Joe Santoro
By Joe Santoro
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Sports activities Fodder:
Welcome to the Nevada Wolf Pack’s bowl sport.
Saturday evening, when the UNLV Rebels come to Mackay Stadium to face the Wolf Pack, is why you’re a Wolf Pack fan. It is why you might be nonetheless paying consideration after eight losses within the first 11 video games this 12 months and 38 losses in 48 video games for the reason that begin of the 2022 season. That is the evening that offers all of that struggling true which means and objective. Sure, that is the evening when the entire above cliches turn into actual.
Calling Saturday’s sport in opposition to the Rebels a bowl sport is, in fact, cheapening the second a bit. Bowl video games, no less than within the Wolf Pack world, are for probably the most half trivial, an afterthought, forgettable and completely missing in which means. Why would a Wolf Pack fan, in any case, get enthusiastic about taking part in Bowling Inexperienced, Toledo, Ball State, Central Florida, New Mexico, SMU, Louisiana, Colorado State, Southern Mississippi, Arkansas State, Ohio or Tulane?
Each true Wolf Pack fan, although, will get enthusiastic about taking part in UNLV, even in a 3-8 season and, sure, particularly in a 3-8 season.
All of the Wolf Pack has to do is look again to 2017 to search out motivation this week. The 2017 Wolf Pack, below first-year head coach Jay Norvell, began the season 0-5 and had been 1-8 heading into the ultimate three video games of the season. This 12 months’s Wolf Pack was additionally 1-8 heading into its remaining three video games.
This 12 months’s Wolf Pack beat San Jose State 55-10 at house in its tenth sport whereas the 2017 Wolf Pack beat San Jose State, 59-14, at house in its tenth sport. The 2017 Pack, although, had the misfortune of taking part in at San Diego State in its eleventh sport and fell 42-23 whereas this 12 months’s Pack had the nice fortune of taking part in Wyoming, a group that treats scoring factors like it’s a signal of weak point, and went house with an unsightly however definitely welcome 13-7 victory that was selected the ultimate play of the sport.
However the feeling, the which means and the significance of the UNLV sport at Mackay Stadum to conclude each the 2017 and 2025 seasons are remarkably comparable. Norvell’s Wolf Pack eight years in the past, like Choate’s present-day Pack, had been in want of some constructive signal from above that the trail they had been on was the appropriate one. They wanted a heat, cozy and assured feeling to take with them into the vacations and the lengthy low season.
The 2017 Pack received all of that by beating the Rebels 23-16 in entrance of simply 17,359 true silver and blue believers at Mackay Stadium. The Pack trailed 13-6 within the first half however tied the sport at 16-16 on a 6-yard Ty Gangi to Trevion Armstrong scoring move late within the third quarter and gained it on a 1-yard run by Kelton Moore with seven-plus minutes left within the fourth quarter.
The win over UNLV did what it was marketed to do. It turned Norvell’s Nevada profession round. Norvell, beginning with the 2017 win over UNLV, would win 31 of his subsequent 48 video games by means of the top of the 2021 common season and take the Pack to precise bowl video games in every of his subsequent 4 seasons.
Choate’s Pack wants that very same kind of launching pad second. Choate’s Pack remains to be in search of its first signature win. Choate’s Pack is determined to color the Fremont Cannon blue.
All of these issues can come true on Saturday evening.
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The oddsmakers should additionally imagine the Wolf Pack has a professional likelihood on Saturday evening. Why else would they make the 9-2 Rebels, a program that has gained 29 of its final 39 video games for the reason that begin of the 2023 season, only a 7.5-point favourite in opposition to a 3-8 Nevada group?
Sure, we perceive the sport on Saturday is at Mackay Stadium and we perceive the Pack is using a two-game successful streak. However we additionally perceive that the 2 groups the Pack beat the final two weeks are actually a mixed 7-15 general and 1-6 within the month of November. And the Pack got here inside a Bryson Snelling fingernail of dropping at Wyoming on the ultimate play of the sport.
This unfold ought to be within the neighborhood of 12-14 factors. UNLV, in any case, has gained its final three video games in opposition to Nevada by a mean of 16 factors. UNLV averages 37 factors and 460 yards a sport and has scored 52 touchdowns this 12 months in 11 video games. The Wolf Pack is averaging 17.6 factors and 299 yards a sport this 12 months and has scored 53 touchdowns over its final 32 video games.
UNLV quarterback Anthony Colandrea averages extra yards per sport (300.7 in complete offense) than the whole Wolf Pack group mixed (298.6). UNLV has not scored fewer than 29 factors in any sport this 12 months. Nevada has scored greater than 22 simply as soon as.
The oddsmakers, although, should see a feeble and brittle UNLV protection that has allowed 29 factors and 429 yards a sport this 12 months and suppose it can carry the Pack offense to life. The Rebels, in any case, simply use their protection to provide Colandrea a breather.
It is protected to say that the one likelihood the Wolf Pack has of ending inside seven factors of the Rebels, not to mention successful, is to show the clock again to 2017 and someway maintain the Rebels to 2 touchdowns and alter. Choate, whose mantra is “run the ball, eat clock” will probably get away in a sweat this week considering his Wolf Pack has to win an offensive shootout in opposition to the Rebels. That might be like Jake Paul stepping within the ring in opposition to a 22-year-old Mike Tyson and making an attempt to outslug him as a substitute of the 58-year-old model he sparred with final 12 months. So, sure, the one actual likelihood the Pack has of beating UNLV on Saturday is to show the Rebels right into a 58-year-old, drained, bloated shell of their former selves.
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We’ll probably discover out on Friday simply how onerous the Rebels will play and the way motivated they are going to be on Saturday.
The Rebels’ finest likelihood of attending to the Mountain West championship sport on Dec. 5 for the third 12 months in a row might be decided largely by what occurs in two video games on Friday. That is when San Diego State might be at New Mexico and Boise State might be at Utah State. San Diego State at present leads the convention at 6-1 whereas New Mexico, Boise State and UNLV are all 5-2. Convention guidelines prohibit greater than two groups from taking part within the league championship sport, so the Rebels, who misplaced to each Boise State and New Mexico this 12 months, want San Diego State and Utah State to win on Friday to have a transparent path to the title sport.
If that occurs, if the Rebels can get to the league title sport by beating the Wolf Pack on Saturday, prepare for a monitor meet. UNLV will probably come out firing and emptying their playbook from the opening kickoff hoping to bury the Pack by halftime. If each New Mexico and Boise State win, effectively, the Rebels, with nothing to play for besides a meaningless comfort prize bowl sport, is perhaps asleep on the opening kickoff. That, too, can be the perfect situation for the Pack, a group that desires to get out to an early lead after which kill clock.
Sure, in fact, the Fremont Cannon alone ought to be sufficient motivation for both group. It is going to definitely be motivation for a Pack group that hasn’t trotted out its cans of blue paint since 2021. The Rebels, although, in all probability simply discovered this week that Reno can be within the state of Nevada and the colour of the Fremont Cannon, which they’ve owned since 2022, depends upon the ultimate rating on Saturday. There is a very actual likelihood the Rebels, ought to they be eradicated from the Mountain West title sport on Friday evening, might be updating resumes and trying out the switch portal procedures by Saturday morning.
The sport on Saturday, in any case, is in no way the Rebels’ bowl sport. The Rebels already know they’ve an precise bowl sport on the finish of this season. Their purpose this 12 months, although, was to win the Mountain West title, go undefeated and earn a spot within the Faculty Soccer Playoff. The one a kind of lofty targets nonetheless potential proper now could be the Mountain West title. If that vanishes on Friday, it is uncertain that maintaining the Fremont Cannon purple might be a lot of a precedence for the Rebels.
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Choate, it doesn’t matter what occurs on Saturday, is no less than not going into one other offseason using a dreadful dropping streak.
Choate’s first Pack group misplaced its final six video games after which began this season with eight losses in its first 9. However the final two weeks, wins over San Jose State (55-10) and Wyoming (13-7), have no less than stopped the bleeding. Neither victory was over a group that can go to a bowl sport this season and neither was over a group that does not have severe issues. However the Pack below Choate has misplaced to groups with severe issues and did not qualify for a bowl earlier than.
So, what we have seen the final two weeks is precise progress. Sure, San Jose State and Wyoming had been at all times groups the Pack ought to have crushed this 12 months, even with the 1-8 begin. However whenever you’ve misplaced 14 of your final 15 video games, just like the Pack heading into the San Jose State sport, any victory looks as if a pipe dream.
Take into account that the Pack tried its finest to lose at Wyoming, permitting a sport during which they need to have been up by three touchdowns virtually slip away on Wyoming’s remaining drive. However they made sufficient performs to win and did not should depend on pleasant officers and an erratic discipline purpose kicker like they did in a 20-17 win over Sacramento State in early September.
That is progress. Small progress, to make sure, however progress simply the identical. Choate has someway saved his group’s consideration out of the switch portal (no less than for 3 or 4 hours on Saturdays) and saved it targeted within the second. That is why Saturday generally is a turning level.
It is a victory that might jumpstart this program again to respectability. Heading into an offseason on a three-game successful streak is one thing that hasn’t occurred at Nevada for the reason that 2010 group gained its final seven. And to enter an offseason with a three-game win streak and a blue Fremont Cannon, effectively, that’s substantial progress.
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What have we discovered concerning the Wolf Pack males’s basketball group to date this season? The largest factor we discovered after six video games (4 wins) is that changing the likes of Tre Coleman, Brandon Love, Kobe Sanders, Nick Davidson, Daniel Foster, Justin McBride, Ok.J. Hymes and Xavier DuSell off final 12 months’s group is not going to be really easy. It is perhaps a problem that not even Pack coach Steve Alford, who has repeatedly pulled rabbits out of his hat since taking on this system in 2019-20, can deal with.
The Pack, which takes on Washington on Thanksgiving within the Acrisure Vacation Traditional in Thousand Palms, Calif., has gained one sport in additional time (86-81 over Southern Illinois) and one other in regulation by one level (78-77 over Pacific). They misplaced by 15 (98-83) at Santa Clara and fell 75-71 at Lawlor Occasions Middle to UC Davis. Alford’s groups hardly ever lose non-conference video games at house within the month of November. They had been 4-0 final 12 months, 4-0 the 12 months earlier than and 3-0 in 2022-23. Their final non-conference loss at house earlier than the Davis sport was 75-68 to San Diego on Nov. 12, 2021.
So, sure, the Davis sport was a purple flag that this group remains to be a piece in progress.
There are, although, some constructive indicators that this group will enhance because the season strikes alongside. Three of the newcomers have already established themselves to be reliable and productive. The Pack’s high three scorers proper now are all newcomers. Corey Camper is at 16.8 factors a sport and is taking pictures 39 % on threes, Tayshawn Comer is at 15.8 factors a sport and has 21 assists and 9 steals. Elijah Worth is at 12.3 factors, 9.2 rebounds with 5 blocks, 9 assists and three steals. The remainder of the group (two starters and the whole bench) is a big query mark and has been on a rollercoaster to date this month.
Final 12 months’s group had tons of depth. This 12 months’s group is a piece in progress.
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