The Nevada Sagebrush

Football: Another ESPN game vs. bad team on tap

By: Juan López

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 - 12:06 AM

The last time the Wolf Pack was on national TV (Oct. 9), it rolled up 345 rushing yards and a 23-point win against Louisiana Tech.

But honestly, I don’t think many people were impressed.

The Bulldogs were just 2-3 in Western Athletic Conference play and Nevada was supposed to wallop them.

This week, the Wolf Pack faces another date on national TV and, again, it comes against a bad opponent: San Jose State.

The Spartans are 0-3 in league play, which should make for an easy Sunday. But with a terrible foe comes the pressure of performance. A simple win isn’t enough here if Nevada wants to return to the national spotlight. All eyes will be on this game, especially considering the matchup, slated for a 5:30 p.m. kickoff, is the only college football game on Sunday.

DON’T DISAPPOINT

Many who follow Nevada football expect the Wolf Pack to leave San Jose, Calif. with a win by more than 40 points. And there’s no reason not to.

Nevada has won five straight games by an average of 19.2 points per game and leads the conference with a 4-0 mark.

The Spartans on the other hand, wouldn’t know the smell of victory if it farted downwind from them.

Although San Jose State isn’t the worst team in the WAC record-wise (Hawaii is 0-5), looking at the numbers reveals many truths. The Spartans are being outscored by about 35 to 15 points in their games this year, they allow 242.7 rushing yards per game (118th in the nation) and they’ve lost their last six WAC games dating back to last year.

There is no reason Nevada shouldn’t win this game, but because of the aforementioned information, the Wolf Pack needs to win big.

The voters who chime in for the national football polls obviously aren’t impressed by Nevada’s perfect conference record (the Wolf Pack did not receive a vote in any poll this week) and they definitely won’t like a slim win against a bad team.

BE READY FOR CRAZY CRAP

The Spartans have a small chance beating Nevada, an even smaller chance of making a bowl game and no shot at winning the WAC.

That being said, they have nothing to lose in Sunday’s game against the Wolf Pack. The Nevada defense should expect San Jose State to pull out plays which have only been used in practice. Reverses, half-back passes, even a statue-of-liberty play might be seen from the Spartans’ offense.

This is not to say San Jose State will definitely run crazy trick plays, but when a team has nothing to lose and its coaching staff knows it is on the hot seat, nothing will be too wild to run.

The Wolf Pack defense has steadily improved since the beginning of the year, but it is still prone to giving up big plays. Nevada’s defenders will be looking to capitalize on San Jose State’s sub-par offense, but they must remain disciplined.

There’s nothing more embarrassing than giving up long touchdown plays to one of the worst teams in the nation.

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