There is Something Odd about Nevada’s Schedule
Nevada is not a bad team in a good conference where they need to schedule four easy wins to start out the year and hope to eek out two conference victories for bowl eligibility. They are a good team in what is turning into a bad conference. That means they need to schedule some tough non-conference games to gain some exposure. And they usually do. Last year they knocked off California and BYU. But this year’s schedule is a little crazy. The non-conference slate is about as difficult as it can be and the conference slate could not get any better.
Nevada will break in a new quarterback and running back with four consecutive road games, including trips to Oregon, Texas Tech and former WAC rival and future MWC rival Boise State. Tyler Lantrip may wish he was still Colin Kaepernick’s backup after that stretch. Oregon, Texas Tech and Boise State are also not the easiest teams to game plan for from a defensive stand point. The Wolf Pack has two other non-conference games at home against UNLV and New Mexico, but those come after the four game road gauntlet.
Six of their last eight games are at the friendly confines of Mackay Stadium. And the conference schedulers gave Nevada a very nice departing gift as they head off to the Mountain West Conference. Nevada gets four home games and three road games, which is always nice. And three of those home games are against the other three teams that are expected to compete for the Western Athletic Conference title…Fresno State, Hawaii and Louisiana Tech. The other home game is against a decent Idaho team, who The Madness ranks as the sixth best team in the conference.
The three road games are against Utah State, who The Madness ranked fifth in the conference and number 92 overall, San Jose State and New Mexico State. Neither of those teams cracked the Top 104 on The Madness countdown.
If the Wolf Pack can survive the early onslaught, they should be in great shape to win the conference. Even assuming they come out of the gate with a 1-3 record and a little beat up, both physically and mentally, they can regroup against UNLV and New Mexico before starting conference play.
Read the in-depth football preview for this team
