The Nevada Sagebrush

Pack plays ‘best game of the year’ in eight-touchdown win over Spartans

By: Juan López

Sunday, November 8, 2009 - 11:33 PM

Click to enlarge - Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick rushed for three touchdowns and three for another in the Wolf Pack's 62-7 win over San Jose State on Sunday night. Photo by Casey Durkin/The Nevada Sagebrush

Nevada football head coach Chris Ault is rarely satisfied with a win.

The 25-year head coach is one to always one to look for imperfections when his team wins.

He couldn’t find many when assessing his team’s 62-7 win over San Jose State on Sunday night at Spartan Stadium.

“I thought we played our best game of the year tonight,” he said after the game. “Especially on the road. This was critical. San Jose, who has played some tough teams this year like we have, we certainly weren’t going to intimidate them.”

The Wolf Pack (6-3, 5-0 Western Athletic Conference) dominated the Spartans (1-7, 0-4 WAC) from start to finish, outgaining them 136 yards to one after one quarter and holding them to just 30 rushing yards.

While Nevada said it played its best game of the season, San Jose State head coach Dick Tomey adamantly stated this was the exact opposite for him and his crew.

“I need to apologize because that was the worst football game we’ve played in the five years that I’ve been here,” he said. “That’s a terrible reflection on me as a head coach, the rest of the coaching staff and our players. I’ve never witnessed an effort like that.”

The statistic that most obviously illustrates the domination is that Nevada had four players rush for more than 100 yards, making it only the sixth school in NCAA history to achieve such a feat. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick (115) and running backs Vai Taua (144), Lampford Mark (114) and Luke Lippincott (112) all broke the 100-yard barrier.

“It just reinforces the fact that we’ve been saying all year that we have such good depth at the running back position,” Lippincott said about the feat. “We expect that much from Lampford Mark. We expect him to do as well as Vai does, we expect me to do as well as Vai does — that just proves how good our running game is.”

On the defensive side, the Wolf Pack, who remained in first place in the WAC, was just as good. Nevada forced San Jose State into a three and out on its first three possessions and didn’t allow a Spartans first down until midway in the second quarter. The Wolf Pack defense managed to get three sacks and force two turnovers, but the shutout eluded it early in the fourth quarter when San Jose State scored on a one-yard touchdown run by running back Patrick Perry.

“I’m disappointed (we didn’t get the shutout), but at the same time we still had a great game,” said Nevada defensive end Dontay Moch, who had one sack and two tackles for loss in the game.

The Wolf Pack’s third unit (special teams) also performed well, holding San Jose State to just 17.1 yards per kickoff return.

With its sixth win in a row in the books, Nevada will next face Fresno State (6-3, 5-1 WAC) at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday at Mackay Stadium.

STATS:

Nevada:

QB Colin Kaepernick: 9-for-14, 122 yards, one touchdown. 11 carries, 115 yards, three touchdowns.

RB Vai Taua: 12 carries, 144 yards.

RB Lampford Mark: 17 carries, 114 yards.

RB Luke Lippincott: 12 carries, 112 yards, two touchdowns.

San Jose State:

QB Jordan La Secla: 19-for-28, 226 yards, one interception.

WR Kevin Jurovich: six catches, 110 yards.

LB Travis Jones: 13 tackles.

NOTES:

–Nevada became just the sixth school in NCAA history to have four running backs eclipse the 100-yard mark in one game. Others are Arizona State in 1951, Texas in 1969, Alabama in1973 and Nebraska in 2001.

–This was the third straight game in which both Taua and Kaepernick had rushed for more than 100 yards each.

–Firsts: Nevada wide receiver L.J. Washington started his first career game and scored his first career touchdown in the third quarter. Wolf Pack cornerback Khalid Wooten intercepted his first career pass in the game.

–The 55-point win was the largest margin of victory in a road win in Ault’s career.

–The win came on Ault’s 63rd birthday.

–With three rushing touchdowns, Kaepernick now has 35 in his career which is tied for fourth all time in Wolf Pack history.

–Kaepernick is 16th all-time in NCAA history in rushing yards by a quarterback (2,643).

–In its 10 possessions, Nevada scored nine touchdowns and missed a field goal.

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