or 80. There will be, after all, no coming back after this retirement. That’s why he has to know that the football program he turns over to the next head coach is a football program that can win without him.

He doesn’t know that yet.

Last week we looked at the Top 20 most important Wolf Pack football games in the WAC era.

This installment of our Look Back at the Pack in the WAC takes a close look at the Wolf Pack’s Top 20 most meaningful (it must have contributed to a Pack victory) individual single-game performances in the WAC era . . .

20. RISHARD MATTHEWS vs. Boston College on Jan. 9, 2011

It was the game the Wolf Pack absolutely had to win. The Pack was 12-1 going into the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco, coming off a landmark victory over Boise State and a WAC-clinching victory over Louisiana Tech. The Wolf Pack, though, also came into this game with a four-game bowl losing streak, giving the seniors one final mountain to climb. Rishard Matthews, a junior, took care of the seniors with the two biggest plays against Boston College. Down 7-0 in the first quarter, the Pack went on a 10-play, 77-yard touchdown drive to tie the game. Matthews caught a key 3rd-and-6 pass for 10 yards on the drive and then grabbed Colin Kaepernick’s 27-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 7-7 with 3:36 to go in the first quarter. And just 69 seconds later he went 72 yards with a Boston College punt for another touchdown for a 14-7 lead. Matthews’ two scores would be the Pack’s only touchdowns on the night in a 20-13 victory.

19. COLIN KAEPERNICK vs. Idaho on Oct. 24, 2009

Yes, it’s an Idaho game. But this wasn’t your typical Idaho team (they went to a bowl game in 2009) or typical Idaho game because the Vandals, well, refused to go away. Idaho quarterback Nathan Enderle was busy scorching the Pack defense so Colin Kaepernick had to put all of his skills to work in a 70-45 wild Wolf Pack win at Mackay Stadium. Kaepernick had video game numbers on this day, rushing for 230 yards and four touchdowns and passing for 178 and two more scores. Add it all up and you have 408 yards and six touchdowns. The touchdown runs came from 11, 61, 35 and 75 yards out. The TD passes were to Virgil Green (44 yards) and Luke Lippincott (9 yards).

18. B.J. MITCHELL, ROBERT HUBBARD vs. Central Florida on Dec. 24, 2005

OK, yes, we made an exception here to include both Mitchell and Hubbard together. But the way the two Pack backs combined to hold off Central Florida in the Hawaii Bowl was a thing of beauty and any standout Wolf Pack offensive performances in a winning bowl game should not be overlooked. The two combined for 304 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 38 carries to give the Pack its first bowl victory (49-48 in overtime) in the WAC era. Both were brilliant as B.J. Mitchell had 178 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries and Robert Hubbard had 126 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries. Mitchell had a 59-yard run to set up Hubbard’s 4-yard TD in the first quarter and Hubbard had a 49-yard run to set up Mitchell’s first of two 1-yard TD runs in the second quarter. Mitchell also had runs of seven and four yards to set up Jeff Rowe’s game-winning 4-yard TD in overtime.

17. DARYL TOWNS, LOGAN CARTER vs. SMU on Sept. 27, 2003

OK, this is the last combined entry. But this game deserves mention because it is the only time the Pack won a game in the WAC era without scoring an offensive touchdown. Linebackers Logan Carter and Daryl Towns dominated the Mustangs and allowed the Pack to steal this weird 12-9 victory at Mackay Stadium. Towns had 13 tackles and a sack and forced a key fumble by SMU’s Matt Rushbrook on a fourth quarter punt return. The play set up the Pack’s game-winning drive which ended in a 28-yard field goal by Damon Fine with 1:13 to play. Carter, who had 12 tackles and a sack, had the play of the day when he returned an interception of a Tate Wallis pass 40 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at 9-9 with 2:44 to play in the third quarter. SMU had the ball for 40:49 (the Pack had it for just 19:11) but the Mustangs could pick up just 245 total yards against Towns, Carter and the Pack defense.

16. B.J. MITCHELL vs. New Mexico State on Nov. 12, 2005

At just 5-foot-8, B.J. Mitchell was one of the toughest pound-for-pound running backs in Pack history. Mitchell could beat up opponents with the best of them and that’s what he did to New Mexico State in Las Cruces, N.M. in 2005. Mitchell carried the ball 34 times against the Aggies for 193 yards and two touchdowns as the Pack took a 48-24 victory. Mitchell’s touchdowns came from 4 and 15 yards out and gave the Pack leads of 17-7 in the second quarter and 41-17 in the fourth. He gained positive yardage on 33 of his 34 carries with six of the carries going for 10 or more yards.

15. ZACK THREADGILL vs. Rice on Sept. 21, 2002

Zack Threadgill had a day most quarterbacks can only dream of on this afternoon at Mackay Stadium against the Owls. He was nearly perfect, completing 30 of 36 passes for 408 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. He also ran the ball 10 times for 39 yards as the Pack beat Rice 31-21. Threadgill completed 11 passes in a row at one point and also had a streak of 10 in a row. His touchdowns went to Nate Burleson (4 and 19 yards), Tim Fleming (31) and Nichiren Flowers (11) and 20 of his 30 completions went for first downs.

14. DONTAY MOCH vs. San Jose State on Oct. 9, 2010

The Spartans could not stop Dontay Moch on this night at Mackay Stadium. The senior defensive end came up big in a game that smelled like a Wolf Pack upset loss all evening long. Moch had nine tackles with five of them coming for a loss. The five tackles for a loss — he is the Pack’s all-time career leader in tackles for a loss with  63 — was Moch’s single-game high. He made life miserable for the Spartans all night long in a game the Pack needed to preserve its unbeaten season and any hopes of a WAC title. Moch stopped Spartans running back Lamon Muldrow for losses of three and five yards, got quarterback Jordan LaSecla on a 3-yard loss and stopped running back Brandon Rutley on a 3-yard loss. He also made a sensational play, nabbing wide receiver Chandler Jones for a 1-yard loss after Jones hauled in a La Secla pass. The Pack ended up winning 35-13 in a game that was just 21-13 Pack at halftime.

13. COLIN KAEPERNICK vs. Louisiana Tech on Dec. 3, 2010

This was a game that Colin Kaepernick refused to lose. Needing a victory to secure the school’s second WAC title, Kaepernick took it upon himself to bring home the trophy. He carried the ball 20 times himself for 155 yards and three touchdowns and he was a very efficient 13-of-17 through the air for 159 yards and no interceptions. His 5-yard TD run tied the game at 14-14 just 2:10 before halftime. His 1-yard score gave the Pack a 21-14 lead and his 28-yard TD run in the fourth quarter left everyone in the stadium with their mouths open. Kaepernick dropped back to pass, reversed his field and finished off the amazing run with a dive into the end zone to give the Pack a 28-17 lead with 13:53 to play. It would be his last touchdown in a Pack uniform and it brought a WAC title as the Pack won 35-17.

12. LUKE LIPPINCOTT vs. Utah State on Oct. 20, 2007

Luke Lippincott’s toughness, determination and grit always were the perfect example of what Pack coach Chris Ault wants in all his Nevada backs. All of those things were never more on display than against Utah State in 2007. Lippincott carried the ball a grueling 36 times for 241 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-28 victory at Mackay Stadium. He scored from seven yards out for a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and his 8-yard TD tied the game at 21-21 in the third quarter. Lippincott also caught four passes in the game for 20 more yards. It wasn’t a perfect game for Lippincott — he fumbled twice — but the Pack leaned on him this day and he delivered. Two drives after his second fumble Lippincott helped the Pack eat away the final 5:20 by running the ball six times for 30 yards to preserve the victory. He lost three yards on his first carry of the day and then never lost a single yard again on his next 35 carries. Lippincott’s 241 yards are the ninth most in Pack history and the fourth most in the WAC era for a Pack back. His 36 carries are the second most in the WAC era.

11. NATE BURLESON vs. UTEP on Nov. 9, 2002

The Wolf Pack could always count on Nate Burleson. Burleson set a Wolf Pack school record against UTEP on this day at Mackay Stadium with 19 catches. And the Pack needed every single one of them to post a 23-17 victory. Burleson’s 19 receptions went for 179 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown was for 11 yards from quarterback Zack Threadgill and tied the game at 14-14 in the second quarter. Threadgill targeted Burleson 25 times in the game and more than half of Burleson’s catches (10-of-19) went for first downs.

10. ROBERT HUBBARD vs. Fresno State on Nov. 26., 2005

Fresno State came to Mackay Stadium on this night ranked 16th in the nation after battling No. 1 USC the previous week in a 50-42 loss in front of 90,007 fans and the Los Angeles Coliseum. Just 17,765 showed up at Mackay to see the Bulldogs and what they saw was the end to the Bulldogs short-lived flirtation with national prominence. Robert Hubbard keyed the huge Pack victory, rushing for 146 yards and three touchdowns on just 16 carries. He also had a 16-yard pass reception that set up the Pack’s first TD. Hubbard scored on runs of 20, 6 and 13 yards. His final TD (13 yards) gave the Pack a 31-27 lead with 8:12 to go. He also preserved the win with a 27-yard run to the Fresno 1-yard line where the Pack went into victory formation to end it. His 20-yard score gave the Pack a shocking 17-3 lead in the second quarter and his 6-yard TD put the Pack up 24-10 eight minutes later.

9. VAI TAUA vs. Fresno State on Nov. 7, 2008

The secret to Vai Taua’s success with the Wolf Pack was always patience. That was never more evident than on this night in Fresno when Taua turned in his career high of 263 yards rushing on 28 carries. Of Taua’s 28 carries, a total of 20 of them went for just a combined 64 yards. But the other eight went for 199 yards and broke the back of the Bulldogs. Taua had five runs of 20 yards or longer (20, 23, 25, 28 and 57) as the Pack beat Fresno State on the road 41-28. His 25-yard touchdown run gave the Pack a commanding 38-28 lead with 8:40 to play. Taua, who gained at least one yard on 25 of his 28 carries, carried the ball 11 times for 70 yards in the all-important fourth quarter.

8. NATE BURLESON vs. BYU on Sept. 14, 2002

With the Wolf Pack facing a 3rd-and-5 from their own 5-yard line, Nate Burleson took a simple little pass from Zack Threadgill in the flat and turned it into one of the greatest plays in Pack history. The wide receiver hauled in the pass and went 95 yards for a stunning touchdown to give the Pack a shocking 10-0 lead on the stunned Cougars. Burleson, it turns out, would have had a great day without the 95-yard play. But with it he had a sensational day, hauling in 12 passes for 213 yards and the one touchdown in one of the Pack’s top upset victories of the era, 31-28 over BYU.

7. ZACK THREADILL vs. BYU on Sept. 14, 2002

Zack Threadgill’s 2002 season is one of the most overlooked, unappreciated outstanding seasons by a Pack quarterback in school history And it all started with the 31-28 victory over BYU at Mackay Stadium. Threadgill was brilliant, especially in the first half, as the Pack jumped all over the Cougars, leading 31-14 by halftime. Threadgill was 28-of-37 on the afternoon for 410 yards and four touchdowns. His touchdowns went to Nate Burleson (95 yards), Dan Bythewood (16), Erick Streelman (13) and Tim Fleming (9) and all came in the first half. He put up those eye-opening numbers despite a ferocious pass rush by BYU that sacked him four times. Threadgill was at his best on the final drive of the first half as he completed all four of his passes for 47 yards, including the touchdown to Fleming on the final play of the half.

6. RISHARD MATTHEWS vs. Boise State on Nov. 26, 2010

This is the night that Matthews earned a spot in the Wolf Pack Hall of Fame. The junior wide receiver picked the perfect time to become a Pack legend, catching 10 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown and going 44 yards with an end around for another score in the Pack’s program-changing 34-31 overtime victory. The Pack seemed determined to make Matthews a star on this night, throwing 19 passes his way. He caught six passes in the first half for 133 yards but the Pack offense, for the most part, sputtered. In the second half, though, Matthews came up with two of the biggest plays in Wolf Pack history, going 44 yards with an end around on a brilliant run to cut Boise’s lead to 24-21 early in the fourth quarter and then snaring Colin Kaepernick’s bullet pass for a 7-yard game-tying (31-31) touchdown with 13 seconds left in overtime.

5. COLIN KAEPERNICK vs. UNLV on Sept. 27, 2008

This was the game that allowed Colin Kaepernick to put his stamp on the Battle for the Fremont Cannon. Just a sophomore in 2008, Kaepernick headed to Las Vegas’ Sam Boyd Stadium for his first career start in the Pack-Rebels rivalry. Kaepernick put the Pack on his back, rushing for 240 yards and three touchdowns and completing a very efficient 11-of-16 passes for 176 yards and two more scores without an interception. He hit Chris Wellington for a 70-yard TD pass to cut UNLV’s lead to 10-7 in the first quarter and cut the Rebel lead to 17-14 on a 4-yard TD run in the second quarter. He then gave the Pack its first lead at 21-17 on a 40-yard TD strike to Virgil Green in the second quarter. Kaepernick’s thrilling 66-yard TD run gave the Pack a 35-20 lead in the third quarter and his 28-yard TD run capped off the scoring with 8:451 to play. The 240 rushing yards are the most by a Pack quarterback in school history.

4. MIKE BALL vs. UNLV on Oct. 3, 2009

Few Wolf Pack fans had heard of Mike Ball when they rolled out of bed on the morning of Oct. 3, 2009. By late that afternoon, though, Ball had become part of Wolf Pack lore. Getting an opportunity to play because of an injury to Vai Taua, Ball had a day he’ll never forget. Playing against his hometown UNLV Rebels, Ball made the most of his 15 carries, gaining 184 yards and scoring five touchdowns in a 63-28 Pack victory at Mackay Stadium. Ball scored on runs of 10, 1, 32, 4 and 89 yards as the Pack pulled away from the Rebels in the fourth quarter with four touchdowns. Ball’s 89-yard score gave the Pack a 56-28 lead late in the fourth quarter. Ball was never really the focus of the Pack offense on this day — Luke Lippincott got four more carries and Colin Kaepernick had two more — but he just kept getting into the end zone. At one point he scored touchdowns on three consecutive carries and on five of his final 10 carries.

3. COLIN KAEPERNICK vs. California on Sept. 17, 2010

The buzz around Mackay Stadium started about four hours before kickoff on this memorable night. Colin Kaepernick made sure it didn’t stop until at least four hours after the final gun sounded. Kaepernick put on a show that the Cal Bears, the Pac-10 Conference and the entire nation won’t soon forget. It’s one thing to put up fancy numbers in the WAC against New Mexico State, Idaho and San Jose State. It’s quite another to do it on a national stage against a school from a BCS conference. Kaepernick was brilliant against the Bears, completing 10-of-15 passes without an interception for 181 yards and one touchdown. He also ran the ball 17 times for 148 yards and three scores. His rushing touchdowns (1, 8 and 27 yards) gave the Pack leads of 14-7, 21-7 and 52-31 (the final score). His lone passing touchdown went to Tray Session (14 yards) on the game’s opening drive for a 7-0 lead. He also should have had another TD pass for 30 yards to Rishard Matthews. Matthews, though, fumbled the ball away at the 2-yard line and then recovered it in the end zone for a 38-24 Pack lead. Kaepernick also led the Pack to an important field goal as the first half ended, completing key passes to Matthews and Virgil Green on the drive and also recovering a fumble by teammate Vai Taua.

2. JORGE CORDOVA vs. Washington on Oct. 11, 2003

The Wolf Pack simply turned in one of the greatest defensive performances in school history in stunning the Washington Huskies 28-17 in Seattle. The Pack’s front seven, consisting of linemen Jorge Cordova, Derek Kennard, Chris Barry and J.J. Milan and linebackers Daryl Towns, Logan Carter and Chris Handy dominated the Huskies all afternoon. But it was Cordova who set the tone. The defensive end had a school-record 4.5 sacks as well as 16 tackles (11 solo) and also blocked a 43-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter to preserve the victory. Cordova also forced a fumble by Washington quarterback Cody Pickett. Cordova had sacks in second, third (two) and fourth quarters and also combined with Kennard for another sack in the first quarter. It was total domination by one of the greatest Pack players ever and, without question, the greatest team defensive effort of the Pack’s WAC era (eight sacks, three interceptions, three blocked field goals, two fumbles forced).

1. CHANCE KRETSCHMER vs. UTEP on Nov. 24, 2001

Chance Kretschmer sure knows how to celebrate a birthday. The Wolf Pack freshman turned 20-years-old on Nov. 24, 2001 and he tossed one heck of a party in front of 19,892 of his closest friends in El Paso, Texas. It is arguably the greatest single-game performance in Wolf Pack history, let alone the WAC era. Kretschmer, a walk-on from Tonopah High, owns every important single-game rushing record in Wolf Pack history and it all took place in the Pack’s wild 48-31 victory over UTEP in 2001. Kretschmer, with the national rushing title in his sights, carried the ball an exhausting 45 times for 327 yards and six touchdowns. All three (45 carries, 327 yards and six touchdowns) are Wolf Pack single-game rushing records. And the Pack needed each and every one of those 45 carries to beat UTEP in the last game of the season. Kretschmer, who would become the first freshman to lead the nation in rushing (1,732 yards) that season since San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk did it 10 years earlier, gained 234 yards and scored four touchdowns in the second half alone.

After a brief holiday hiatus, the inaugural FPS Playoffs resumed this past week on the neutral sites of traditional New Year’s Bowl Games, providing thrillers that rivaled the drama of our BCS world…read on to see how Oregon survived Baylor in Atlanta, TCU pulled off the upset of Virginia Tech in Phoenix, LSU ousted Michigan State in Dallas, and Wisconsin rallied past Oklahoma State in Orlando…

The following are four news articles from the New Year’s Week, 2012, in an alternate universe where this is the first season of a 32-team college football playoff replacing the BCS.  What follows are stories from the inaugural football version of the Elite Eight in the Regional Finals.  For more on the universe our other selves get to enjoy, please refer to the links at the bottom of the page.

The Slipper Doesn’t Fit: Terrance Mitchell Wrests Winning Touchdown Away from Kendall Wright as Ducks Shut the Door on Baylor in Chick-Fil-A South Regional Final

Scott Daniel/ATLANTA, Ga. (S&B) – Terrance Mitchell’s first interception in an Oregon helmet came in the 2010 Spring Game when, as an early enrollment true freshman, he picked a Darron Thomas pass and returned it 46 yards to give the White Team a win over the Green. His most recent was more meaningful, and gave the Green Team an exhilirating victory over the White as Oregon beat Baylor 42-41 in the Chick-Fil-A South Regional Final at the Georgia Dome on Tuesday night.

The Ducks celebrate in the Georgia Dome last Tuesday night. Photo credit: OregonLive.com.

On the last play of the game, the redshirt freshman cornerback from Sacramento picked up Baylor star receiver Kendall Wright in zone coverage and shadowed him to the corner of the endzone, where Mitchell literally stole the game-winning 49-yard touchdown pass attempt from Robert Griffin III as time expired.  Both players seemed to have equal possession of the ball in mid-air, then Mitchell outmuscled Wright before either player’s foot hit the ground.  Had both players retained possession in the end zone, Baylor would have been awarded the touchdown and a 47-42 victory under the “tie goes to the runner” rule.  As it was, the SEC back judge quickly signaled possession for Oregon, and the 27,000 Duck fans in attendance erupted as Oregon players flooded the field to mob their hero.

The celebration was temporarily delayed when officials upstairs called for a review of the play to determine whether Kendall Wright ever had possession of the ball, even shared, with one foot in bounds.  However, replays did not show clear and convincing evidence that would overturn the decision on the field that Mitchell had taken full control from Wright before the latter touched down in the end zone.

“That was the most nerve-wracking review I’ve ever endured,” Oregon coach Chip Kelly commented after the game.  ”Up on the (Georgia Dome video) board, it was close.  It was like watching Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck fighting over a missile in mid-air.  Thankfully, they got it right this time.”

Baylor coach Art Briles was a little more sour in his pronunciation.

“I think they missed it,” Briles said.  ”I know that’s gonna get me in hot water with the NCAA, but these kids, my kids fought hard to get here, and it looked to me as if Kendall had it, and he had at least one foot down.  So, yeah, we’re very disappointed.  We thought we played well enough to win this game.”

The stats seem to support Briles’ assertion.  Baylor out-gained Oregon both on the ground and in the air, racking up 611 yards of offense for the Bears compared to 465 yards for the Ducks.  Baylor earned 32 first downs; Oregon earned 25.  Baylor converted 11 of 18 third-down attempts (61% efficiency); Oregon was only 7-for-14 (50% efficiency).  Oregon committed the only turnover of the game when Sam Holl intercepted Darron Thomas with six minutes to play in the first half, setting up a 5-yard Terrence Ganaway touchdown run that gave Baylor a 27-14 lead shortly before halftime.

So what was the difference?

“We didn’t start well, and we didn’t finish well,” answered quarterback Robert Griffin III, widely expected to announce his intention to enter the NFL draft.  ”We got off to a slow start, and even when we found our groove, we couldn’t put them away.”

Griffin’s assessment is accurate.  The middle of the game belonged to the Bears, who outscored Oregon 31-14 in the second and third quarters.  In fact, Baylor had two separate 13-point leads, one in each half.

But Oregon quickly answered to both of them.

After Ganaway’s touchdown late in the second gave Baylor a 27-14 lead, Oregon immediately responded when De’Anthony Thomas returned the ensuing kickoff 97 yards for the score, making it 27-21.  When Baylor again took a 13-point lead, 41-28, on another Ganaway touchdown late in the third, Oregon responded with a sustained running drive that ended with a LaMichael James 4-yard score that cut it to 41-35.

Oregon’s defense then held serve, as Kelly adjusted coverage options to account for Griffin’s mobility and accuracy and assigned junior safety John Boyett to spy on the Heisman candidate from a weak linebacker position.  Boyett recorded one sack on a blind-side blitz, and Baylor didn’t enter Oregon territory again until the final seconds of the game.  Meanwhile, Darron Thomas lead another long drive that culminated in an 18-yard pass to LaMichael James with 36 seconds to play, giving Oregon a 42-41 lead that they would never relinquish.

Not unless Baylor wanted to pry it away from Terrance Mitchell’s cold, dead fingers.

Most Outstanding Player: LaMichael James, RB, Oregon (22-for-126, 3 rushing touchdowns; 2 catches for 22 yards, one receiving touchdown)

Next: Oregon (14-2) will play the Capital One East Region Champion Wisconsin Badgers (14-2) in the Discover Orange National Semifinal on Thursday, January 11, at SunLife Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida (kick-off at 8:15 EST on ABC).  Baylor finishes the season at 11-4.

Still Charmed: Another Close Win Lifts TCU Past Virginia Tech and Into the Final Four

Andrew Maurins/GLENDALE, Ariz. (S&B) - ”Why not us?” indeed.

Part underdog rallying cry, part legitimate philosophical question, TCU is using it to make sure its last season as a member of the Mountain West Conference is one for the ages. Cris-crossing the country from South Carolina to California and now to Arizona, the Horned Frogs have all but destroyed any lingering doubts of whether they belong on college football’s newest and biggest stage. Their come-from-behind 24-20 victory against Virginia Tech in the Tostitos West Regional Final at University of Phoenix Stadium has only further sweetened a season which has provided plenty of unusual obstacles for Gary Patterson’s players to overcome.

TCU's Anson Kelton hoists the Tostitos West Regional Final trophy last Wednesday in Glendale, Arizona. Photo credit: Associated Press.

“It’s a recurring theme at this point, and it’s definitely not by coincidence,” said Patterson, alluding to early season losses to rivals Baylor and SMU which gave way to an undefeated conference season that saw TCU beat Boise State, San Diego State, Wyoming and Air Force all on the road. “You give these kids a situation that someone tells them is impossible and they just shrug it off like it’s nothing.”

For their efforts, the Horned Frogs at last earned a relatively short trip to their next challenge, a date with LSU in the Tigers’ New Orleans home away from home. But like all of their best wins this year, it didn’t come easily.

The potent rushing duo of Matthew Tucker and Waymon James was bottled up for most of the night, while Casey Pachall threw two interceptions to go along with only 194 passing yards. In all, TCU was held to just 337 yards of total offense thanks to a tremendous performance by the Hokie defense.

After a fairly uneventful first quarter, TCU started off the second with an 89-yard drive capped off by one of James’ two short touchdown runs to go ahead 7-3. The two teams then swapped field goals and went into the locker room with the score 10-6.

“The coaches told us at halftime if we get it done on third downs, everything else will take care of itself,” said a cut-up Ed Wesley, whose 82 rushing yards on seven carries led the way for the Frogs. “But we didn’t do that in the second half, at first.”

That was due primarily to Viriginia Tech tailback David Wilson, whose 111 rushing yards on 23 carries led all players on the night. The junior out of Danville, Virginia scored back-to-back touchdowns in the third quarter, the second of which came on the heels of a Hokie interception and saw Wilson break free and scamper 52 yards for the score to put Virginia Tech up 20-10.

But true to their coaches’ words, TCU dug in after that and staked all their hopes of a comeback on stopping the Hokies on third downs. After converting 3 of 5 in the first half, Virginia Tech went just 2 for 10 in the second. Down by ten and fresh off of another three-and-out by the Horned Frog defense, their counterparts on offense went back to work.

“When the defense started doing their part in that third quarter,” recounts Wesley, “stopping them on third downs, it became a tag-team thing. They’d come off the field all fired up and high-five us and say ‘Now it’s your turn.’”

Taking the encouragement to heart, Pachall and his offense gouged the Hokies for 4, 5 and 6-yard chunks, turning each third-and-short situation into more time spent on the field for the Virginia Tech defense. The unit was visibly tired after Waymon James punched in his second touchdown to pull TCU within three.

Even when the offense’s struggles reemerged in the fourth quarter, TCU held firm on defense, letting Virginia Tech past midfield only once the rest of the night and hurrying quarterback Logan Thomas into throwing away several passes. The hero of the Frogs’ final scoring drive was Wesley, whose 41-yard carry off of a pitch put TCU in scoring range before taking another hand-off 21 yards for the go-ahead touchdown with 7:30 to play. A fourth down sack from D.J. Yendrey all but sealed the Hokies’ fate on their last drive.

“We weren’t surprised by their players’ resolve,” Frank Beamer explained, “They’re an elite team, and they’d be elite in any conference they played in.”

Most Outstanding Player: David Wilson, RB, Virginia Tech (23-for-111, 2 touchdowns)

Next: TCU (13-2) will meet the AT&T Midwest Regional Champion LSU Tigers (16-0) in the Allstate Sugar National Semifinal on Friday, January 12 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana (kick-off at 8:15 EST on ABC).  Virginia Tech finishes the season at 13-3.

It’s A Ball Game: Montee Ball’s 129 Yards Help Wisconsin Overcome 9-Point 4th Quarter Deficit to Knock off Oklahoma State

Scott Daniel/ORLANDO, Fla. (S&B) -On November 18, the Iowa State Cyclones established the template for beating back the onslaught of the high-flying Oklahoma State offense: force turnovers, and never give up.

Wisconsin paid attention in film class.

Trailing by nine points halfway through the 4th quarter, the Badgers then picked off Brandon Weeden for the second time to set up an 89-yard touchdown drive, then forced a Joseph Randle fumble to recover the football and set up a game-winning 31-yard field goal by Kyle French to secure a 34-33 win over Okie State in the Capital One East Regional Final.

The rose in Bielema's hand might be premature, as his Badgers will return to Florida next week to face Oregon in the Discover Orange Semifinal.

“We wanted to keep the ball out of their hands as much as possible,” Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said after the game.  ”We didn’t always succeed, but at the very least we were able to take it away from them when they got too close at the end to putting us away.”

Oklahoma State did control the time of possession (32:31 vs. 27:29), but couldn’t capitalize on a tired Wisconsin defense.  Like their NFL counterparts up the road in Green Bay, the Badger defense allowed a lot of yards and a lot of points, but punched the ball out when necessary.

The Cowboys won the toss and elected to receive, then methodically marched down the field and scored when Brandon Weeden found Colton Chelf from 34 yards out, making it 7-0.  Wisconsin responded immediately with a touchdown of their own on the ensuing possession, as Jacob Pedersen scored out of the I-formation from 6 yards out on a dive play.  The first half was a see-saw battle that saw the Cowboys take a 16-14 lead into halftime.

The third quarter opened disastrously for Wisconsin when sophomore return man Jared Abbrederis fumbled the ball at his own 15 and the Cowboys recovering.  Oklahoma State capitalized, with Weeden hitting Justin Blackmon on a slant to make the score 23-14.  An even exchange of field goals wrapped up the third, and Oklahoma State had a relatively secure 26-17 lead heading into the final fifteen minutes.

Russell Wilson quickly hit Montee Ball on a 13-yard screen pass into the end zone to open the fourth quarter, making it 26-24.  Weeden responded with a 14-play drive of his own, capped by a 3-yard touchdown toss to Tracy Moore, recapturing the 33-24 lead.  After forcing Wisconsin to punt on a three-and-out, Okie State head coach Mike Gundy again orchestrated an effective mix of short passes and runs to wear down the winded Wisconsin defense.  Looking to strike from 35 yards out, Weeden targeted tight end Justin Horton over the middle.  Wisconsin linebacker Chris Borland jumped the route and came up with the game-saving pick.

“That was a huge play,” Gundy said after the game.  ”Hats off to Chris on that play.  It was a good throw by Brandon, and the backer just beat Justin to the ball.”

Russell Wilson methodically orchestrated an 89-yard drive of his own, capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass to Nick Toon.  Oklahoma State’s Joseph Randle fumbled near the Wisconsin 20 on the ensuing possession, and the Badgers recovered.  Wilson moved Wisconsin down the field with no timeouts in under 55 seconds to the Oklahoma State 14, spiking the ball with 1 second remaining on the clock.  Kyle French’s 31-yarder was never in doubt, as Wisconsin celebrated its trip to the inaugural Final Four.

“It’s a great feeling,” said senior quarterback Russell Wilson, who transferred from N.C. State after the 2010 season.  ”We want to bring a national championship back to Camp Randall and Madison, and we’re one step closer.”

Most Outstanding Player: Russell Wilson, QB, Wisconsin (21-for-29, 256 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions)

Next: Wisconsin (14-2) will play the Oregon Ducks (14-2) in the Discover Orange National Semifinal on Thursday, January 11, at SunLife Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida (kick-off at 8:15 p.m. EST).  Oklahoma State finishes its season at 13-2.

Eyes of the Tigers: LSU Puts Away Michigan State, Secures Final Four Berth

Andrew Maurins/ARLINGTON, Tex. (S&B) - In a season rife with controversy over who should fill out the rankings of the nation’s top five teams and how the playoff “experiment” would fare in a sport steeped in bowl game traditions, LSU has been college football’s lone constant. Lining up against a tough non-conference slate in addition to the usual gauntlet of SEC opponents, the Tigers have beaten all comers — often in resounding fashion — and removed all doubts as to who the country’s best team is.

The Tigers bathe Les Miles in Gatorade as the clock wound down in Arlington last Monday.

With a 31-20 win over persistent Michigan State in the AT&T Midwest Regional Final, that dominance continued. The Bayou Bengals emerged from Cowboys Stadium — the same site of their 40-27 triumph against Oregon in Week 1 and their Cotton Bowl win over Texas A&M — with their seventeenth straight victory dating back to 2010.

When asked if this was the best team he had ever coached in Baton Rouge, Les Miles was quick to deflect any premature praise with upstart TCU in New Orleans next week already on his mind.

“It’s too soon to say, way too soon. Ask me again when the season is over and we’ve hopefully gone all the way.”

The game began the same way many of the Tigers’ games in their current winning streak have started out, with the team settling for two field goals after early drives stalled. Still, the Spartans were unable to respond at first and LSU looked to once again take control from the outset.

But all of that changed once Michigan State put together a sustained drive of their own. Set up by two pivotal third down catches from B.J. Cunningham and Brian Linthicum, sophomore running back Le’Veon Bell rumbled and rolled his way to the end zone from 18 yards out. The extra point gave the Spartans a 7-6 lead with :09 seconds left in the first quarter. For the first time since the SEC Championship game against Georgia a month before, LSU found themselves behind, a fact that wasn’t lost on the players on Michigan State’s sideline.

“We didn’t wanna get too excited, but there was definitely a feeling on the sideline, an awareness of what we had just done,” said Bell. “It made us feel good, it made us think ‘We can do this.’”

And in spite of heading into the locker room down 9-7, that feeling didn’t dissipate in the second half when the Spartans took back the lead on a field goal of their own. Now behind 10-9, Jordan Jefferson and the Tiger offense turned to a tactic it hasn’t used much this year: the deep throw.

On 2nd and 8, Spencer Ware was told to go long on a wheel route, and 46 yards later he strolled into the end zone untouched to put the Tigers back on top.

“I didn’t expect him to be that open,” said Jefferson, whose completion to Ware was the longest pass play of the evening for both teams. “Someone blew an assignment and he was first on my progressions for that play.”

Jefferson’s 15 of 24 effort for 252 passing yards and two touchdowns was contrasted by Michigan State’s Kirk Cousins. Poised and collected against Boise State in their previous game, Cousins found modest success on some drives, but struggled mightily on others, throwing one pick in the first half and two more in the second while failing to connect with anyone in the end zones. Both interceptions in the second half came at the hands of LSU senior safety Brandon Taylor.

With the Tigers leading 19-13 halfway through the fourth quarter, Rueben Randle took a bubble screen pass from Jefferson and streaked between blockers and defenders alike for a 39-yard score to give his team a 12-point lead. The two-point conversion attempt failed, and the Spartans followed up with a methodical 77-yard drive punctuated by Bell’s second touchdown of the night.

Responding with a measured — but not overly conservative — drive of their own, the Tigers’ Drew Alleman kicked his fifth of six field goals to put LSU up 28-20. And when Taylor leaped up to grab his second interception on the Spartans’ final play from scrimmage, the last kick that followed was merely insurance for a well-deserved victory.

“There are a lot of different ways to win a football game,” said Miles afterwards. “They look different, sound different and feel different from one another, but as long as you have more points than the other guys when that clock runs out, it’s the same desired result.”

Most Outstanding Player: Spencer Ware, RB, LSU (22 rushes for 110 yards; 2 receiptions for 59 yards, 1 touchdown)

Next: LSU (16-0) will meet Tostitos West Regional Champion TCU (13-2) in the Allstate Sugar National Semifinal on Friday, January 12, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana (kick-off at 8:15 EST on ABC).  Michigan State finishes its season at 12-4.

Links:

• Intro to Midwinter Madness: Playoffs?

• Midwinter Madness: Selection Sunday

• Midwinter Madness, Round One: Charmed Frogs

• Midwinter Madness, Sweet 16: Bears Bounce Bryant, Broncos Booted on the Blue

The Wolf Pack, which just completed its 12th and final season in the Western Athletic Conference with a 7-6 record, will head to the Mountain West Conference in 2012. And the Pack should feel very comfortable in its new surroundings.

Four of the 10 Mountain West Conference football teams in 2012 have been in a conference with the Wolf Pack in recent years. Boise State has been in the Big Sky, Big West and WAC with the Pack. Fresno State and Hawaii are joining the Mountain West with the Pack from the WAC this year. And UNLV, which has played the Pack 37 times since 1969, was in the Big West with the Pack from 1992-1995.

Change, though, is something the Wolf Pack football team is very familiar with over the past 20 seasons. It all started with the bold move from the Big Sky to the Division I-A Big West. Conference in 1992. The Pack then played with 13 different schools in eight seasons in the Big West and 13 more in 12 seasons in the WAC.

The new conference opponents for the Pack in the Mountain West will be Colorado State, Air Force, Wyoming, New Mexico and San Diego State. But Air Force is the only one who has never appeared on the Pack schedule in the past. The other four (Colorado State, Wyoming, New Mexico and San Diego State) have all  been Pack opponents at least once over the past 12 seasons.

The Pack, which will have the smallest home stadium in the Mountain West,  joins a conference in a state of transition in 2012. There will be new head coaches at Fresno State (ex-Wolf pack assistant Tim DeRuyter), Colorado State (Jim McElwain), Hawaii (Norm Chow) and New Mexico (Bob Davie). Boise State and San Diego State will leave the conference after 2012 and will join the Big East Conference. And the Mountain West has already announced it will attempt to form some sort of alliance with Conference USA in the future. It looks like the Mountain West the Pack joins in 2012 will look much different in 2013.
So, hang tight, Pack fans. The Mountain West roller coaster is about to take off.

A capsule look at the 2012 Mountain West Conference football teams . . .

NEVADA WOLF PACK

Head coach: Chris Ault (226-103-1, 27 seasons)
2011: 7-6, 5-2 in Western Athletic Conference
2011 bowl: Lost to Southern Mississippi, 24-17 in Hawaii Bowl
Stadium: Mackay Stadium (29,993)
First year in MWC: 2012
Key players lost: OL Steve Haley, WR Rishard Matthews (91 catches, 1,364 yards, 8 TDs), WR Shane Anderson (40 catches), WR Tray Session, RB Lampford Mark (911 yards, 10 TDs), QB Tyler Lantrip, RB Mike Ball, DE Kaelin Burnett, DT Zack Madonick, DT Brett Roy (10 sacks, 18.5 tackles for loss), LB James-Michael Johnson, LB (100 tackles), Brandon Marshall, (102 tackles), CB Isaiah Frey (5 interceptions, 21 passes defensed), WR Corbin Louks (26 catches).
Key players returning: OT Jeff Nady, G Chris Barker, OT Joel Bitonio, WR Brandon Wimberly (injured in 2010), RB Stefphon Jefferson (429 yards), QB Cody Fajardo (1,707 yards, 6 Tds pass, 11 TDs rush), DE Albert Rosette, S Duke Williams, S Marlon Johnson, CB Khalid Wooten (3 ints), RB/KR Kendall Brock, WR Aaron Bradley (28 catches), DT Jack Reynoso, TE Kolby Arendse.
Interesting stat: The Wolf pack was second in the WAC at 31.7 points a game. The Pack also led the WAC in total offense at 507 yards a game.
Biggest holes to fill: The Pack needs to replace two experienced, dependable leaders at linebacker in Marshall and Johnson as well as Roy at defensive tackle and Frey in the secondary. The Pack also needs to find three or four dependable wide receivers to help replace Matthews, Louks, Anderson and Session. The running back position is also wide open without Mark and Ball.

BOISE STATE BRONCOS

Head coach: Chris Peterson (73-6, 6 years)
2011: 12-1, 6-1 in Mountain West
2011 bowl: Beat Arizona State 56-24 in Las Vegas Bowl.
Stadium: Bronco Stadium (34,000)
First year in MWC: 2011
Key players lost: QB Kellen Moore (3,800 yards, 43 TDs), WR Tyler Shoemaker (61 catches, 16 TDs), OR Nate Potter, C Thomas Byrd, G Chuck Hayes, TE Kyle Efaw (31 catches), RB Doug Martin (1,299 yards, 16 TDs), FB Dan Paul, DE Tyrone Crawford (13.5 tackles for loss), DT Billy Winn (8 tackles for loss), DT Chase Baker, DE Shea McClellin (7 sacks), LB Byron Hout (69 tackles), RB D.J. Harper, LB Aaron Tevis, CB Jerrell Gavins, S George Iloka (58 tackles), S Cedric Febis (49 tackles).
Key players returning: WR Chris Potter, DT Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe, G Joe Kellogg, CB Jamar Taylor, LB J.C. Percy, OT Charles Leon, WR Mitch Burroughs (49 catches), WR Gabe Lineman (23 catches)., WR Kirby Moore (22 catches), WR Matt Miller (62 catches).
Interesting stat: The Broncos allowed just eight sacks all season. They led the MWC in points scored (44.2 a game), points allowed (18.7), offensive yards (481 a game) and yards allowed (321).
Biggest holes to fill: The Broncos have suffered as many important losses after the 2010 season as any team in the nation. It all starts at quarterback with the departure of Moore (50-3 career record). Sophomore Joe Southwick (17-of-24 in 2010), red-shirt freshman Grant Hedrick and freshman recruit Nick Patti from Orlando, Fla., seem to have the inside track. Finding someone to replace Martin at running back also won’t be easy. And the Broncos have to find almost an entirely new defensive line with the losses of Crawford, Winn, Baker, and McClellin.

AIR FORCE FALCONS

Head coach: Troy Calhoun (41-24, 5 years)
2011: 7-6, 3-4 in Mountain West
2011 bowl: Lost to Toledo 42-41 in Military Bowl
Stadium: Falcon Stadium (52,480)
First year in MWC: 1999
Key players lost: QB Tim Jefferson (1,637 passing yards, 553 rushing yards), LB Brady Amack (136 tackles), LB Jamil Cooks (2.5 sacks), DB Jon Davis (4 ints), LB Jord Waiwaiole (66 tackles), OL A.J. Wallerstein, LB Patrick Hennessey (51 tackles), DB Anthony Wright (54 tackles), RB Asher Clark (1,110 yards), WR Zack Krauth (31 catches). WR Jonathan Warzeka (31 catches).
Key players returning: DB Anthony Wooding (57 tackles), LB Alex Means (6.5 sacks), LB Josh Kusan (22 tackles), RB Mike Dewitt (567 yards), RB Wes Cobb (425 yards) , QB Connor Dietz (252 yards rushing, 128 yards passing), K Parker Herrington.
Interesting stats: The Falcons were second in the MWC with an average of 455 yards a game on offense and led the conference in rushing at 315 yards a game. The Falcons also allowed just 10 sacks all year.
Biggest holes to fill: Jefferson was the key to the Falcons’ run-oriented offense. Dietz will likely get first crack at job. Wright, Clark, Amack, Wallerstein and Davis were All-MWC players in 2010.

WYOMING COWBOYS

Head coach: Dave Christensen (18-20, 3 years, MWC Coach of Year in 2011).
2011: 8-5, 5-2 in Mountain West
2011 bowl: Lost to Temple 37-15 in New Mexico Bowl
Stadium: War Memorial Stadium (30,514)
First year in MWC: 1999
Key players lost: LB Brian Hendricks (105 tackles), CB Tashaun Gipson (95 tackles, 3 ints), DE Gabe Knapton ( 81 tackles, 6.5 sacks), DE Josh Biezuns (63 tackles, 5 sacks), OL Clayton Kirven, WR Mazi Ogbonna (40 catches), OT John Hutchins, OL Brandon Self.
Key players returning: QB Brett Smith (2,622 yards, 20 TDs, MWC Freshman of Year), DT Mike Purcell (48 tackles), S Luke Ruff (102 tackles), DB Luke Anderson (75 tackles), LB Devin Harris (65 tackles), DE Korey Jones (4 sacks), DB Blair Burns (4 ints), DB Marqueston Huff (3 ints), OL Tyler Strong, OL Nick Carlson, WR Chris McNeill (42 catches), WR Brandon Miller (20 catches), WR Dominic Rufran (44 catches), WR Robert Herron (43 catches), RB Alvester Alexander (695 yards).
Interesting stats: The Cowboys averaged 207 yards a game through the air and 182 on the ground. The Cowboys defense allowed 27.8 points a game and 432 yards.
Biggest holes to fill: The Cowboys are set at quarterback with sophomore Smith. But they must find a replacement for Knapton and Biezuns on the DL as well as three new offensive linemen.

NEW MEXICO LOBOS

Head coach: Bob Davie (first year with Lobos in 2012)
2011: 1-11, 1-6 in Mountain West
2011 bowl: None
Stadium: University Stadium (40,094)
First year in MWC: 1999
Key players lost: OL Mike Muniz, DE Jaymar Atchison 8.5 tackles for loss), DT Brett Kennedy, LB Carmen Messina (142 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss), CB Anthony Hooks (62 tackles), S Bubba Forrest (85 tackles).
Key players returning: WR Deon Long (47 catches), WR Ty Kirk (47 catches), QB B.R. Holbrook (1,490 yards, 4 TDds), WR Lamar Thomas, OL Korian Chambers, OL Calvin McDowney, OL Dillon Farrell, LB Joe Stoner, DE Joe Harris (55 tackles), DB Destry Berry (47 tackles), DT Reggis Ellis, LB Dallas Bollema (68 tackles), S. Merritt (61 tackles), QB Tarean Austin (706 yards), RB Crusoe Gongbay (500 yards), RB Demarcus Rogers (242 yards).
Interesting stats: The Lobos averaged a mere 12 points a game. Their defense allowed 41.7 points a game. The Lobos were also out-gained, on average, 492-296 each game.
Biggest holes to fill: The Lobos have already filled their biggest hole with Davie. The former Notre Dame coach should provide some stability for a program which has been in disarray since Rocky Long left for San Diego State after 2008. The biggest hole on the field that needs to be filled is at linebacker where Messina was one of the MWC’s best in 2011.

COLORADO STATE RAMS

Head coach: Jim McElwain (first year with Rams in 2012).
2011 record: 3-9, 1-6 in Mountain West
2011 bowl: None
Stadium: Hughes Stadium (34,400)
First year in MWC: 1999
Key players lost: OL Paul Madsen, DB Ivory Herd (50 tackles), OL Jake Gdowski, RB Raymond Carter, DL Nuku Latu, LB Mychal Sisson, CB Ivory Blu-Smith.
Key players returning: QB Garrett Graham (542 yards), RB Chris Nwoke (1,130 yards, 9 TDs), TE Crockett Gillmore (45 catches), OL Weston Richburg, LB Shaquil Barrett (9 tackles), James Skelton (89 tackles), DL Nordly Capi (10 sacks), LB Mike Orakpo (87 tackles), DB Austin Gray (59 tackles), DL C.J. James (5 sacks), DB Momo Thomas (2 ints), LB Aaron Davis (23 tackles), QB Pete Thomas (1,607 yards, 7 TDs), WR Lou Greenwood, OL Joe Caprioglio, OL Jordan Gragert, WR Marquise Law, DL John Frolund.
Interesting stats: The Rams mixed up their offense well in 2011, averaging 167 yards on the ground and 185 through the air. The offense averaged 21.4 points and the defense allowed 31.2 a game.
Biggest holes to fill: The Rams appear to have as much talent returning as any team in the conference. The key will be to find a dependable quarterback.

UNLV REBELS

Head coach: Bobby Hauck (4-21 in 2 years)
2011: 2-10, 1-6 in Mountain West
2011 bowl: None
Stadium: Sam Boyd Stadium (36,800)
First year in MWC: 1999
Key players lost: DE James Dunlap (47 tackles, 6.5 sacks), LB Nate Carter (84 tackles), LB Daniel Harper (61 tackles), DB Quinton Pointer (59 tackles), DB Will Chandler (7 passes defensed), WR Michael Johnson (31 catches), WR Phillip Payne (44 catches), TE Anthony Vidal, DE D.J. Bell.
Key players returning: WR Marcus Sullivan (academically ineligible in 2011), OL Brett Boyko, DB Sidney Hodge (53 tackles, 4 fumble recoveries), OL Robert Waterman, LB John Lotulelei (60 tackles), LB Tani Maka (54 tackles), RB Tim Cornett (671 yards, 7 TDs, QB Caleb Herring (1,004 yards), DL Nate Holloway, OL Yusef Rodgers, OL Sean Tesoro, OL Doug Zismann, OL Cameron Jefferson, RB Bradley Randle (489 yards), Dionz Bradford (615 yards).
Interesting stats: The Rebels had just 14 sacks and seven interceptions by their defense this year . . . The offense averaged just 273.7 yards a game and 17.2 points.
Biggest holes to fill: Replacing Payne and Johnson at wide receiver will be difficult but the Rebels first need to find someone who can throw the ball. The Rebels were extremely young in 2011 at most every other position.

SAN DIEGO STATE AZTECS

Head coach: Rocky Long (8-5 in one season).
2011 record: 8-5, 4-3 in Mountain West
2011 bowl: Lost to Louisiana-Lafayette 32-30 in New Orleans Bowl
Stadium: Qualcomm Stadium (71,400)
First year in MWC: 1999
Key players lost: OL Tommie Draheim, LB Miles Burris (78 tackles, 19.5 tackles for a loss), DB Larry Parker (7 ints), P Brian Stahovich, DL Jerome Long (73 tackles), DL Larry Gibbs (6.5 tackles for loss), DL J.J. Autele (30 tackles), LB Demetrius Barksdale (3 sacks), OL Emillio Rivera, OL Kurtis Gunther, QB Ryan Lindley (3,153 yards, 23 TDs), LB Logan Ketchum.
Key players returning: RB Ronnie Hillman (1,711 yards, 19 TDs), TE Gavin Escobar (51 catches 780 yards, 7 TDs), DB Leon McFadden (17 passes defensed), OL Alec Johnson, S Nate Berhe (67 tackles), LB Jake Fely (58 tackles). WR Dominique Sandifer, WR Dylan Denso (49 catches), CB Khalid Stevens, DB Marcus Andrews, CB Josh Wade, WR Bryce Quigley, OL Nik Embernate, WR Colin Lockett (58 catches, 970 yards, 8 TDs), RB Walter Kazee (339 yards), RB Adam Muema (253 yards).
Interesting stats: Aztecs led the MWC with 28 sacks . . . The Aztecs averaged 29.8 points a game as well as 427.4 yards.
Biggest holes to fill: Burris was the top playmaker in the MWC on defenses with 19.5 tackles for loss. But the biggest hole to fill will be at quarterback where Lindley was one of the best in the nation. Having Hillman back at running back is a good place to start an offense.

FRESNO STATE BULLDOGS

Head coach: Tim DeRuyter (first year with Bulldogs in 2012)
2011 record: 4-9, 3-4 in WAC
2011 bowl: None
Stadium: Bulldog Stadium (41,031)
First year in MWC: 2012
Key players lost: DL Logan Harrell (7 sacks), OL Bryce Harris, WR Devon Wylie (56 catches), K Kevin Goessling (77 points).
Key players returning: QB Derek Carr (3,544 yards, 26 TDs), RB Robbie Rouse (1,549 yards, 13 TDs), WR Jalen Saunders (50 catches), WR Josh Harper (35 catches), WR Isaiah Burse (40 catches), WR Rashad Evans (44 catches), LB Travis Brown (85 tackles).
Interesting stats: Rouse led the WAC in rushing 2011 and Carr was third in passing yards per game (272.1) . . . The Bulldogs allowed 35,2 points a game.
Biggest holes to fill: DeRuyter doesn’t have many holes to fill though the two biggest will be to replace Harrell and Harris. But he already has a QB (Carr) and a RB (Rouse) and a ton of receivers.

HAWAII WARRIORS

Head coach: Norm Chow (first year with Warriors in 2012)
2011 record: 6-7, 3-4 in WAC
2011 bowl: None
Stadium: Aloha Stadium (50,000)
First year in MWC: 2012
Key players lost: QB Bryant Moniz (2,733 yards, 22 TDs), QB Shane Austin, WR Royce Pollard (71 catches, 1,011 yards, 8 TDs), LB Corey Paredes (107 tackles), S Richard Torres, DL Vaughn Meatoga, LB Aaron Brown (103 tackles).
Key players returning: QB David Graves (768 yards), RB Joey Iosefa (548 yards), RB Sterling Jackson, WR Billy Ray Stutzman (78 catches), WR Jeremiah Ostrowski (65 catches), WR Trevor Davis (28 catches), WR Justin Clapp (38 catches), CB John Hardy-Tulia (73 tackles).
Interesting stats: The Warriors were last in the WAC in rushing at 95.4 yards a game and first in passing at 308.8 . . . The Warriors led the WAC with 35 sacks.
Biggest holes to fill: Chow will have to find a quarterback. But that task is something he has vast experience in doing after developing the likes of Jim McMahon, Steve Young and Ty Detmer at BYU, Philip Rivers at North Carolina State and Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at USC.

So go ahead, Wolf Pack fans. Flip the calendar to 2012. Feel better? After one of the more frustrating and disappointing month-long endings to a Pack football season in recent memory you deserve the hope and promise that comes with the new year.

Unfortunately, though, a mere flip of the calendar and the sprinkling of some magic silver and blue fairy dust might not cure all that ails this Wolf Pack football team. Coach Chris Ault, the Pack’s Father Time minus the beard and empty hour glass, might also have to resort to some fancy sleight of hand, a few hocus pocus spells and, well, it also wouldn’t hurt if he kept all his fingers crossed heading into the 2012 season if he doesn’t want a repeat of 2011.

All of the disorders and maladies that afflicted the 2011 Pack — namely an inexperienced offense, erratic quarterback, offensive line, defense and special teams play, and a scarcity of playmakers on both sides of the ball — might stick around for yet another frustrating, pull-your-hair-out kind of year in 2012.

Yes, Pack fans, we are now firmly back to reality after that marvelous once-a-century miracle 2010 season. The 2011 season , if nothing else, served as a cold reminder that once-a-century miracle seasons, like the 13-1 landmark campaign of 2010 (it did happen, didn’t it?), more often than not are just that — a once-a-century miracle.

The Pack, we know now, didn’t magically turn a corner in 2010. The cold, hard, real world of college football doesn’t work that way. All of the things that plagued this football program before 2010 — a lack of roster depth, a defense that always seems to be a week away from another panic attack and an athletic department’s uncanny ability to go out of its way to arrange a bear of a non-league schedule — returned in 2011.

The 2010 season, we know now, was more about the bushel load of once-a-generation playmakers on the roster (remember Colin Kaepernick, Vai Taua, Virgil Green and Dontay Moch, among others?) than it was about a program maturing magically right before our eyes. Talk about your Christmas Carol. The Pack found out in 2011 what life would have been like in 2010 if the likes of Kaepernick, Moch, Green and Taua were never born.

That’s why the 2012 Wolf Pack football season, we’re afraid, might look suspiciously similar to the recently concluded 7-6 campaign that was humanely put to rest by the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles 24-17 on Christmas Eve in the Hawaii Bowl.

Everything that crushed this Pack team all year long — inconsistent quarterback play, game-killing special teams play, a defense that gives up the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter — returned on Christmas Eve like the ghosts of Pack losses past.

By now you know what happened in 2011. The Pack never beat a team all year that finished with a winning record, lost three of four to open and close the year, didn’t win a Western Athletic Conference title, didn’t win its bowl game and, in short, didn’t do any of the things that made 2010 so special.

But, to be fair to a young team in transition and a coaching staff that banged its head against the wall in frustration all year long trying to mask all of the holes, we probably should have seen it coming. But, we admit, the soothing afterglow of 2010 more than likely clouded our judgment.

But enough about 2011. The new year is coming. It is a time for hope and promise.

It’s time to look ahead to 2012.

New conference (Mountain West). New foes. Same old concerns. The 2012 season, right now, looks suspiciously similar to what we just witnessed in 2011.

The offense, again, will be overflowing with inexperience and question marks and likely will feature revolving doors at most of the skill positions once again.

Cody Fajardo is back at quarterback but his (and Ault’s) safety net — senior Tyler Lantrip — is gone. Mason Magleby performed admirably in 2011 (a video game-like 10-of-11 for four touchdowns) as the third-string quarterback but will Ault go to him when Fajardo is driving him crazy as quickly as he went to Lantrip?

Fajardo’s maturity at quarterback, something that was seemingly up one series and down the next all season long this past season, might be the biggest key to 2012’s success.

That’s because Fajardo is the unquestioned leader of this offense now that Lantrip, wide receivers Rishard Matthews, Corbin Louks, Tray Session and Shane Anderson, running backs Lampford Mark and Mike Ball and offensive linemen Steve Haley, Jeff Meads and Jordan Mudge are all gone.

Fajardo, who was lifted from the bowl game because the offense was once again performing its annual bowl game disappearing act, needs to mature in a hurry if this Pack team has any chance of improving on its seven-win total of 2011.

The situation at running back is also, for the second consecutive year, up in the air. Mark, who had six 100-yard games to close out the season, is gone after a vastly underappreciated four-year Pack career of 1,882 yards and 16 touchdowns. Ball, who was talented enough to be a Taua-like 1,200-yard rusher in 2011 and 2012, was kicked off the team during the season. That means the 2012 starting job as it stands now is between junior Stefphon Jefferson, red-shirt freshman Tony Knight, sophomore Kendall Brock and senior Nick Hale.

And who will Fajardo throw to?

Good question.

Matthews (91 catches), Anderson (40), Louks (26) and Session (23) are gone. Matthews had 57 receptions of 10 yards or more, Anderson had 21, Louks had 16 and Session had 13. Those are a lot of big plays that need replacing.

Veteran Brandon Wimberly, who missed all of 2011 after getting shot in the abdomen last summer near downtown Reno, could return to possibly help a group that returns wide receiver Aaron Bradley (28 catches) and tight end Kolby Arendse (26) and a lot of willing yet untested targets.

The defense also suffers big losses. Tackle Brett Roy, linebackers James-Michael Johnson and Brandon Marshall and cornerback Isaiah Fey — the heart and soul of the defense in 2011 — are all gone. The secondary, with strong safety Duke Williams, cornerbacks Thaddeus Brown and Khalid Wooten and free safeties Marlon Johnson and Charles Garrett returning, will be the most experienced group of the defense in 2012, just like it was in 2011.

What needs to go right to get the Pack back up to 10 wins or more?

First of all, Fajardo needs to play well enough to never leave the field. Someone also needs to emerge at running back like Mark did the past six games and the offensive line (All-WAC players Jeff Nady and Chris Barker will be back) needs to return to the days when it opened up enough holes for the Pack to average 300-plus yards a game on the ground.

The 2011 team averaged 58 yards a game on the ground less than it did in 2010. The pistol offense simply doesn’t work as efficiently — remember those two crucial 4th-and-1 plays the Pack failed to get in the bowl game? — when the running game doesn’t demoralize opponents.

It certainly doesn’t get into the end zone as much. The Pack averaged 11 points a game fewer in 2011 than in 2010 mainly because the number of rushing touchdowns fell from 52 to 29. And 11 points a game is a ton of points when you consider this 7-6 team lost four games combined by just 16 points.

A playmaker along the lines of Matthews would be nice at wide receiver in 2012 but that might be asking for too much. Someone at wide receiver, though, needs to step up and be a difference maker. We saw in the bowl game what happens when Fajardo has nothing but inexperience at wide receiver to work with (he was 8-of-19 for 60 yards and an interception).

The defense will also no doubt suffer from the loss of Marshall’s and Johnson’s experience at linebacker. But they can make up for some of that lack of experience with a renewed pass rush. The Pack averaged just 1.85 sacks and 4.62 tackles for a loss each game in 2011, down from 2.46 sacks and 6.23 tackles for a loss each game in 2010. A sack or a tackle for a loss at just the right time might have been enough to beat Texas Tech, Louisiana Tech, Utah State and Southern Miss.

So, as you can see, there seems to be even more questions, concerns and unknowns heading into 2012 than there were going into 2011.

The schedule, though, does seem to be a bit more forgiving next fall.

The Pack’s non-league schedule, as it stands now, consists of road games at California and Texas State and a home game against Northwestern State. That certainly is more manageable than Boise State, Oregon and Texas Tech.

The home Mountain West games will be Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Wyoming with the road games at Air Force, Hawaii, New Mexico and UNLV.

The Mountain West in 2012 (and beyond) is also a huge unknown as compared to the WAC in 2011. There will be new coaches at Fresno State (former Pack defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter takes over for Pat Hill), Hawaii (Norm Chow replaces Greg McMackin) and New Mexico (Bob Davie takes over a program in disarray). And Boise State will have a new look with the loss of seniors Kellen Moore, Doug Martin, Shea McClellin, Nate Potter and Billy Winn among others.

The biggest mistake many of us made in 2011 was to heap a ton of unfair expectations on the 2011 team. That’s what once-a-century miracle seasons can do to a program’s expectations. And a young, inexperienced team in 2011 kind of wilted under all of the unfair expectations, especially late in some games.
So, to be fair in 2012, expect seven or eight wins.

Then again, if the ghosts of Kaepernick, Taua, Moch and Green visit this team in the middle of the night, well, anything is possible.

The dozen years (2000-11) were filled with amazing and historic moments that changed the Pack football program forever.

Chris Ault returned to the sidelines for his third term as head coach, artificial turf and lights were installed at Mackay Stadium, the program earned its first Top 25 rankings in over six decades, went to seven bowl games and won two league championships.

The final tally reads 79 wins and 71 losses overall with a 55-40 WAC record.

Over the next three weeks Silver and Blue Sports.com will take a close look at the greatest games, individual performances and careers during the Wolf Pack’s 12 memorable seasons in the WAC.

This installment takes a look at the 20 greatest and most meaningful Wolf Pack football games during the WAC era . . .

20. WOLF PACK 35, WYOMING 28 on Sept. 23, 2000

At quick glance this game appears to be a meaningless victory in a disappointing 2-10 season. But this game makes this list for three reasons. It was the Pack’s first victory in the WAC era and it was the first for Chris Tormey as Pack head coach. Those two reasons alone make it worthy of this list. But the biggest reason is what took place before the Pack even got to the stadium. That’s because they almost didn’t get to the stadium. The Wolf Pack team busses were stuck in traffic behind a 12-car pile-up caused by a sudden snowstorm on Interstate 80. The Pack, which stayed 50 miles away in Cheyenne, didn’t arrive for the game in Laramie until 20 minutes before the scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff, delaying the start of the game one hour. It took them over three hours to travel the 50 miles. After understandably falling behind 21-7, the Pack scored 21 unanswered points, on two David Neill touchdown runs and a 4-yard TD pass from Neill to Scott Asai. Running back Marquis Starks, who replaced an injured Adrien Dugas in the second quarter, broke a 28-28 tie on a 16-yard TD run with 41 seconds to play for the improbable victory. Tormey, incidentally, was just hired by Wyoming as its defensive coordinator this week.

19. WOLF PACK 24, SOUTHERN UTAH 23 on Aug. 30, 2003

The wonders of electricity had finally arrived at Mackay Stadium. The biggest crowd in four seasons (25,256) showed up on an 85-degree late August evening for the first night home game in Wolf Pack history. Wolf Pack fans’ experience of going to a game at Mackay Stadium changed forever with this game. And the Thunderbirds gave the Pack all it could handle, taking a 17-14 lead in the third quarter. The game turned out to be one of the more entertaining in the WAC era as Logan Carter blocked an extra point attempt by Southern Utah’s Steve Pulver with 3:06 to play that would have tied the game at 24-24. Carter, a linebacker, had a marvelous game, recovering a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown for a 7-3 Pack lead and also picking off a pass in the third quarter. Thanks to this victory, the Pack would finish 6-6 in 2003 for its first non-losing season since 1998, though Tormey would lose his job after the year.

18. WOLF PACK 31, NORTHWESTERN 21 on Sept. 22, 2006

In just its second game ever against a school from the Big Ten Conference (they lost to Wisconsin in 1993) the Wolf Pack turned in an impressive all-around effort in beating the Wildcats. The Pack, playing in front of 16,176 fans at Mackay and a national television audience, built a 17-7 lead in the first quarter on a 25-yard Jeff Rowe touchdown pass to Robert Hubbard, a 32-yard Brett Jaekle field goal and a 3-yard Hubbard run. Rowe also connected with Mike McCoy on a 2-yard pass and a 24-14 lead in the second quarter. Joe Garcia then secured the victory with a 24-yard interception return for a touchdown off a Mike Kafka pass with 2:14 to play.

17. WOLF PACK 42, UTAH STATE and LOUISIANA TECH 0 on Nov. 11, 18, 2006

These two games are lumped together for obvious reasons. The scores were identical against the two WAC opponents, they took place in consecutive weeks and they represented the Wolf Pack defense’s first back-to-back shutouts since 1977 (and before that in 1943). The 2006 team had an marvelous defense, led by co-defensive coordinators Barry Sacks and Tim DeRuyter (now the head coach at Fresno State). The Pack dominated Utah State, holding the Aggies to 207 total yards. Joe Garcia and Ezra Butler had sacks and Garcia, Scott Garrison and Uche Unwanyu had interceptions. The key against Louisiana Tech was big plays as J.J. Milan and Matt Hines had sacks, Hines forced a fumble, and Joe Garcia and Josh Mauga had interceptions. Mauga also recovered a fumble. The Pack also stopped the Bulldogs on 4th downs from the 1 and 2-yard lines.

16. WOLF PACK 41, FRESNO STATE 28 on Nov. 7, 2008

This was Colin Kaepernick’s return to Fresno where he was a high school standout a few miles away at Pitman High in Turlock, Calif. It also was Kaepernick’s way of showing the Bulldogs’ fans just exactly what they missed out on when coach Pat Hill allowed the 6-foot-6 quarterback to escape to northern Nevada. Kaepernick, a sophomore in 2008, rushed for 118 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 128 yards and another score in the Pack victory. The Wolf Pack never trailed in beating the Bulldogs for the first time since 2005. Vai Taua also had a huge game, rushing for 263 yards and a touchdown. Kaepernick gave the Pack a 24-14 lead on TD runs on 16 and two yards and a 36-yard scoring pass to Mike McCoy. Taua put the game away with a 25-yard scoring run for a 38-21 lead in the fourth quarter.

15. WOLF PACK 27, BYU 13 on Sept. 25, 2010

The Wolf Pack, with a sparkling 3-0 record after a huge win over the California Golden Bears the week before, were now heading out on the road for the first time in 2010. And they had to go to BYU, a place where they had never won and lost 52-7 nine years earlier. The Pack also had not won a non-league game on the road against someone other than UNLV since 2003. The Pack exorcized their road demons by beating BYU in a game in which they never trailed. But it wasn’t easy. Colin Kaepernick hit Courtney Randall for a 6-yard TD pass for a 7-0 lead, Vai Taua gave the Pack a 14-7 lead on a 1-yard run and Kaepernick made the score 21-7 Pack on a 4-yard run. The Pack, though, couldn’t shake the Cougars until a 29-yard field goal by Anthony Martinez gave them a 27-10 lead with 11:27 to play. The field goal capped off a 21-play, 75-yard drive that ate away just under nine minutes.

14. FRESNO STATE 49, WOLF PACK 41 on Oct. 6, 2007

The Pack lost a football game but gained a legend. The 18,503 fans who were there saw the dawning of a new Pack era. Colin Kaepernick, getting his first extended playing time because of a second-quarter injury to Nick Graziano, was brilliant. The red-shirt freshman passed for 384 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 60 yards and another score. This was the game in which Kaepernick first exhibited his never-say-die spirit, leading the Pack to three touchdowns in the final 6:22 despite trailing 49-20. Pack football was never the same after this game.

13. WOLF PACK 52, FRESNO STATE 14 on Nov. 14, 2009

This was the game that showed by just how much the Wolf Pack had passed Fresno State. Colin Kaepernick and the Pack blitzed the Bulldogs with 461 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground. The Pack defense had six sacks by six different players. This was also the game that proved once and for all the pistol offense’s dominance on the ground. It’s one thing to pile up video game numbers against the likes of San Jose State, New Mexico State, UNLV and Idaho but to do it against Fresno showed just how dominant the Pack was on the ground. Luke Lippincott had three touchdown runs, Kaepernick and Vai Taua had two each. Taua had 179 yards, Lippincott 149 and Kaepernick had 95. The Pack didn’t even need to throw the ball to beat Fresno as Kaepernick was just 6-for-12 through the air for 45 yards.

12. WOLF PACK 63, UNLV 28 on Oct. 3, 2009

Beating UNLV is always nice. But destroying them with four fourth-quarter touchdowns to break open a close game is even better. The Pack, leading just 35-28 after three quarters, blew the doors off the Rebels in the final 15 minutes. The game also featured one of the greatest Wolf Pack moments in this rivalry when running back Luke Lippincott tossed a 6-yard touchdown pass to quarterback Colin Kaepernick for a 49-28 lead with 6:59 to play. The game also featured the defining performance of Mike Ball’s rollercoaster Pack career. The freshman from Las Vegas ran for 184 yards and five touchdowns, including an 89-yard score. The Pack fumbled the ball away four times or they might have broken 90 points. When they weren’t busy giving the ball away, they were scoring touchdowns on all nine of their other drives. The pistol offense produced 773 total yards with 559 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground. The Pack was 0-3 in 2009 going into this game and this victory was the first of 16 in a row at home.

11. WOLF PACK 22, UNLV 14 on Sept. 17, 2005

The Wolf Pack had not beaten UNLV for five consecutive years, since 1999. Coach Chris Tormey was connected to four of those losses and Chris Ault even had one in 2003. A crowd of 23,457 at Mackay, though, saw the end to the Pack’s futility in the Fremont Cannon game. Robert Hubbard scored on a pair of 1-yard runs and Brett Jaekle had three field goals of under 30 yards for the Pack scoring. But the Pack tried its best to keep UNLV in the game, wasting numerous opportunities and fumbling the ball away twice. The Pack dominated the game, holding the ball for over 36 minutes but couldn’t find the end zone on a consistent basis. Jaekle also missed an extra point, an 18-yard field goal and had a 45-yard blocked. Roosevelt Cooks had a sack and Joe Garcia had a sack and forced a fumble as the Pack defense played a huge part in securing this rivalry-changing victory. Jeff Rowe passed for 265 yards and ran for 44 more. Caleb Spencer caught a dozen passes. It was one of the ugliest victories for the Pack in the history of this rivalry. But it was also the first of seven in a row for the Pack against UNLV, a streak that exists to this day.

10. WOLF PACK 49, CENTRAL FLORIDA 48 on Dec. 24, 2005

The significance of this victory seems to grow with each passing season, with each Wolf Pack loss in the state of Hawaii. The Pack won the 2005 Hawaii Bowl over a very talented Central Florida team that featured future NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall, running back Kevin Smith and kicker Matt Prater. Marshall caught 11 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns against the Pack, Prater kicked three field goals and Smith ran for 202 yards and three scores in this wild overtime affair. The pack, though, also had great individual performances from Jeff Rowe (254 yards passing), Caleb Spencer (11 catches),, Robert Hubbard (126 yards rushing and three touchdowns) and B.J. Mitchell (178 yards rushing and two scores). Rowe scored on a 4-yard run in overtime for a 49-42 lead. The Pack then won the game when Prater missed an extra point after a Central Florida touchdown. The victory was the Pack’s first in a bowl game since the Jan. 1, 1948 Salad Bowl over North Texas. It is also now the Pack’s only victory in their last 10 games in the state of Hawaii (0-7 against Hawaii and 1-2 in the Hawaii Bowl).

9. WOLF PACK 27, UNLV 20 on Sept. 29, 2007

Nick Graziano will unfairly go down in history as the Wolf Pack’s Wally Pipp. Pipp lost his New York Yankees’ starting job at first base to Lou Gehrig and was never heard from again and Graziano lost his starting quarterback job to Colin Kaepernick. But Graziano should be remembered first as the Pack quarterback who engineered the most exciting Pack victory in this heated rivalry. Graziano connected with Kyle Sammons on a beautiful 43-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline with 27 seconds to play to stun the Rebels in front of 25,278 fans at Mackay. UNLV had just tied the game at 20-20 with 62 seconds to play on a Travis Dixon-to-Ryan Wolfe 30-yard touchdown pass. Graziano, who would get hurt the following week and give way to Kaepernick, passed for 330 yards and three touchdowns, including a 90-yarder to Mike McCoy for a 10-3 lead.

8. BOISE STATE 69, WOLF PACK 67 on Oct. 14, 2007

One of the greatest games in college football history has to make this list even if it did turn out to be a Pack loss. Colin Kaepernick, making his first college start, showed that the previous week against Fresno State wasn’t a mirage or a fluke. The Pack quarterback wowed a national television audience, passing for 243 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for 177 yards and two more touchdowns. Chris Ault’s pistol offense was now a national phenomenon for the first time thanks to Kaepernick. Luke Lippincott ran for 187 yards and four touchdowns. His 25-yard TD run gave the Pack a 51-44 lead in overtime. Kaepernick then tied it at 58-58 in the second OT on a 25-yard scoring run and Brett Jaekle’s 27-yard field goal gave the Pack a 61-58 lead in the third overtime. The fourth overtime saw Lippincott pull the Pack to within 69-67 on a 7-yard run but Kaepernick’s two-point conversion pass attempt failed, ending a game that nobody wished would end. This was the game that finally showed the Wolf Pack that it could play with Boise State after seven consecutive blowout losses.

7. WOLF PACK 35, LOUISIANA TECH 17 on Dec. 4, 2010

The importance of this game usually gets overlooked when recalling the magical 2010 season. But a loss at Joe Aillet Stadium would have been a disaster for the Pack. With a WAC title and a Top 25 national ranking on the line just a week after a stunning victory over Boise State (see Great Game No. 1 below), Colin Kaepernick simply wouldn’t allow the Pack to lose to the Bulldogs. Playing in his final regular season game in a Pack uniform, Kaepernick rushed for 155 yards and three touchdowns and completed 13-of-17 passes for 159 yards in one of the more efficient all-around games in his career. He also turned in what is arguably the finest run of his career, going 28 yards for a brilliant touchdown on a 4th-and-9 play for a 28-17 lead with 13:43 left in the game. Vai Taua also rushed for 162 yards and two scores in his final regular season game and secured the victory with a 6-yard score with 10:15 to go, giving the Pack’s its second and final WAC championship.

6. WOLF PACK 21, BOSTON COLLEGE 13 on Jan. 9, 2011

The Pack didn’t play all that well against a mediocre Boston College team in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl but all that mattered is that they ended the season with a victory. After a 36-day lay-off the Pack was understandably a little rusty offensively, especially against a Boston College defense that featured linebackers Luke Kuechly and Mark Herzlich. So the defense saved the day and the landmark 13-1 season, holding the Eagles to just 185 total yards. Rishard Matthews was all the offense the Pack needed, hauling in a 27-yard scoring pass from Colin Kaepernick and returning a punt 72 yards for a touchdown. Anthony Martinez also kept the Eagles at arm’s distance with a pair of field goals. The entire evening, played before seemingly 41,000 Pack fans and 63 Boston College fans at San Francisco’s AT&T Park, was simply the greatest outdoor party in Wolf Pack history. The only thing that was missing was a Silver and Blue Boston Victory Party in the San Francisco bay after the game.

5. WOLF PACK 31, BYU 28 on Sept. 14, 2002

This is arguably the most overlooked great victory in Wolf Pack history. Beating BYU in front of 23,109 fans at Mackay proved that the Wolf Pack could indeed beat a big-time football school. Before this game the Pack had lost to one big-time school after another (Washington State, BYU, Oregon four times, Oregon State twice, California and Southern Mississippi) since athletic director Chris Ault pumped up the schedule in 1996. Things didn’t start out well on this sunny afternoon at Mackay either as running back Chance Kretschmer, the nation’s leading rusher in 2001, suffered a season-ending knee injury on his first carry on a late hit out of bounds. Pack quarterback Zac Threadgill, though, had the game of his life, throwing for 410 yards and four touchdowns. He connected with Nate Burleson 12 times for 213 yards, including a 95-yard touchdown for a stunning 10-0 lead in the first quarter. Threadgill also found Dan Bythwood, Erick Streelman and Tim Fleming for touchdowns as the Pack shocked the Cougars.

4. WOLF PACK 52, CALIFORNIA 31 on Sept. 17, 2010

This is the game that set the stage and made all of the amazing events of 2010 possible. This is also the game that put the Pack on the national map in 2010. Colin Kaepernick, Vai Taua and friends simply dominated the Golden Bears in front of 28,809 fans at Mackay Stadium who witnessed the Pack‘s first victory over the boys from Berkeley since 1903. Kaepernick ran for 148 yards and three touchdowns and Taua ran for 151 and one score as the Pack piled up 316 yards on the ground. Marlon Johnson had the play of the game, picking off a Kevin Riley pass and returning it 65 yards for a touchdown and a 31-21 lead. Taua’s 54-yard score put the Bears away, giving the Pack a 45-24 lead with just under eight minutes to play.

3. WOLF PACK 28, WASHINGTON 17 on Oct. 11, 2003

It’s one thing to beat a Pac-12 team at home with an amazing once-a-generation quarterback and a team that would go on to win 13 games and finish ranked No. 11 in the country. But it’s quite another to go on the road in front of 70,149 fans to do it with a team that would win just six games. This victory at Seattle came totally out of the blue and shocked the entire west coast. And the Pack did it with defense. Chris Handy returned an interception of a Cody Pickett pass 37 yards for a score to give the Pack a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. The Pack blocked three field goals, two of the blocks by Chris Barry and one by Jorge Cordova. Cordova had an incredible 16 tackles, 4.5 sacks and also forced a fumble. Daryl Towns and Logan Carter each had 10 tackles. Derek Kennard had the eighth and final Pack sack of the day on the game’s final play. Quarterback Andy Heiser passed for 299 yards and three scores as the offense did just enough to beat the stunned Huskies.

2. WOLF PACK 38, FRESNO STATE 35 on Nov. 26, 2005

OK, so it is only the second greatest Pack victory to occur on Nov. 26. But it was amazing night back in 2005 just the same. The significance of this victory is it was Chris Ault’s first huge victory during his third era as Pack coach and showed Pack fans a taste of things to come. This Pack victory came at a time when Fresno State was Boise State before Boise State. The Bulldogs were the non-BCS darlings of the nation in 2005 after putting on an incredible show in a 50-42 loss to the mighty USC Trojans just the week before. It turned out to be just the right time to play the Bulldogs. Fresno State, ranked 16th in the country and just days after accepting a spot in the Liberty Bowl, came to Mackay feeling pretty good about itself. The Pack jumped out to leads of 17-3 and 24-10 as Robert Hubbard scored on runs of six and 20 yards. But Fresno rallied to take a 27-24 lead early in the fourth quarter. The Pack, though, took a 31-27 lead on a 13-yard TD run by Hubbard with 8:31 to go. Hubbard, one of the more underrated Pack backs in history, had 146 yards. The stadium clock then refused to work the final six minutes. The Pack, playing before 17,765 fans, went ahead 38-27 on a 12-yard pass from Jeff Rowe to Nichiren Flowers with 1:27 to go. The stunning upset ended Fresno’s 12-game WAC winning streak and left the Liberty Bowl folks wondering why they didn’t wait another week or so before handing out invitations.

1. WOLF PACK 34, BOISE STATE 31 on Nov. 26, 2010

A crowd of 30,712 fans showed up to see history. And the Wolf Pack and Broncos didn’t disappoint anyone, including a stunned national television audience. Boise jumped out ahead 24-7 by halftime and seemed to be on its way to a perfect regular season and a possible berth in the BCS title game. But Colin Kaepernick, Rishard Matthews, Anthony Martinez and the Pack defense had other plans. Kaepernick scored on an 18-yard run to start the comeback, cutting Boise’s lead to 24-14. Matthews then turned in one of the greatest efforts in school history, going 44 yards on an end around to cut the deficit to 24-21 with 13 minutes to play. Martinez tied the game at 24-24 with a field goal and Kaepernick and Matthews combined on a 7-yard touchdown pass to send the game into overtime tied 31-31 with 13 seconds to play. Yes, of course, luck had a lot to do with it as Boise’s Kyle Brotzman missed a 26-yard field goal as time expired in regulation and a 29-yarder on overtime. But this was the moment the Pack had been waiting over a century for and they didn’t let it get away as Martinez won the game in OT with a 34-yarder.

“It hasn’t been a vacation for us over there,” said Wolf Pack coach Chris Ault, whose Wolf Pack will take on the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles in the Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu on Saturday (5 p.m., 630-AM, ESPN-TV). “We haven’t have a lot of fun over there.”

The Wolf Pack has lost eight of its last nine games in Hawaii dating back to 1968. Seven of the losses have come to the Hawaii Warriors, including last season’s 27-21 loss that ruined the Pack’s perfect season (they finished 13-1). Another Pack loss in Hawaii came in the 2009 Hawaii Bowl (45-10) to SMU, which just so happened to be coached by former Hawaii coach June Jones.

“We got our butt kicked,” said Ault of the 2009 Hawaii Bowl. “That game was a disaster. Nothing good happened in that game.”

The Wolf Pack played SMU two years ago in Hawaii without a defensive coordinator (Nigel Burton left to become Portland State’s head coach two weeks before the bowl game) and without their top two running backs in Vai Taua (suspended for academic reasons) and Luke Lippincott (injured).

“We were scrambling,” Ault said, shaking his head.

Things are a bit more stable for the Pack this time around in Hawaii. The 7-5 Wolf Pack has had three weeks since its 56-3 regular season-ending win over Idaho to get healthy for Southern Miss.

“Everybody is healthy for the first time since Week 1,” defensive tackle Brett Roy said. “And a healthy defense is a great defense.”

Southern Miss, the Conference USA champion, is also healthy.

The Golden Eagles, 11-2, are currently ranked 21st in the nation in the Bowl Championship Series standings and by USA Today and are 22nd in the Associated Press rankings. They are also a one touchdown favorite over the Pack according to Nevada oddsmakers.

Ault called the Golden Eagles as good as any team the Pack has faced in its current seven-year streak of going to bowl games.

Maryland (2008 Humanitarian Bowl) and Miami (2006 MPC Computers Bowl) were just as good but the difference is that Southern Miss is a champion,“ Ault said. “Miami and Maryland weren’t champions when we played them.”

The Pack, which is 1-1 in the Hawaii Bowl (they beat Central Florida, 49-48 in overtime in 2005), looks at the Golden Eagles as a golden opportunity at the end of a frustrating season.

“Anytime a team wins their conference you have to give them respect,” Roy said. “This game is against a ranked opponent. It’s huge for us. Winning this game is paramount to where we want to take our program.”
Southern Miss, which has produced, among others, former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, has brought a strange coaching situation with them to Hawaii. Head coach Larry Fedora has already accepted the head coaching job at North Carolina but will coach the Golden Eagles in Hawaii. Southern Miss also has already hired Fedora’s successor in South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson.

“That shouldn’t affect anything,” Ault said. “He’ll (Fedora) be there and I’m sure they’ll want to send him out a winner.”

In addition to the Fedora-Johnson coaching revolving door, the Golden Eagles will also bring 18 consecutive winning seasons and 10 straight bowl appearances with them to Hawaii. They compiled their first 11-victory season in school history this fall behind an offense led by senior quarterback Austin Davis and an attacking defense led by linebackers Ronnie Thornton and Jamie Collins, defensive end Cordarro Law and safety Jacorius Cotton.

“That is an outstanding football team,” Ault said. “It’s going to be a great challenge for us and a great opportunity.”

Davis has passed for 3,331 yards and 28 touchdowns this year and rushed for 332 yards and four scores. The Eagles running attack is led by 5-8 Jamal Woodyard, who leads the team with 683 yards. Tracy Lampley (450 yards rushing, 43 catches for 549 yards) and Kendrick Hardy (426 yards rushing) are also a big part of their offense. Kelvin Bolden leads the Golden Eagles with 55 catches for 647 yards and six touchdowns and Ryan Ballentine has 49 catches for 428 yards and eight scores.

“Their skill set is huge,” Roy said. “Across the board at every skill position they are very explosive. They are going to be a very big meal for us to eat.”

Fedora, the former offensive coordinator at Florida and Oklahoma State, will definitely test the Pack defense. The Golden Eagles lead all Football Bowl Sub-division teams in the nation with 24 different players scoring at least one touchdown this season and this year they went over 6,000 total yards of offense for the first time in school history.

“They spread you out and want to get you in one-on-one situations,” Ault said. “They key is to eliminate the big play. They are going to get their yards but if you take away the big plays you have a chance to win.”
The Golden Eagles defense also has a tendency to make big plays. Thornton has 104 tackles and 8.5 tackles for a loss, Law has 17.5 tackles for a loss, including 7.5 sacks, Collins has 94 tackles and 19.5 tackles for a loss, including 6.5 sacks and Cotton has 91 tackles.

The Pack, though, doesn’t have to take a backseat to the Golden Eagles statistically. The Wolf Pack, in fact, has a better national standing than Southern Miss in many categories.

The Pack is eighth nationally in rushing at 252 yards a game while Southern Miss is 23rd at 208. The Pack is 30th in passing with 271 yards a game and Southern Miss is 32nd at 263. The Pack is fifth in total offense at 523 yards a game and Southern Miss is 13th at 471. Southern Miss has averaged 38 points a game to Nevada’s 33.

Southern Miss, though, rates a slight edge defensively when compared to the Pack. The Golden Eagles allow 113 yards rushing, 232 yards passing, 345 total yards and 21 points a game. The Pack has allowed an average of 145 yards rushing, 227 yards passing, 372 total yards and 25 points a game this year.

“We know we’re the underdog in this game,” Ault said. “They are better than anybody we’ve played in our conference this year.”

Ault is 11-15 in postseason games in his career (9-9 in the Division I-AA playoffs and 2-6 in Division I-A bowls). The Wolf Pack, which beat Boston College 20-13 in the Kraft Bowl in January to break a four-game bowl losing streak, seems ready for the challenge.

“Anything can happen on any day,” wide receiver Rishard Matthews said. “We’re going out there to earn respect for Nevada.”