Santoro: Pack must pick a QB and build around him

The Nevada Wolf Pack football season will come down to the quarterback position. This statement, of course, will surprise nobody except maybe Wolf Pack head coach Ken Wilson. Wilson, after all, went through the entire 2022 season by treating the position as if it was about as important as the fifth tuba in the Wolf Pack Marching Band. It must be noted that the band, known as the Pride of the Sierra, was usually the most entertaining part of the 2022 season. That’s because nobody, most notably Wilson, took pride or ownership of the quarterback position last year. It was a Shane Illingworth-Nate Cox two-headed, no-arm, no leadership robot that produced just 185 passing yards a game and a mere seven touchdowns all year.

A total of 185 yards a game through the air might not sound like a complete disaster but don’t forget the Pack was usually down by two touchdowns by the end of the first quarter. The Pack offense averaged just under 19 points and 305 yards a game. At times it looked like the tuba players could have thrown for more touchdowns just by belting out a note at just the right time.

This year the offense will likely be put in the hands of quarterbacks Brendon Lewis and Illingworth. Lewis came to the Pack this past December from Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes housecleaning while Illingworth escaped Oklahoma State after the 2021 season. Both of them have enough talent to lead a team to a Mountain West championship, if placed in an offense that takes advantage of those talents and actually uses them. But that all depends on Wilson and his staff.

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Lewis offers an intriguing package of abilities that once caught the eye of Nebraska, Kansas, Texas Tech, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Washington State, Missouri, Boston College, Syracuse and others. Even Nevada, when Jay Norvell was the head coach, offered the 6-foot-2 Lewis a scholarship before the 2018 season. Wilson was a linebackers coach at Washington State when the Cougars offered Lewis in 2019 and current UNLV head coach Barry Odom was Missouri’s head coach in May 2018 when the Tigers wanted Lewis.

Did Lewis come to Nevada from Colorado simply to stand on the sidelines and watch Illingworth play? Did Illingworth come to Nevada from Oklahoma State to stand on the sidelines and watch Nate Cox last year and now Lewis this year? Well, if this Pack offense is finally going to blossom one of those scenarios might have to become reality.

Wilson acted like a let’s-make-everyone-happy (except the fans and boosters) coach last year by bouncing back and forth between Illingworth and Cox. And everyone suffered. Is he going to do the same this year with Illingworth and Lewis? It’s time Wilson and his staff pick a starting quarterback, mold the offense around that quarterback’s specific strengths and stick with him. They need to show that quarterback some confidence so that quarterback can show his team some confidence. Quarterbacks (and their offenses), after all, can’t mature if they resemble a lost freshman who can’t find his science and math classes.

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The best college football quarterback in the state of Nevada right now is UNLV’s Doug Brumfield. Brumfield was 164-of-254 for 1,898 yards, 10 touchdowns and five interceptions for UNLV last year in roughly just eight games. He also ran for 261 yards and six touchdowns. He might be a sleeper pick for the Mountain West’s Offensive Player of the Year this year if things go the way the Rebels desire.

Rebel coach Barry Odom has his team playing an up-tempo, rapid-fire offense that is designed to basically exhaust opposing defenses. It could take the defense-less Mountain West by storm. Things, however, rarely go the way the Rebels desire. The last time things went the way the Rebels wanted them to go at the quarterback position might have been Randall Cunningham in the early 1980s.

Brumfield, though, looked like a poor man’s version of Cunningham to open the 2022 season, leading the Rebels to a 4-1 record. He then got hurt and played more than a cameo appearance in just three more games. The Rebels beat the Pack basically without him. The 6-foot-5 Brumfield has already been named the Rebels’ starter and should be on the field when UNLV comes to Mackay Stadium on Oct. 14 with a red Fremont Cannon.

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Lewis, who has four years of eligibility remaining, might win the Pack job, succeed on the field and then jump right back into the transfer portal. Illingworth might do the same. The guy who sits all year will also likely be portal bound. It’s what college athletes do these days. It’s what Lewis and Illingworth have already done. They know the drill. The already left big-time football factories via the transfer portal. You don’t think they would do the same with Nevada in the rear view mirror? Think again.

College athletes are now individual businesses always looking to maximize their profits. The only thing Nevada can offer Lewis and Illingworth is playing time. That’s important for both quarterbacks right now and that is the only reason they are here. The careers of both Illingworth and Lewis are at a huge crossroads. They were both highly-recruited prospects in high school who failed to convince their Power Five school to give them playing time. But the beauty of college sports now is that players get numerous opportunities. Failure is not a destination anymore. It’s just a rest area.

Lewis and Illingworth, right now, are signing day busts, quarterbacks that didn’t justify the hype at their Power five schools. But Nevada is their second chance. Nevada can get them both back where they want to be, at a Power Five school that can offer a huge NIL deal and a high profile bowl game. It would be surprising if at least one of them isn’t back in the portal six months from now.

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Entire college football programs also have an unofficial transfer portal these days. Colorado just announced it is leaving the Pac-12 after this season to join the Big 12. That means, as things stand now, the rotting-on-the-vine Pac-12 will only have nine football schools heading into 2024. But that’s not going to happen. Expect San Diego State to reverse its field sometime soon by announcing it is finally joining the Pac-12. The Pac-12 is now desperate. Arizona and Arizona State might also jump to the Big 12 soon. Even Oregon is getting jumpy. Utah, too, has a wandering eye as does Washington.

Maybe the Pac-12 will simply raid the Mountain West, grabbing San Diego State, Boise State, UNLV, Fresno State and maybe Colorado State, UNLV and San Jose State. Nobody truly knows how this will all shake out. The Pac-12 still doesn’t know what hit them. No Power Five program, apparently, wants to join the Pac-12. The Pac-12 and Mountain West could be old west ghost towns with more tumbleweeds blowing down the street a year from now.

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What about Nevada? Well, what about Nevada? If Chris Ault was still athletic director you can be sure he would have made four dozen calls already to the Pac-12. Ault was always ahead of the curve, at times even creating the curve. His never-stop-moving philosophy went back to his days as a rookie head coach when he basically forced the Pack to join the Big Sky Conference. As athletic director he moved the Pack from the Big Sky to the Big West to the Western Athletic Conference to the Mountain West. He made sure Nevada was never left behind like a broken picture frame in the bins at Goodwill. Right now Nevada is a picture frame nobody wants. It is being left behind.

Do you want the Pack in a Mountain West that doesn’t include San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State, UNLV and others? Who would watch that? Who would want to play in a Mountain West that doesn’t have those teams? If the two Arizonas, Utah, Oregon and others leave the Pac-12, then the Mountain West and Pac-12 have only one option. Merge.

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The Pac-12 is about to become meaningless in the world of big-time college football. It was basically meaningless with USC, UCLA and Colorado. Without them, well, San Diego State isn’t going to fix the problem. But the Pac-12 will survive in some fashion. We’re not so sure about the Mountain West, especially after the Pac-12 vultures are finished chewing at the Mountain West’s healthiest bones. The Mountain West knows all about the role of a vulture. It, after all, did the same to the WAC a decade or so ago. WAC football is now an old west cemetery.

If the Pac-12 starts picking off the likes of San Diego State, Boise State and maybe even UNLV, Colorado State and Fresno State (the schools with the best stadiums and fan bases) then the Mountain West will become the Big Sky on steroids. The Wolf Pack can’t just sit back and see how it all shakes out.

The meek doesn’t inherit the earth in college football. It ends up playing Sacramento State, Montana State, Portland State, Idaho State and Weber State on a weekly basis in front of 7,500 fans.