UNLV Rebels vs Nevada Wolf Pack Football Preview

The Nevada Wolf Pack are nothing if not consistent this year. That's bad news for anyone who stands in this team's way. The UNLV Runnin' Rebels will have their hands full when they try to stop one of the best offenses in all of college football.

In past seasons, Nevada had a penchant for being a stop-and-start team outside the WAC. Last year, Nevada got shut out by Notre Dame in week one. The 35-0 embarrassment in South Bend, on national television, showed the nation how difficult it is to generate substantial progress and then sustain it over multiple years. The growing pains experienced by Nevada only serve to make Boise State's ascendancy that much more impressive.

Interestingly enough, however, it seems that after years with mixed results in non-conference games, Nevada has finally cracked the code in 2010. The Wolf Pack have just ripped through two credentialed foes from leagues other than the WAC. On Sept. 17, Nevada cold-cocked Cal by 21 points in a Friday-night fight, running away with a 52-31 triumph. Then, on Sept. 25, the Pack packed a wallop in dismissing BYU on the road, 27-13. Those are two very different scores, but they were attained with incredibly similar offensive performances that say something very important about the kind of team Nevada has become.

Compare the 52-31 win over Cal with the 27-13 win over BYU, and you'll find astoundingly similar numbers for coach Chris Ault's pistol-formation offense. In both games, Nevada tallied between 430 and 500 yards of total offense (497 against the Golden Bears from Berkeley, and 435 versus the Cougars in Provo, Utah). The Pack amassed 26 first downs versus Cal, 22 against BYU. The roster from Reno posted 316 rushing yards against the Golden Bears of the Pac-10, and 239 when pitted against the Cougars of the Mountain West. In each game, Nevada possessed the ball between 36 and 37 minutes, a feat made possible by third-down conversion rates of more than 50 percent. It was and is fascinating to realize that Nevada scored 52 points in one game (actually 45 by the offense; the defense chipped in a pick-six), and 27 in the other, yet produced such similar across-the-board totals.

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What is the message this sends to the college football community? Quite simply, Colin Kaepernick is a fully-grown collegiate quarterback.

The Nevada trigger man - who has absorbed many bumps and bruises during the Wolf Pack's last few seasons, many of them psychological - is now a senior, and that experience is showing up on the field. The consistent numbers cranked out by the pistol offense are a testament to the efficiency and prudence of the signal caller who is making Nevada hum. Kaepernick has ripened into a better reader of defenses and a more polished decision maker, and that's why the Pack are not just potent, but precise.

As this offense heads to Vegas for a date with UNLV, the Rebels - who averaged just 13 points in their first three games this year before getting healthy in week four against an extremely bad New Mexico ballclub - will be hard-pressed to mount a stiff challenge. Then again, this is an in-state rivalry game being played late at night. Perhaps coach Bobby Hauck will rally the Rebs to a revolt, but a Vegas upset will require Kaepernick to have a shaky and spotty multi-turnover performance at Sam Boyd Stadium.

One shouldn't expect that to happen. Not this year, not this time. Nevada has the look and feel of a team that's ready to consolidate the gains it has made to this point in the season.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer