Nevada Wolf Pack wins despite 42 second half points by Utah State

RENO - Home, apparently, means Nevada never loses a football game.

No matter how poorly it plays.

The Wolf Pack jumped out to a 35-0 halftime lead Saturday night at Mackay Stadium but had to hang on at the end for a 56-42 victory over the Utah State Aggies in front of 11,558 fans.

"Defensively speaking, I can't think of another time in my career that I've seen a group play a worst half of football," Pack coach Chris Ault said of his defense which allowed 42 points in the second half.

The Aggies had scored a total of 37 points in their first three Western Athletic Conference games this year, all losses.

"I don't know what happened in the second half," Pack linebacker Kevin Grimes said. "We had the right mindset but we just didn't execute. We obviously aren't where we should be right now."

Utah State, now 2-6 overall and 0-4 in the WAC, piled up 392 yards of offense in the second half after getting just 98 in the opening half.

"There are no excuses for it," Ault said. "The disappointing thing is not that they scored on us. They are allowed to move the ball. The disappointing thing is that we didn't make the proper adjustments. We didn't play with a sense of urgency defensively."

Now for the good news.

The victory was the Wolf Pack's 10th in a row at home dating back to last season and also made them bowl eligible at 7-1 overall and 2-1 in the WAC. And, oh yeah, the offense scored 56 points and rolled up 596 total yards.

"The offense had a great rebound from (two weeks ago) against Hawaii," said Ault of the 27-21 loss at Honolulu.

The Pack played the game with starting running back Vai Taua on the bench, the result of an ankle injury suffered against Hawaii.

"Vai could have played and played very well," Ault said. "We just wanted to keep him out if it wasn't 100 percent."

Taua's backups played and played very well. Mike Ball scored three touchdowns and rushed for 58 yards on six carries, Courtney Randall had 93 yards on 17 carries and Lampford Mark had 52 yards on 10 carries as the Pack rushed for 387 yards and six scores.

"It's like we always say," quarterback Colin Kaepernick said. "We have a stable of running backs. And our offensive line just pushed people off the ball all night."

Kaepernick also had a big night, running for 102 yards and a touchdown and throwing for 190 and two touchdowns. The senior, though, sat out 11 plays in the first half as Ault benched him in favor of backup Tyler Lantrip.

"Kap just wasn't seeing some things their defense was doing that I wanted him to see," Ault said.

"Sometimes it's good to step back and see what they are doing," Kaepernick said.

The Wolf Pack dominated both sides of the ball in cruising to its 35-0 halftime lead.

Ball scored twice in the opening half, catching an 8-yard pass from Kaepernick to open the scoring and strolling into the end zone on a 5-yard run with 1:35 left for a 35-0 lead to close the first-half scoring.

All of Kaepernick's rushing yards came in the opening half. And 59 of them came on one touchdown run to give the Pack a 28-0 lead with 2:18 to play in the second quarter.

It was Lantrip, though, who extended the Pack lead to 21-0 early in the second quarter. Lantrip entered the game late in the first quarter and promptly scored on a 13-yard run on his second play.

NEVADA 56, UTAH ST. 42

Utah St. 0 0 21 21 - 42

Nevada 14 21 14 7 - 56

First Quarter

Nev-Ball 8 pass from Kaepernick (Martinez kick), 9:11.

Nev-Lantrip 13 run (Martinez kick), 3:45.

Second Quarter

Nev-Mark 5 run (Martinez kick), 10:00.

Nev-Kaepernick 59 run (Martinez kick), 2:18.

Nev-Ball 5 run (Martinez kick), 1:35.

Third Quarter

USU-Lloyd 15 pass from Borel (Caldwell kick), 10:00.

Nev-Ball 35 run (Martinez kick), 8:00.

USU-Borel 1 run (Caldwell kick), 5:30.

Nev-Hale 20 pass from Kaepernick (Martinez kick), 2:02.

USU-Marshall 3 run (Caldwell kick), :06.

Fourth Quarter

USU-Watkins 15 pass from Borel (Caldwell kick), 11:01.

USU-K.Williams 7 run (Caldwell kick), 2:23.

Nev-Randall 1 run (Martinez kick), 1:07.

USU-K.Williams 92 kickoff return (Caldwell kick), :55.

A-11,558.

USU Nev

First downs 27 30

Rushes-yards 37-91 55-387

Passing 399 209

Comp-Att-Int 24-39-0 12-18-0

Return Yards 0 33

Punts-Avg. 5-38.4 2-42.5

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-0

Penalties-Yards 7-69 9-74

Time of Possession 27:32 32:28

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-Utah St., Speight 17-51, Borel 12-20, Marshall 4-10, K.Williams 3-7, Watkins 1-3. Nevada, Kaepernick 8-102, Randall 17-93, Ball 6-58, Mark 10-52, Lantrip 7-33, Shepherd 2-22, Hale 4-15, Matthews 1-12.

PASSING-Utah St., Borel 24-38-0-399, Watkins 0-1-0-0. Nevada, Kaepernick 10-15-0-190, Lantrip 2-3-0-19.

RECEIVING-Utah St., Watkins 6-82, Bartlett 5-121, K.Williams 4-63, Moats 3-41, Van Leeuwen 2-52, Lloyd 1-15, Speight 1-9, Marshall 1-8, M.Morgan 1-8. Nevada, Shepherd 5-54, Matthews 2-63, Session 1-45, Hale 1-20, Patterson 1-11, Ball 1-8, Wimberly 1-8.