Catching up with Nevada: Is this the year the Wolf Pack defense is good?
by Kevan Lee on Apr 2, 2010 7:59 AM PDT
in Boise State football
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PrintThe Wolf Pack are expected to be Boise State's biggest WAC competition in 2010, and BSU's trip to Reno could have the WAC title on the line. Does this Nevada team have what it takes to topple the Broncos? Does this Nevada team even have a defense?
After the jump, find out what is new for UNR's D this spring and how it might impact the Wolf Pack's 2010. Worried about Nevada? Disgusted by Colin Kaepernick? Share your thoughts in the comments.
All this week, OBNUG will be checking in with Boise State's 2010 opponents to see how their spring is going. Now: Nevada. Next: Fresno State. Previously: Virginia Tech. Wyoming. Oregon State. Toledo. Louisiana Tech. San Jose State and New Mexico State. Idaho. Hawaii and Utah State.
The last indelible image of Nevada's 2009 season
Ah, Nevada. The San Diego Chargers of the WAC. The Pack again turned in a solid season against bad teams, but an eight-game winning streak flamed out in losses to Boise State and SMU - the latter loss coming in a 45-10 Hawaii Bowl disaster that was seven types of ugly. Nevada may be the only school to have its season-in-review DVD end on November 21.
What has changed
The Pack suffered only minimal losses on offense with the departures of a starting center and a sixth-year senior running back with hypnosis addiction. No more Luke Lippincott means more carries for Mike Ball and possibly Lampford Mark, depending on how Vai Taua's off-field issues sort themselves out (Taua was suspended for the Hawaii Bowl).
Defensively, Nevada will struggle to replace five starters from last year's team, including both safeties, a middle linebacker, and one-half of the Wolf Pack's dominant defensive end duo. DE Kevin Basped jumped ship early to join the NFL Draft, apparently forgetting that he is the worse of Nevada's two defensive ends.
What hasn't changed
Colin Kaepernick is back and as skinny as ever. WAC Defensive POY Dontay Moch returns to pad his stats against SJSU and NMSU. Chris Ault is still kicking around.
By and large, these are your same old Wolf Packers that roll through the cupcakes on their schedule and lay eggs against Boise State and TBD bowl opponents. The offense will again be fantasy gold with what is rumored to be an improved passing game, featuring WAC Freshman of the Year Brandon Wimberly at WR. The defense will still be suspect as it searches for replacements for key players. And special teams? I'm not sure Nevada is familiar.
Biggest spring storyline
Colin Kaepernick's search for the holy grail of 60 percent completion rate
The Kaepernicker has shown steady improvement through his first three years of "quarterbacking," going from 53 percent to 54 percent to 58 percent from his freshman to junior years. If this keeps up, he'll catch Kellen Moore by the year 2018. Karl Benson will find a way.
One focus of spring ball is getting Kaepernick more comfortable doing quarterback things, presumably so he will have a tougher time abandoning them once real games begin. In the team's first two scrimmages, Kaepernick has five total TD tosses and zero interceptions. In related news, Graham Watson is on the rebound from Dan LeFevour. I think I see where this is headed.
As Chris Ault
The question: Will the Nevada defense be better in 2010?
When it comes to defense, Nevada would prefer that it doesn't come to defense. Home to last year's 119th-ranked pass defense, UNR at least recognizes its need to improve that side of the ball if they ever hope to be consistently competitive against good teams. Former DC Nigel Burton is gone, having parlayed his defensive coordinator experience at Nevada into a head coaching job at Portland State. Haha! Just kidding. April fool's.
Oh wait. No. That's actually true.
Burton's replacement is good-old-boy former player Andy Buh who worships the ground Chris Ault walks on and refuses to place blame on the defense for the team's struggles.
I care very dearly about this program and Coach [Chris] Ault and how it’s perceived out in the public ...
I think you win football games because you’ve got a good team not because you’ve got a good offense or you’ve got a good special teams or you’ve got a good defense. Obviously, I’m here because the defense is perceived to not have played very well and perceived to be the reason why the team has lost. But I’m not really big into kind of pinpointing one group or another.
Note to Andy Buh: Nevada does win games because it has a good offense.
Buh's plan for defensive improvement: pointing players in the right direction. You mean, like, towards the ball?
We’re going to see if we can point them in the right direction and see if our plan is going to work.
Counting the losses from last year's bad defense, Buh's hippie approach to coaching, and years and years of UNR defensive failure, does a 2010 defensive turnaround seem unlikely?
It is not all bad news for the Wolf Pack. A new coach could be just what the doctor ordered for the defense. The law of averages would make you think that Nevada is due to have an average defensive season sooner or later. Perhaps most importantly, Nevada has been short on defensive turnovers lately, and those numbers tend to regress to the mean from year-to-year. The laws of thermodynamics might be the best thing to happen to Nevada's D this season.
Is 2010 going to be the year that the Wolf Pack defense makes strides? Or is the Nevada D doomed to wander incompetently through the WAC with one of the worst units in all of college football yet again?
Share your thoughts in the comments and in the poll.
You may start disliking this person
Colin Kaepernick
This one's easy. He is the anti-Kellen. You must hate him.
Spring schedule
- March 5: Practice began
- March 13: Spring scrimmage #1
- March 14: Spring scrimmage #2
The offense has been the victor in each of the team's first two scrimmages, but you would be wrong to think that Chris Ault is disappointed with the defense.
The bottom line was too many big plays, but I thought the defensive effort was good. It's tough to defend this thing.
Unless you are Boise State.
- Saturday: Spring game
Spring reading
Our young apprentice blog Pistol Whipping the WAC has been quiet since December, but I'm going to assume it is just a sabbatical and not a full-on retirement. Bloggers are allowed one sabbatical every five years. It's a law. The Reno Gazette-Journal has been bravely reporting on spring scrimmages, and the UNR student newspaper has semi-often updates.
To the comments ...
Is this the year the Wolf Pack defense changes for the better? Does Nevada have any greater chance against the Broncos in 2010 than they have in previous years? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Comments
Oh Kaeperlegs
I really hate this guy. Of all the people in the WAC we play against I hate him the most. With his smug look and horrible throwing motion and his toothpick legs that I hope our D uses to clean their teeth with this year after Hout snaps them off. And who new Lippincott FINALLY graduated?! I thought that guy was like a 5th year freshman. I swear that guy played against Bart Hendricks. Anyway, I really think they will be the same old UNR Mutt Pack. Just because their new D-coordinator puts his hair on the same way Vader puts his helmet on doesn’t mean they are going to be any better. Lets put it this way if Kaepernick can throw 5 TD’d against that group then Kellen is going to throw about 1000 because he is 200 times better. If the helpless UNR D can’t stop the over rated UND offense I know we are going to just give them a beat down that they will not forget.
"I think I know what you guys are trying to say.....We need to build a space helicopter." Nathan Explosion
Good point.
As we learned from our first spring scrimmage, it’s usually the defense who dominates these. If the UNR defense couldn’t take vanilla plays from UNR’s offense, imagine the blood that will be spilt in our Bronco Stadium-West.
"Everyone counted us out. I don't know why they keep doing that." -- Kyle Wilson
The "anti-Kellen"
lol… ouch. But so true. He could have been a triple-A minor league pitcher by now, but noooooo… he wants to get planted by the BSU D line. I can’t wait.
And that's another Bronco... FIRST DOWN!!
Nevada Defense?
Why they are just sheep in wolf’s clothing. That is all that needs to be said.
BSU don't need smoke and mirrors to get the job done, they got orange pants.
Picking the Pack?
Why is it that many sports pundits and writers go with Nevada when they face off with Boise? Like last year, after the Wolfpack mauled the rest of the WAC, many saw an upset of the Broncos during the Thanksgiving weekend. Yet when Boise mauls the WAC – a collective yawn from the same writers. In fact it is used against them, and a rant on strength of schedule ensues. So WAC victories seem to count for Nevada, but not Boise? Go figure.
if they want a shootout
BSU will give them a shootout and come out unscathed because our defense is just as good as our offense. I remember how mobile quarterbacks used to give us fits but now a days u dont wanna run outside the tackles or venable/illoka will light u up. good luck to the other teams in the WAC…luck as in trying to stay within 2 TDs of the Broncos.
i want to say it wouldn't be a shootout...
..because the defense would man-handle kaepernick.
but in two out of the last three matchups, they were able to “keep it close”. so hopefully the domination continues.
Dr. William Block: You gotta lose the arm, Joe.
Joe: Lose the arm? What do you mean, lose the arm? My arm?
what i really don't understand is..
…how taua is still on the team? in interviews this summer, he talked about how his #1 motivation was going pro. I believe in an interview w/ Watson, he admitted skipping classes, not caring and just focusing on working out. regardless of how “good” this guy is, why would a coach want to keep such a selfish kid around? especially if said kid helps you get to a bowl game, craps on everything, and basically is a huge reason for getting beaten badly. I guess i’m not in ault’s shoes, but i would like to believe that if Petersen (or any other bsu coach for that matter) found out of a kid intentionally skipping classes, the coach would immediately boot said kid out. i guess we’ll see what kind of year he has and his true motivations are.
Dr. William Block: You gotta lose the arm, Joe.
Joe: Lose the arm? What do you mean, lose the arm? My arm?
by Grindhouse on Apr 2, 2010 1:59 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
I'm going with "noticeably improved"
but strictly on a regression toward the mean theory.
We want to build a university our football team can be proud of. -- Dr. George Lynn Cross
Kaepernick
Kaepernick’s 5 TD to 0 INT ratio isn’t impressing me much when he does it against last years worst pass defense. Didn’t we hear this story last year, that Kaepernick is all sorts of accurate now? NOT!! Nothing will change. He’ll be all legs and no arms….like Kaeperstilts.
Plus, I would have more hope for a new and improved Wolf Pack D if the new DC at least had the balls to admit their defense was atrocious last year.
This years de facto WAC Championship will be a big disappointment to all those sports writers and commentators who will predict Nevada in an upset before the game, only to have BSU crush the Wolf Pack during Kaeperstilts senior year no less. I’m looking at you Graham Watson.
"Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish."
His accuacy is like........
Comparing a Red Rider BB gun to the Cheytac Intervention that is Kellen Moore. Kaeper can stand 5 feet from a target and almost, always miss. Then once in a blue moon he’ll throw a bullet and connect.
All we really need to do to prevent those bullets is stiffen up covrage on his scrambles and good things are bound to happen. Its like the good DR. above me said “Nothing will have changed from last year.” Except maybe more hype.
He will dominate weaker teams and get worked by teams that have atleast an above average defense. Come game time though, the BSU defense will look like an Iowa Class battleship vs the UNR SS Life Saver.
Mean while Moore will carve UNR up like a Thanksgiving Turkey.
"I think I know what you guys are trying to say.....We need to build a space helicopter." Nathan Explosion
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2012 Boise State Football Schedule
@ Michigan State  |
Fri 08/31 | 6:00 p.m. MT |
| Miami (OH) | Sat 09/15 | 2:00 p.m. MT |
| BYU |
Thu 09/20 | TBA |
| @ New Mexico | Sat 09/29 | TBA |
| @ Southern Miss | Sat 10/06 | TBA |
| Fresno State | Sat 10/13 | 1:30 p.m. MT |
| UNLV | Sat 10/20 | 1:30 p.m. MT |
| @ Wyoming |
Sat 10/27 | 1:30 p.m. MT |
| San Diego State | Sat 11/03 | 8:30 p.m. MT |
| @ Hawaii | Sat 11/10 | 5:00 p.m. MT |
| Colorado St. | Sat 11/17 | 1:30 p.m. MT |
| @ Nevada | Sat 12/1 | TBA |
