Santoro: Pack’s Wilson should know that ‘better’ is not good enough

Sports Fodder:

Ken Wilson once again is missing the point. He’s also missing a great opportunity to motivate his beleaguered Nevada Wolf Pack football program. Wilson should have already labeled this coming season as the “Chip on the Shoulder’’ season. He should have told everyone that listened last week at the Mountain West media gathering in Las Vegas and he should tweet it out every chance he gets. He should have T-shirts and hats printed with the “Chip on the Shoulder” message for all to see. He should tell everyone that his Wolf Pack is mad for being disrespected and basically ignored, that Nevada Wolf Pack football has a long history of success and tradition and has earned the benefit of the doubt that last year’s 2-10 season is a thing of the past. Wilson, as is his character, is saying nothing, firing nobody up and covering his backside once again. “I want us to be better,” Wilson said last week. “What that looks like I don’t know yet.” That is basically a second-year head coach riding a 10-game losing streak afraid to commit to anything. He’s not going to put a victory total on the 2023 season because, well, his team hasn’t won a game in 10 months. Wilson will tell us all at the end of the 2023 season that his team is better than it was in 2022 and all of his publicists will buy into it because Wilson, after all, will dictate the criteria for that improvement. Wilson, a lifelong assistant, has absolutely no idea on how to use the media to motivate his football team or his fan base. He has spent a coaching lifetime hiding in the shadows behind dynamic head coaches who were experts at using the media and firing up their teams. Wilson, it seems, wants to continue in his comfortable and anonymous shadow role.

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How disrespected has the Wolf Pack been this summer? The Mountain West media last week picked the Pack to finish 11th in the 12-team conference and also failed to put even one Pack player on its 27-spot All-Mountain West preseason team. If that doesn’t plant a gigantic chip on the shoulder of each Pack player and coach, well, then somebody needs to check the pulse of those players and coaches. We get it. Media preseason teams and predictions are not an indicator of what the season will look like. The media these days, especially in smaller conferences, is not what it used to be because of rampant staff and budget cutbacks the last 15 or so years. The media now, for the most part, is just a bunch of guys checking the internet each day for story ideas they can steal and present as their own. But the preseason teams and, especially, the predicted order of finish in a conference is a reflection of the national perspective of the conference. And the Pack is considered a Mountain West doormat, the place where everyone but New Mexico, UNLV, and Hawaii go to eat and get fat. This Pack team deserves better. This Pack team has talent. This Pack team has tradition. Last year, because an entire coaching staff left in the middle of the night (after the 2021 season) and handpicked players to take with them, is an aberration. The roster has been rebuilt. The shock of Colorado State’s pillaging and plundering of the Pack has worn off. This Pack team deserves more respect than it is getting.

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The Wolf Pack got the least amount of respect of any team in the conference last week at the Mountain West media party. Even UNLV, the only other team (along with the Pack) that didn’t get a player named to the preseason All-Mountain West team, received a first-place vote in the standings. Yes, of course, that alleged media member who picked UNLV to win the conference should never be allowed to vote ever again in such matters. The Rebels, after all, likely won’t even have the Fremont Cannon by season’s end, let alone a conference title. But the point, that even UNLV has some positive vibes right now, is well taken and the message is clear. There is nothing about the Wolf Pack right now that screams confidence, success, winning, grit and toughness. And that all starts with Wilson, who blends into the sideline during games like an empty Gatorade jug and chewed up mouthpiece. Wilson needs to fully understand that he is the head coach now. He needs to lead his football team and his staff. He needs to embrace that spotlight and not hide from it like he did as an assistant. He needs to start screaming to anyone who will listen that his disrespected football team intends to win the Mountain West this year. “Better” is the goal? How exciting. How can you not be better after a 2-10 season? Wilson, though, doesn’t even know what “better” will look like. How convenient. He mentioned “better” as being in shape and playing hard. How exciting. Does that mean the Pack wasn’t in shape or played hard last year? Whose fault is that?

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“Better “looks like success on the scoreboard. Go win games. That’s what better looks like to a fan base that doesn’t have any problem figuring out what to do on a Saturday afternoon or night that doesn’t include sitting in an uncomfortable, outdated stadium up on N. Virginia Street. The rest (being in shape, playing hard) is just a coach trying to save his job. Better looks like a hungry, angry team that won’t ever settle for simply being in shape or playing hard. It certainly won’t ever settle for losing. Now that players are getting paid, shouldn’t they at least be in shape and play hard? Getting paid means that playing college football is now your job. You are now a professional. Well, act like it. Produce results that everyone, and not just your friendly coach, can see.

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You know who will never settle for just playing hard and being in shape? Jay Norvell. Norvell almost melted down when his first Wolf Pack team in 2017 lost its first five games and eight of its first nine. When players started jumping off his Colorado State sinking ship last year, he told them good riddance and told everyone that his Rams were now a better football team because those players were gone. Norvell knows exactly what “better” looks like. It looks like an offense that passes the ball for 300-plus yards and three touchdowns every week. Norvell also knows that “great” looks like a team that passes for 500 yards and five touchdowns. Great also looks like a team that wins games. See the Wolf Pack starting in Week 10 of 2017 continuing through the end of the 2021 regular season when it won 32-of-50 games and was invited to four bowl games. Is Norvell a great college football coach? Of course not. But he knows how to act and sound like one. And because of that, so do his teams on occasion. He doesn’t blend into a sideline. He dominated that sideline. His teams are fun to watch, entertaining, and they win a lot of games. You know, just like the Wolf Pack used to be when Norvell was in town.

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The Mountain West is going back to a one-division format this year. The idea is to make sure the best two teams are in the conference title game, giving the winner the best chance at getting into a New Year’s Day bowl game and maybe even the College Football Playoff. The problem with a 12-team, one-division format is that the amount of meaningful games in November will be drastically reduced. In the past, with two six-team divisions, all teams with a pulse in November (basically everyone but New Mexico and UNLV) could fool its fan base going into late October and November that it still had a chance to win the division. Those days are over. If the preseason prognosticators are right, half the league will be out of the race by the middle of October. A couple more will disappear after the first weekend in November. If the preseason prognosticators are right, we could have Air Force meeting Boise State in the final week of the regular season on Nov. 24 and then again the following week on Dec. 2 in the league championship game. How exciting.

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The Mountain West might lose 11 of its first 15 games this season. The only four that the Mountain West will be likely favored in is San Diego State against Ohio and Idaho State; Air Force against Robert Morris; and UNLV against Bryant. Bryant, in case you are wondering if I am the media person who picked UNLV to win the Mountain West, is an FCS (Division I-AA) school that went 4-7 last year. The Mountain West schedule will lighten up considerably, with 8-10 wins in 11 games on Sept. 9, including Nevada over Idaho. The opponents that day also include Sam Houston, Cal Poly, Eastern Washington, Portland State, Tennessee Tech and Albany. Boise State should also beat Central Florida at Boise. San Diego State has a fighting chance against UCLA in San Diego. The only almost guaranteed Mountain West disaster that day will be UNLV at Michigan. Yes, I did write “almost,” so maybe I am that media person who picked the Rebels to win the Mountain West.