Nevada football coach Ken Wilson, shown during the team’s spring game in April 2022.
Photo by Steve Ranson.
Ken Wilson has the easiest debut for a Nevada Wolf Pack football head coach in nearly 50 years. The last five coaches to make their Wolf Pack head coaching debut (Jeff Horton in 1993, Jeff Tisdel in 1996, Chris Tormey in 2000, Brian Polian in 2013 and Jay Norvell in 2017) all had to go on the road and face a Power Five school in their first game. They basically were given their long-awaited heavyweight title shot but also were required to take a dive in order to help pay the bills. Welcome to Nevada, boys. All of them, to nobody’s surprise, lost their first game (Horton at Wisconsin, Tisdel and Tormey at Oregon, Polian at UCLA and Norvell at Northwestern).
Wilson, though, should break that trend. His inviting Welcome Wagon debut will come at New Mexico State next Saturday (Aug. 27) in Las Cruces. The Aggies are an independent Football Bowl Subdivision school that went 2-10 last year and 0-7 against Mountain West teams. The Pack pounded them 55-28 at Mackay Stadium. The mighty Aggies have gone 0-13 against the Mountain West over the last four seasons. That chuckling you just heard came out of UNLV.
The last Wolf Pack head coach to make his debut against such a welcoming opponent was, of course, Chris Ault in 1976 against Cal State Hayward at Mackay Stadium. That was also, not coincidentally, the last time a Wolf Pack head coach made his Nevada debut with a victory. Make that the last time a Wolf Pack head coach was allowed to debut with a victory.
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Wilson, however, could make Pack history next Saturday in lovely Las Cruces as the first Pack head coach in school history to debut with a victory on the road. Hey, we know it’s not much but you take your history where you can get it at Nevada.
But before you start planning a parade down Virginia Street, keep in mind that just six Wolf Pack head coaches before Wilson have ever had to debut on the road. R.E. Courtright was the first, losing in Berkeley, Calif., to the Cal Freshmen in 1919. The last five were Horton, Tisdel, Tormey, Polian and Norvell, who all debuted in the era when the Pack was more interested in earning a big, fat paycheck than starting out a new head coach’s career with a confidence-building victory.
Wilson, though, could also become the first Pack head coach to win his first three games. Even Ault went 2-1 in 1976.
But don’t blame Wilson for the easy schedule to start his first season in Nevada as head coach. The first three games this fall (New Mexico State on the road followed by home games against Texas State and Incarnate Word ) were all arranged by the Committee to Protect Jay Norvell Campaign that existed at Nevada the last five years. Those three opponents, by the way, were the only thing Norvell left behind when he abandoned the program.
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Where does Wilson rank right now among current Mountain West head coaches? Given his lack of head coaching experience (none) you have to stick him in the bottom four along with Hawaii’s Timmy Chang, New Mexico’s Danny Gonzales and UNLV’s Marcus Arroyo.
Chang, like Wilson, will make his head coaching debut this year while Gonzales has a record of 5-14 in two seasons and Arroyo is 2-16. So, yes, Wilson, Arroyo, Gonzales and Chang aren’t exactly the Mountain West’s version of the Fab Four right now.
The Mountain West media recently picked Nevada, UNLV and Hawaii to occupy the bottom three spots in the West Division while New Mexico was picked to finish dead last in the Mountain Division. That’s not a coincidence, given the four head coaches’ lack of success so far.
Wilson, like Chang, is a former Nevada assistant. He is also a former Oregon assistant, like Arroyo. And a former New Mexico assistant like Gonzales. Who will be the first one in this dubious Fab Four to get a second contract as a head coach? Will any of them do it?
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Which Mountain West team has the most realistic chance this season to make the biggest jump and become the surprise team of the conference? There are really just two candidates. You can eliminate Utah State, Air Force, San Diego State and Fresno State because, well, they all had tremendous seasons a year ago and don’t have much room to improve. Fresno State and Air Force both went 10-3, Utah State went 11-3 and won the conference title and San Diego State went 12-2.
Nevada (8-5 a year ago) and Hawaii (7-6) are expected to decline this year because of rookie head coaches and rosters that were gutted while Wyoming (7-6), New Mexico (3-9), UNLV (2-10) and San Jose State (5-7) seem destined to repeat what they did a year ago.
That leaves Colorado State and Boise State as the two most likely teams in the conference to make the biggest leap this year. Colorado State, which went 3-9 in 2021, believes it has finally gotten the right head coach and offense in Jay Norvell and the Air Raid (stop laughing, Pack fans). The Rams should win at least eight games this year. Boise State went 7-5 last year and, well, nothing short of 10-2 will be accepted this year.
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This could be a key weekend for the Wolf Pack’s 2022 NFL class that consists of Carson Strong, Romeo Doubs and Cole Turner.
Turner, who seems like a lock to make the Washington Commanders’ 53-man roster, did not play in last week’s 23-21 preseason loss to the Carolina Panthers because of a leg injury. He is expected to take part in Saturday’s game against Kansas City if he survives a week of practices.
Strong, who was not injured last week, didn’t play in the Philadelphia Eagles’ 24-21 loss to the New York Jets. Strong, though, is expected to play in Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns because starter Jalen Hurts is not expected to play at all. Strong, according to most reports coming out of the Eagles’ camp, has fallen to No 4 on the depth chart behind Hurts, Gardner Minshew and Reid Sinnett. “The undrafted rookie (Strong) was having a poor training camp,” reported CBSSports.com this week. “Strong’s stock is as low as it can get right now.”
Doubs also had an up and down performance in the Green Bay Packers’ 28-21 loss at San Francisco last weekend. He did catch three passes for 45 yards, including a 33-yard touchdown. But he also dropped two passes, a fact that Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers didn’t forget to mention this week. One of Doubs’ drops came on what Rodgers described as “my best throw of the day.” The other drop resulted in an interception. “That was not a great route and not a great finish by Romeo,” said Rodgers of the Doubs’ drop that resulted in an interception. “If you keep dropping the ball you’re not going to be out there.”
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Not much is known yet about what the Wolf Pack football team will look like this year. The roster, after all, was gutted by transfers, graduation and the NFL after the 2021 season, especially on offense. But Wilson and his staff have restocked the roster with new and promising faces, taking full advantage of the transfer portal. That alone should give Pack fans reason for hope.
Transfers from four-year schools, after all, have treated the Pack very well in the past, even before the transfer portal era. Among the great Pack players of the past that came to Reno as transfers from four-year schools are Stan Heath (Wisconsin), Horace Gillom (Ohio State), Marion Motley (South Carolina State), Ed Sharkey (Duke), Tommy Kalmanir (Pittsburgh), Dick Trachok (Pittsburgh), Elston Ridgle (Northern Arizona), Pat Brady (Bradley), Buster McClure (Drake), Doug Betters (Montana), Dan Orlich (Penn State and Northwestern), Sherman Howard (Iowa), Rabbit Bradshaw (Illinois), John Dutton (Texas) and Dick Afflis (Purdue).
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