Nevada running back Devonte Lee runs through the New Mexico State line on Saturday.
A look ahead to Saturday afternoon’s (2:30 p.m.) non-conference football game between the Nevada Wolf Pack (1-0, 0-0) and Texas State Bobcats (0-0, 0-0) at Mackay Stadium:
How to watch, listen: Channel 21, 94.5 FM.
The spread: minus-1.
At stake for Nevada: A rookie head coach like Nevada’s Ken Wilson always wants to win his first game in front of the home crowd. But, more importantly, winning the first three games of the year against two struggling Football Bowl Subdivision programs (New Mexico State, Texas State) and a Football Championship Subdivision school (Incarnate Word) could be crucial to the Wolf Pack’s bowl game chances.
At stake for Texas State: Every game is important for Texas State, a program that was 4-8 overall and 3-5 in the West Division of the Sun Belt Conference last year and has won just 19 games over the last seven seasons combined.
Nevada last week: Nevada held off New Mexico State, 23-12, at Las Cruces, N.M. Toa Taua rushed for 109 yards and Devonte Lee scored two touchdowns on the ground as the Wolf Pack forced five Aggies turnovers.
Texas State last week: This is the Bobcats’ season opener.
The head coaches: Nevada’s Ken Wilson is hoping to become the first Pack coach to open his head coaching career with two victories since Chris Ault in 1976. Texas State’s Jake Spavital, 37, is 9-27 in three seasons as head coach. Spavital was the offensive coordinator for Texas A&M on Sept. 19, 2015, in a 44-27 victory over the Wolf Pack in front of a crowd of 102,591 at College Station, Texas. His quarterbacks that day were Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray. Spavital also coached quarterbacks Geno Smith at West Virginia in 2011-12 and Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M in 2013.
The rivalry: Nevada leads 1-0, winning 34-21 in San Marcos, Texas, on Sept. 29, 2012 as quarterback Cody Fajardo passed for 286 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 95 yards and another score. Running back Stefphon Jefferson also carried the ball 40 times for 178 yards. Wilson coached the Wolf Pack linebackers that day. Texas State, a Division I-AA school through 2011, was in the Western Athletic Conference in 2012 in its first season in Division I-A. Nevada, a former WAC member (2000-11), was in its first Mountain West season in 2012.
Armadillos to Bobcats: A college football movie titled “Necessary Roughness” was released in 1991 and featured the Texas State Fightin’ Armadillos. The Armadillos, though, have nothing to do with the Bobcats who will be at Mackay Stadium on Saturday. The movie, which featured model Kathy Ireland as a kicker, was actually filmed at the University of North Texas in Denton. The name Texas State was chosen for the movie because there was no Texas State in college football in 1991. The Bobcats, known as Southwest Texas State, wouldn’t change to Texas State until 2003.
What the Wolf Pack needs to do to win: The Wolf Pack beat New Mexico State last week with an ultra-conservative game plan, running the ball on 45 of its 68 plays and controlling the ball for nearly 32 minutes. Expect more of the same as the Pack sends running back Toa Taua right and left and Devonte Lee up the middle, forming sort of a two-headed version of Stefphon Jefferson in 2012. But if Texas State goes overboard in an attempt to stop the run, look for Wolf Pack quarterbacks Shane Illingworth and Nate Cox to air things out a bit more this week at home. It will also help, of course, if the Wolf Pack wins the turnover battle 5-0 like it did last week.
What the Bobcats need to do to win: Layne Hatcher transferred to the Bobcats this offseason after three years at Arkansas State and is expected to start at quarterback on Saturday. Hatcher passed for 7,427 yards and 65 touchdowns at Arkansas State. Texas State also returns its top two backs (Calvin Hill, Jahmyl Jeter) from a year ago. The 5-foot-7 Hill ran for 714 yards. The Bobcats need to control the Pack ground game and protect the football, two things New Mexico State didn’t do at all.
Wolf Pack questions that need answering: Does the Wolf Pack have any playmakers at wide receiver and tight end? How about at linebacker? Will quarterbacks Illingworth and Cox share the job all season long? Is the Wolf Pack secondary really as good as it looked last week (four interceptions) or was that just low-hanging fruit they picked at New Mexico State?
Prediction: Wolf Pack 34, Texas State 20. Mackay Stadium always covers up a lot of Wolf Pack sins and that alone should be enough for the Pack to hold off Texas State fairly easily. Texas State is 36-84 since becoming a Division I-A school, with just one winning season (7-5 in 2014). The Bobcats have also never been to a bowl game. This is a game the Wolf Pack would have won last year at home by four touchdowns. But this is 2022 and two touchdowns will be enough. Expect Wilson, who was taught the value of entertaining the home crowd by his mentor Chris Ault, to also allow quarterbacks Illingworth and Cox to have a bit more fun through the air this week.
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