Pack drops game, team leader
The Wolf Pack lost a tough battle Saturday against the Air Raid of No. 12 Texas Tech 35-19, but it may have been the loss of a team captain that will linger.
Nevada lost Luke Lippincott, who suffered an ACL injury, for the rest of the season.
“Luke is my boy,” Nevada safety Uche Anyanwu said. “He exemplifies everything it means to be a Nevada back.”
Lippincott led the Western Athletic Conference with 1,420 rushing yards last season and has been plugged the leader of the team by many of his teammates.
Lippincott red shirted his freshman season and is in his senior year, but coach Chris Ault said he would do whatever it took to have Lippincott return for one more year.
“You bet we are going to petition for next year,” Ault said. “I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t get him back for a sixth year. Everybody else in the country can get players back (in these situations).”
Ault is hoping an appeal to the NCAA, because of Lippincott’s injury occurring so early in the season, will allow the team captain to return for next season.
“He’s special,” Ault said. “It’s a huge blow. (Lippincott) is devastated.”
Lippincott had eight rushes and 36 yards before coming out of the game. Colin Kaepernick led Nevada rushers with 92 yards Saturday. Kaepernick also passed for 264 yards and competed 24 of 35 passes with an interception and touchdown.
The injury is tough to bear for a Wolf Pack team that came close to beating one of the toughest offenses in collegiate football history.
Nevada took a 15-14 lead with 9:37 left in the third quarter after quarterback Colin Kaepernick rushed into the end zone, but the play was reviewed and overturned. The referees ruled that Kaepernick fumbled the ball into the end zone. Texas Tech recovered the fumble and received a touchback.
“It was a close play,” Ault said. “(Kaepernick) thinks he got in, but everyone always says that.”
The Wolf Pack got the ball back, though, and later converted on Brett Jaekle’s fourth field goal of the game to narrow the deficit to 14-12.
Texas Tech would score a touchdown on an Eric Morris run to bring the lead to 21-12. Morris also started the Red Raiders scoring Saturday with an 86-yard punt return.
Texas Tech added to its lead with 11:34 left in the fourth quarter after quarterback, and 2007 NCAA passing leader, Graham Harrell connected for an 82-yard pass play to Michael Crabtree. It was the longest scoring play in the collegiate careers of both Harrell and Crabtree.
Despite the long catch for Crabtree, Nevada held Texas Tech to 299 yards passing, which is more than 200 yards less than it averaged last season and more than 300 yards less than it had in week one against Eastern Washington.
It was the red zone offense that hurt Nevada scoring most Saturday. The Wolf Pack could only manage three field goals on five trips into the red zone.
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on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Breaking News, Football, Sports.
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