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Nevada-Reno Wolf Pack Loom Large for Fighting Irish
Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Nevada-Reno Wolf Pack
Notre Dame Stadium, Sept. 5, 2009, 3:30 pm
NBC true national television broadcast
Amidst high expectations — with its program and roster rebuilt across four-plus class years for the first time in a decade-and-a-half — a revitalized Notre Dame, and revitalized post-surgery Charlie Weis, welcome a seasoned, hard-running, hard-throwing Nevada Wolf Pack to Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 5. Notre Dame returns nearly all its starters, either in the same positions or shifted to other ones.
Nevada, who had a top-5 offense in 2008, and a top-10 defense against the run, took a solid ACC opponent to the wire in their bowl game. Their game against Notre Dame could be the biggest game in program history and their only opportunity this season to be on true national television (as opposed to, for example, cable "television" that requires a subscription and apparently cannot reach more than half the households in the country). With the Wolf Pack returning key players, one surmises Notre Dame will be opening against a strong opponent playing the game of their life and having the entire fall camp and offseason to focus on the Irish.
Notre Dame junior quarterback Jimmy Clausen looks to build off a 2008 season in which he threw for more than 3172 yards and 25 touchdowns, including a near-perfect game in the Hawai'i Bowl in which Clausen was 22-26 for 401 yards and 5 touchdowns with no interceptions. Clausen will passing to what might develop into the best receiving corps in college football, led by junior Golden Tate and sophomore Michael Floyd, as well as sophomore tight end Kyle Rudolph who sometimes lines up as a wide-out.
Charlie Weis is serving once again as offensive coordinator and play-caller, as Notre Dame revamps its running attack under a new Running Game Coordinator and offensive live position coach, NFL and Big-10 college football veteran Frank Verducci, as well as new Running Back Coach Tony Alford. The Irish should have quality depth at both running back and on the line, apparently playing at least seven offensive lineman by design in the first half against Nevada, including rotating all four men listed in the two-deep for the left side of the line.
Notre Dame's defense is reconfiguring its coaching somewhat as well, with blitz-happy veteran Jon Tenuta taking over play-calling, most likely from the press box, with Corwin Brown still on the sideline. While the Irish defense is switching ostensibly back to a 4-3 personnel grouping, the right defensive end slot is being filled by two 250-pound linebackers, Kerry Neal and John Ryan. This arrangement, as well as efforts to work in freshman Manti Teo at linebacker, should prove interesting going up against Nevada's "Pistol" offense featuring a potent, mobile running attack as well as a solid passing game.
In 2008, Nevada had a top-5 offense, averaging more than 500 yards per game, including a top-3 rushing attack combined with solid, 2000-yard-plus passing game. On defense, the Wolf Pack were sixth in the country against the run, although they were 119th against the pass.
The Wolf Pack's "Pistol" Offense has featured veteran quarterback Colin Kaepernick lining up in the shotgun with veteran running back Vai Taua lining up behind him.
Kaepernick, who has a similar size and build to Jeff Samardzija, is one of only five players in NCAA history to rush for 1000 yards and throw for 2000 yards in a single season. Kaepernick was WAC Offensive Player of the Year for 2008.
Nevada's top rusher last year was tailback Taua, who rushed for 117 yards per game last year, 1521 for the season, #8 in the country. Nevada's second leading rusher was Kaepernick. Nevada has at least two additional running backs besides Taua who can compete at a similar level.
Nevada was a bowl team in 2008, taking Maryland from the ACC to the wire in a high-scoring thriller in the Humanitarian Bowl. When Maryland pulled it out, 42-35, in turned out the Terrapins needed a first-half kick-off return for a touchdown as the deciding difference.
Like Utah in the Mountain West Conference, Nevada in the WAC helps demonstrate what is becoming painfully apparent, that elements of the news media, including the college football recruiting news media, essentially go AWOL in the mountain states.
By way of comparison, not only did AP voters vote for a 1-loss Florida to be national champions, over an undefeated Utah who beat multiple top-10 opponents, including blowing out the SEC runner-up by a bigger margin than Florida did. Some in the news media continued trying to treat Utah as a feel-good Cindarella with lesser talent, when clearly Utah was as talented, or moreso, than anyone in the SEC, played better, and had a better year than anyone else in the country.
Similarly, Nevada — a bowl team who took a solid ACC opponent to the wire in a shoot-out — has seen Scout.com rate Nevada in the following manner for their recruiting classes:
2009 - #108
2008 - #109
2007 - #105
2006 - #82
2005 - #106
To be blunt, whether Nevada has top-20 talent or top-40 talent, based on Nevada's performance in 2008, to suggest Nevada only has #108-ranked talent is simply not credible.
To put this confusion into perspective, Nevada has a tailback, Taua mentioned above, from Lompoc, California, about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, who as a recruit was listed at 5-11, 225 pounds with 4.5 speed. Taua went on to become the #8 rusher in the nation in 2008.
When Taua was a recruit, rivals.com did not even give him a rating. That's right — zero stars.
Nevada quarterback Kaepernick, of Turlock, California, one of only five players in NCAA history to throw for 2000 yards and rush for 1000 yards in a season, was given, by rivals.com — two stars as a recruit.
Now, perhaps it is not just a matter of the media going AWOL for colleges in the mountain states. Perhaps California, and teams like Nevada drawing at least some of their players from California, has something to do with it.
Perhaps California is so big that, once the media cover a certain number of players from such a large land mass they get fatigued and simply stop. Maybe that is how a 225-pound running back with 4.5 speed, good enough to be the #8 rusher in the country, does not even get rated.
In any event, whether or not Nevada has top-20 talent or top-40 talent, their talent level certainly is not #108. In addition to having what is probably at least top-40 talent, Nevada clearly plays hard, develops well, and has outstanding veteran coaches. Nevada went to a bowl game last year, a high-scoring shoot-out against a strong ACC opponent, Nevada played well enough to have finished in the upper pack of the ACC if that had been their conference, and the Wolf Pack return key players.
These factors prompted Leprechaun Express to list Nevada at #24 in its preseason poll.
For his part, Weis said it was easy to get his players to become for Nevada, simply by telling them to take a look at the Nevada film, and see how good an opponent they were having to prepare for.
With that, back to the Notre Dame vs. Nevada analysis ....
As mentioned above, on defense, Nevada was solid against the run in 2008, but — with all respect to Wolf Pack defenders — an absolute sieve against the pass, finishing near the bottom of what used to be known as Div. I-A.
The situation, however, might be more complex than first appears.
In the bowl game against Maryland, for example, while Nevada netted nearly 500 yards of offense, the nation's #4 rushing attack only ran for 114 yards, while adding 370 and three touchdowns through the air.
So it appears that there are ways to address Nevada's rushing threat, but that Nevada actually truly is versatile enough to find ways to move the ball, even against a high-quality opponent that has managed to shut down one of its strengths.
Interestingly, in that game their quarterback, their second-leading rusher, only ran the ball 9 times, while throwing it 47 times, and averaged less than two yards per carry, but still managed to score a touchdown running, and managed to complete about half his passes, including three touchdowns, despite taking hits at least the 9 times he ran the ball.
Another unusual twist to the bowl game was that Maryland had some partial suspensions. The Terps had a smattering of players who tried to trick their head coach by being in bed for bed check, and then sneaking out afterwards. The Maryland coach resisted the urge to, as he put it, put them immediately on a bus with a one-way ticket to Maryland, and instead suspended them for parts of the game.
Maryland's leading rusher in the bowl ran for 174 yards against Nevada, and apparently was benched the entire first half. As a result, he was well-rested and motivated in the second half.
So, against a Nevada defense that had given up less than 100 yards per game rushing, but been among the worst in the country for pass defense, Maryland rushed for 287 yards and only threw for 198.
Interestingly, Notre Dame likewise has a running back sitting out a first half against Nevada because of a suspension.
While presumably healthy and good enough to play, Robert Hughes is not even on the depth chart. According to Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis, the big, bruising Hughes will be missing the first half against Nevada, serving the second half of a suspension for getting into a fight against Southern Cal last year. Hughes apparently will be available in the second half against Nevada if Notre Dame wants to play him.
At first glance, one might have thought Notre Dame would come out throwing and carve up a Nevada weak against the pass, but sprinkle in runs depending on the kinds of looks and personnel Nevada puts forward on defense, perhaps successfully. And one might have thought that a big, swarming Jon Tenuta-paced Notre Dame defense (Tenuta is calling defensive plays this year) might hold the Nevada rushing attack in check and force the Wolf Pack to show its versatility.
But looking at Nevada's bowl game, Maryland indeed was able to run on them, and Nevada's rushing attack, while strong, apparently was a slightly different animal against the Terps, with Nevada turning much more to the pass.
So, first off, perhaps Notre Dame can run effectively against the Wolf Pack, as Maryland did.
The question might be, how far has Notre Dame's rushing game come under the tutelage of new Running Game Coordinator, and offensive line position coach Frank Verducci, as well as new Running Back Coach Tony Alford. If Nevada really was that tough against the run, even with veteran linemen and veteran backs for the Irish, one might have been concerned about how quickly they were up to speed with new staff, and whether Weis might force the run just to force it.
Additionally, Notre Dame apparently will be playing a lot of folks on the O-Line, essentially rotating four men through the left-half of the line even in the first half. And while the depth chart only shows speedster Armando Allen and Jonas Gray at running back, Notre Dame does have a stable of backs it can plug in there, including Hughes in the second half.
But given Nevada's being under-rated, Notre Dame probably will not get the credit it deserves for however well it plays.
The situation is eerily reminscent of the year an under-rated Northwestern upset a Lou Holtz-coached Irish team. It was not apparent to most of the country until later in the year that a solid, hard-playing Northwestern would go 10-2 and appear in the Rose Bowl as a supposedly feel-good Cindarella. For Notre Dame fans that year, and any astute watchers, it was more than apparent in that very first game that Northwestern was a top team. Notre Dame was not sleep-walking, and Northwestern was not getting lucky. Those were two very good teams going at it and turning in some of the more dramatic moments of that college football season.
If Notre Dame, against Nevada, manages to pull out a win, it does risk not getting credited for beating a good top-30 team that undoutedly will be playing the game of its life. But a win is a win, and this game will build character, and demand character.
If Notre Dame does pull it up, play with passion, execute well, avoid mistakes, and somehow turn the afternoon into a superlative victory by multiple scores, some observers might not realize until later just how much this meant. Recall another Holtz season where Notre Dame blew out Texas early in the season, only to have it turn out that Texas would go on to what is now a BCS bowl.
Make no mistake about it, a tough Nevada team looms large on the radar screen, and they're on their way to Notre Dame, Indiana.
Key Words: Notre Dame Football, Nevada Football, Charlie Weis, Jon Tenuta, Clausen, Golden Tate, Michael Floyd, Kyle Rudolph, Kaepernick, Vai Taua
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