Santoro: Pack has been selling its ‘Big Lie’ for 30 years

Sports Fodder:

The time has come for the Nevada Wolf Pack to finally admit that it has been lying to us all these years. We are now in Season 32 of the Wolf Pack Big Lie. Some of you weren’t even born yet when the lie began. It all started in the fall of 1992, in a simpler time of college football that had promises of endless television money and bowl games. The Wolf Pack, quicker than you can say “Chris Ault,” gladly gave up its status as an elite Division I-AA team, competing for national championships, to become a Division I-A doormat, a schedule-filler for the endless cable and satellite networks. The Pack, of course, wasn’t ready for the jump. But that was OK. “Be patient,” they told us. “It will take some time. But it won’t be long before your Wolf Pack is competing with the big boys of college football. Your Wolf Pack, after all, has outgrown the Idahos, Weber States and Montana States of the world.” We all bought into it. Well, it turns out, the Pack never did outgrow the Idahos, Montana States and Weber States of the world. And it still isn't ready for the jump to big-boy football. We found that out once and for all this past Saturday when Idaho splattered the Pack all over Mackay Stadium and went back home to little Moscow, Idaho, with a 33-6 victory. The Pack can’t even compete with mediocre Division I-AA teams anymore at home. So, yes, you can argue that the Wolf Pack is worse than it was back in 1992. Those teams of the early 1990s, after all, actually had an offense that could find the end zone. But we all bought into the 1992 lie so completely that we all refused to see the warning signs the last three decades. Remember the 2017 loss to Idaho State? There was the loss to Incarnate Word last year. What about the narrow, white-knuckle victories over Cal Poly in 2018 and Southern Utah in 2003 and 2014? Even Eastern Washington made the greatest team in Nevada history in 2010 sweat for a few moments. The ugly secret of the Big Lie is that the Wolf Pack sold its soul for financial reasons in 1992, abandoning the hope of ever winning a meaningful championship ever again. Now we’d even settle for beating a Division I-AA team at home.

•••

The Wolf Pack, if it could ever put its ego aside and admit to everyone that the 1992 experiment was a failure, should now start thinking about returning to the Big Sky Conference and Division I-AA. Some of you remember the Big Sky years, when the games were exciting and meaningful, and a national title was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It was fun. You remember fun, right? The Pack would return to its fun years with a move back to the Big Sky. Idaho did it back in 2018 after two decades (1996-2017) of masquerading as a Division I-A school and trying to keep up with Boise State. The Vandals looked themselves in the mirror, didn’t like what they saw (greed can cause wrinkles, gray hair and nervous twitches), and went back to the Big Sky. And now they are slaughtering Mountain West teams. Well, one Mountain West team. Going back to the Big Sky, of course, is never going to happen at Nevada. So don't worry. The athletic director likes making $2.5 million over five years and the head football and men’s basketball coach likes making a million bucks a year. Hey, making money in Division I-A is easy. All you have to do is play a dozen football games, roughly 30 men’s basketball games and your athletic director, football and basketball coaches can become instant millionaires. You don’t even have to win all that many games. All you have to do is show up for the kickoff and tip-off. Yes, you have to keep lying to your naïve fan base. But that, too, is easy. Just ask them for some NIL money, make them feel like they can help you buy players, keep telling the lie and all will be fine in the end. And everyone gets rich. Except the frustrated fans.

•••

The Pack, it is now becoming clear, is farther away from winning a national title now than it was in 1992. There wasn’t, after all, any NIL money in 1992. All of the cheating back in 1992 had to be done behind closed doors. Yes, it required a lack of character on the part of the head coach. But there was a skill to it. Now it is done out in the open for all to see. Anyone can do it, you know, if your fan base is full of deep-pocketed boosters with nothing better to do with their money than give it to spoiled, 18-year-old, overhyped high school players. The Pack simply cannot compete now. Yes, they are at the grown-ups table now in college football. But the table they are sitting at is in the barn while the big-money NIL schools are at the table in the dining room in the mansion. Nobody believes the Pack lie anymore. The only pot of the gold at the end of the rainbow for Nevada now is simply an occasional win against a mediocre big-money NIL school (see Oregon State in 2018, Washington State in 2014, Cal in 2010 and 2012, Northwestern in 2006) and a spot in the Who Cares? Bowl. Winning thrilling Division I-AA playoff games and competing for a true national title back in the day before 1992? Nobody wants that, right?

•••

Do you think the movers and shakers of the Big Ten and Big 12 looked at all the teams they wanted to steal from the Pac-12 and asked them, “OK, who among you has lost to the Nevada Wolf Pack this century?” Washington State, Cal and Oregon State then had to sheepishly raise their hands and the Big Ten and Big 12 power brokers immediately said, “Well, thanks for coming. We’ll get back to you.” Washington State, Cal and Oregon State (and Stanford, which wouldn’t even stoop so low as to play Nevada this century) were the only schools the Big Ten and Big 12 didn’t want from the Pac-12. Coincidence?

•••

How did Nevada football get this bad so quickly? A 12-game losing streak? Getting blown out at home by a Big Sky team? Did you ever think you’d see that happen at Nevada? It was just two years ago, after all, that the Wolf Pack had one of the best offenses in the nation and was competing for a Mountain West title. Head coach Ken Wilson has been in charge of the Pack football program for roughly 20 months. He’s won two games and lost a dozen. He has lost to two Division I-AA teams at home. Yes, those I-AA teams were just as talented and maybe more talented than Nevada. But whose fault is that? It can’t all be Jay Norvell’s fault. The time for excuses and blaming the former coach and the fan base (for not donating billions of NIL dollars) is over. It’s time for this coaching staff to hold itself accountable. That Wolf Pack team we all saw at Mackay Stadium on Saturday was not well-coached. It was not prepared. It wasn’t equipped with a legitimate game plan. This program is not getting better. Pack fans deserve better than this. Those players deserve better from their coaches.

•••

Wilson is not going to be fired anytime soon. He is just in the second year of a five-year, $4.75-million deal. The Pack simply cannot eat the final three years of a deal like that. Does Wilson have the guts to fire any of his assistants, many of whom are his buddies from Washington State, Oregon and Nevada? Does he truly care about Nevada, or does he simply care about his buddies? A head coach is only as good as his coordinators. And, so far, Wilson’s coordinators are failing him. The Pack couldn’t even score a touchdown against a I-AA team at home. This is a school that has had one of the best offenses in the nation more often than not since the 1940s. In just the last decade or so, though, the Pack has gone from the Pistol to the Air Raid to the Walking Dead. Former coach Chris Ault would have fired his offensive coordinator at halftime on Saturday. Maybe it's time Ault, who is Wilson's football father, has a long talk with his football son.

•••

The hope, of course, is that the Idaho loss is the wakeup call Wilson and his staff need. Or will Wilson and the Pack simply hit the snooze button and go back to sleep? Are we just going to suffer through a slow death of the football program that will result in a losing culture before Wilson is finally, mercifully fired after the 2025 or 2026 season? When you hit rock bottom, after all, you are supposed to pick yourself up, get mad and start climbing upward. The Pack is at rock bottom right now. The rock bottom moment for Jay Norvell was an embarrassing 54-3 loss at home to Hawaii in the fifth game of the 2019 season. Norvell, who behind the smile and soft, friendly voice is a tenacious fighter, grabbed his program by the ears after that loss to Hawaii. It took a few games for the change to be seen on the field (he changed quarterbacks and started calling the offensive plays), but that Pack team beat San Jose State, Fresno State, San Diego State and New Mexico after the loss to Hawaii and took UNLV to overtime before losing. It also went to a bowl game. And by 2020 it was ready to win big. The Pack won 18 of its last 26 games under Norvell before he left for Colorado State. The time has come for Wilson to take control of his program and shake it back to life.