Nevada must win two more games to earn a bowl berth
Don’t worry about the Nevada football team’s future. The Pack will be bowling later this year if it takes care of business.
Most of the national media are predicting that the Wolf Pack will play in its third consecutive bowl game. But there are two questions: Where and how?
A couple of bowl projections have Hawaii going undefeated and earning a BCS bid, like Boise State did last year. However, a couple of others have Boise State going to its second BCS bowl and leaving Hawaii at home with its own bowl.
As of Sunday, CBS Sports has Hawaii playing Georgia in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on New Year’s Day. Nevada is projected to return to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl and face Tulsa from Conference-USA, while Boise State hosts Florida State in the Humanitarian Bowl and Fresno State travels south to play Utah in the New Mexico Bowl.
ESPN also has a similar projection, which was released last week.
Ivan Maisel and Mark Schlabach each predicted Hawaii will be in the Sugar Bowl, but Maisel said the opponent will be LSU and Schlabach picked Georgia. Both, however, have Nevada playing Utah in the New Mexico Bowl. Fresno State will be in the Hawaii Bowl while Boise State will be at home against Florida State.
Collegefootballnews.com and Scout.com see things differently with the Western Athletic Conference’s future.
Both predicted Boise State, not Hawaii, to be in the Rose Bowl against Arizona State. Hawaii will stay home and play UTEP while Nevada will be in New Mexico playing against the Air Force Academy. This leaves Fresno State taking on Florida State in the Humanitarian Bowl.
Nevada controls its future and cannot rely on other teams to help it make the postseason.
The Wolf Pack needs to win at least two of its last three games to finish the season 7-5 and be bowl-eligible. Wins over San Jose State and Louisiana Tech are a must, and beating Hawaii shouldn’t harm the Pack’s chances of the postseason.
With the Warriors coming to ReNevada must win two more games to earn a bowl berthno next week, Nevada needs a win and cannot worry about possibly screwing the WAC out of money. Fresno State still has to play Hawaii this week, but who’s to say that Boise State or Washington won’t beat Hawaii after the Nevada game? Boise State will want to win just as bad, and the Broncos’ return to the BCS spotlight is not out of the question. Plus, Hawaii has one of the worst schedules, compared to Boise State.
A few things must happen if the Wolf Pack wants to upset nationally-ranked Hawaii, however.
A big crowd, a powerful offense and possibly snow must all be at Mackay Stadium.
None of these 10,000-fan crowds will cut it. Mackay needs to be packed and full of energy, just like last year against Boise State and two years ago when Nevada upset Fresno State. Bringing magic back to Mackay will put belief and confidence into the Wolf Pack like it did in 2005.
The crowds from three of the four home games this season have been pathetic. Most notably, the first and last games saw fewer than 15,000 fans. Just about 30,000 fans can fill the stadium, and what else is there to do on Friday night? Show up and be loud.
A cold and possibly snowy Mackay Stadium can do harm to the Warriors. They are a pass-oriented offense that ranks second in the nation to Texas Tech. Their running game ranks 113 of 118, averaging 73.25 yards per game. Snow can benefit Nevada because of its run offense, ranked 10th in the country.
Winning the last three games is the safest option to lock in a bowl game. The worst-case scenario, though, will be to treat next week’s contest as this year’s bowl game if Nevada can’t extend its season past Dec. 1.
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on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 1:07 am and is filed under Football, Sports.
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