Bar was set too high for Nevada

By: Juan López

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 - 1:23 AM

Juan López

Loading ...

The saying “shot ourselves in the foot” was used so many times at Monday’s football practice, I started looking down at the Wolf Pack football players and coaches to see if any of them still had their toes left.

Nevada is coming off of a second-straight lopsided road loss, this one to Colorado State with a score of 35-20.

The “shot ourselves in the foot” phrase was used to describe the countless mental mistakes the Wolf Pack committed. On Saturday against the Rams, Nevada turned the ball over five times and committed 11 penalties.

Seven of those penalties were what football head coach Chris Ault calls, “illegal procedure penalties.” Oh no, don’t let him fool you that easily. Those are false start penalties. For those not too keen on football terminology, a false start is when your team has the ball and you move before the ball is snapped.

This is strictly a mental thing. And when it comes to preparation, the first person blamed is the coach, in this case, Ault.

Serious calls for this man’s firing are being made and their feelings are understandable.

The Wolf Pack embarrassed itself on national TV on Sept. 5 against Notre Dame and it looked even worse against Colorado State, which was picked to finish sixth in the Mountain West Conference.

But after the loss and seeing the Wolf Pack down 35-6 late in the fourth quarter against the Rams, I began to think maybe the bar set prior to the season was too high.

We started hearing Nevada’s name being mentioned on ESPN, Colin Kaepernick’s name being thrown around as a possible Heisman Trophy candidate and we got caught up.

It got me, too.

I attended the fall practices in which the Wolf Pack looked to be unbeatable (maybe this was because they were playing each other), I spoke to the confident players and heard the ESPN analysts say Nevada had one of the best offenses in the nation and I got wrapped up.

Even after the Wolf Pack lost to Notre Dame, I was one of the few who thought we just had a bad game against a very good team.

But, Nevada, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

The expectations and hype around this football season were monumental. The only way the team could’ve met those expectations was by having a one-loss season and demolishing Notre Dame and Colorado State along the way.

I don’t think you can ever expect enough from someone, but, as a collective group, we raised the bar to an unreachable height.

SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH KAEPERNICK

I didn’t get to watch Nevada’s game against Colorado State, but just hearing the way people talked about Kaepernick and remembering how he did against Notre Dame just tells me that there’s something not right with him this season.

Before this season, Kaepernick had thrown just 10 interceptions in 630 pass attempts. This year, he’s already thrown four picks in just 61 passes.

He’s fumbled the ball away twice this season and is averaging just 3.7 yards per carry.

He and Ault will never admit it, but something’s not right here.

I thought long and hard about this and it may have something to do with how he changed his arm angle during the summer.

Before this year, Kaepernick had a trademark sidearm throwing motion. It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective.

During the offseason, I noticed he moved his throwing angle up a few inches (it went from about horizontal to almost diagonal to his midsection).

I hope that hasn’t messed him up, because I’ve read horror stories where coaches try to change a quarterback’s arm angle and end up ruining the kid’s football future.

Say it ain’t so, Kaep.

Whatever it is, everything is not all gravy with Kaepernick. Nevada needs its knight in shining armor to step his game up — drastically.

Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com.

Tags: COACH CHRIS AULT, COLIN KAEPERNICK
Posted under: Football, Sports

2 Responses to “Bar was set too high for Nevada”

Ryan says: September 23rd, 2009 at 9:59 am

Nice article but I have to disagree. I was optimistic about this season with the returning starters and decent season last year. I was never caught up in the hype of the team be a BCS buster, top offence, etc. With that said, I expected the Pack to at the very least be competitive in the Norte Dame game. Then you have 2 weeks to prepare for an average Colorado St. team and get embarrassed there? To me, not being prepared and all the metal mistakes are poor coaching. I am sick of all the excuses and hearing about “hall of fame coach” Chris Ault. Maybe if he spend more time on the defense instead of all his gadget offense formation we would have a better chance. Poor play calling, horrible clock management, and countless other mistakes.
The WAC has been a solid football conference over the last 6-8 years. Boise and Hawaii go to BCS games. Fresno state ranked and always play well against any opponent. What do all those schools have in common? A great coach at the time. Coaches that understand how to use their strengths.

Report this comment

MIKE says: September 26th, 2009 at 1:18 pm

In my opinion, the bar is never set too high. There is a lot of excuses for this seasons football failure. Coach Ault has to gooo!!!! I don’t care if was a Hall of Fame Coach!!!! This is a reflection of the University of Nevada’s Reno mentality which is 20 to 30 years behind the rest of the country like the University of Florida, USC, CAL, Ohio State, etc. We don’t get the best players in the country and we don’t support the schools athletic program. This is reaaallll sickening!!!!! We play a stupid pistol style offense in which everyone else plays a pro-style set!!!! We are a Casino town but none of the alumni and boosters do not support this program!!!!! I think this school has to start thinking in the long term for everyone to take us seroiusly as a sports program!!!!!!!

Report this comment

Share: