Nevada football opens the season at Penn State in just 12 days, and we got relatively few questions about this year’s team in this week’s Monday Mailbag. Go figure. Let’s get the questions. Thanks, as always, for the inquiries.
There’s an extensive list of players with Northern Nevada ties in NFL training camps with 18 fighting for spots on the 53-man roster. Here’s an overview.
* WR Brandon Aiyuk (McQueen High), San Francisco 49ers: Rehabbing from a torn ACL and MCL and is expected to miss at least the first five weeks of the season.
* OG Joel Bitonio (Nevada Wolf Pack), Cleveland Browns: Entering his 12th season as a starter in the NFL; do you know how hard it is to start in the NFL for a decade-plus?
* WR Elijah Cooks (Nevada Wolf Pack), Philadelphia Eagles: On a new team this season, Cooks has yet to record a stat in the preseason and is angling for a practice squad spot.
* OG Austin Corbett (Reed High/Nevada Wolf Pack), Carolina Panthers: Corbett’s goal will be to make it through the year healthy after three straight season-ending injuries (last year was a bicep tear).
* DB Kitan Crawford (Nevada Wolf Pack), Arizona Cardinals: Crawford has seven tackles and an interception in two preseason games and is making a strong push for the 53-man roster.
* OL Ben Dooley (Churchill County High), Los Angeles Rams: An undrafted free agent, Dooley will try and make the depth chart on an iffy Rams offensive line. Practice squad is more likely.
* WR Romeo Doubs (Nevada Wolf Pack), Green Bay Packers: Doubs has played in one of two preseason games with two targets (no catches). He’s a free agent next offseason, so this is a big year for him.
* LB Daiyan Henley (Nevada Wolf Pack), Los Angeles Chargers: Henley has two tackles this preseason. He’s one of the NFL’s top returning tacklers.
* WR/PR Tory Horton (Nevada Wolf Pack), Seattle Seahawks: In two preseason games, Horton has caught four of nine targets for 43 yards and a touchdown. He’ll make the roster.
* WR John Jackson III (Nevada Wolf Pack), Chicago Bears: Jackson has caught one of his four targets for seven yards. He’s looking to make the practice squad.
* DB Emany Johnson (Nevada Wolf Pack), Los Angeles Chargers: Johnson has got a lot of playing time and leads the NFL in tackles this preseason with 19 in three games (only two teams have played three games). He’s making a run at the active roster.
* LB Ale Kaho (Reno High), Washington Commanders: Kaho has one tackle in the preseason and will look to make the practice squad.
* TE Keleki Latu (Nevada Wolf Pack), Buffalo Bills: Latu has one catch for nine yards on two targets in two preseason games. His goal is to make the practice squad.
* LB Nephi Sewell (Nevada Wolf Pack), New Orleans Saints: Sewell has two tackles in the preseason and is a good bet to make the 53-man roster as a special teams ace.
* WR Jaden Smith (Nevada Wolf Pack), Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Smith joined the Bucs after camp began but has played in both preseason games with one catch (on two targets) for nine yards. He’s a practice squad candidate.
* RB Toa Taua (Nevada Wolf Pack), Cleveland Browns: Signed after camp began, Taua has seven rushes for 37 yards (5.3 ypc) and two catches for 16 yards. The Browns’ second-round pick, RB Quinshon Judkins, will not face charges from a post-draft arrest (domestic violence/battery charge) but still might not sign with the Browns until the NFL investigation concludes, which helps Taua’s odds of making the active roster. At minimum, practice squad seems like a lock.
* TE Cole Turner (Nevada Wolf Pack), Washington Commanders: After spending all of last season on the practice squad, Turner has one target this preseason (no catches) in one game.
* OLB Kyle Van Noy (McQueen High), Baltimore Ravens: Van Noy hasn’t played in the preseason and is a lock to make the Ravens’ roster after a career-high 12.5 sacks last season.
High. This is Chubba Purdy’s last season of college, but Nevada’s true freshman quarterback, Carter Jones, has looked impressive in spring and fall camp. It’s early, but I would not be surprised if Jones is Nevada’s 2026 starter as a redshirt freshman. In fact, if Purdy goes down with a long-term injury this season, I would guess Jones ultimately gets the 2025 starting job. A.J. Bianco would get first crack if Purdy is out multiple games, but Jones doesn’t seem that far behind him at this point despite some rough moments in Friday’s fall camp scrimmage, which included a pick-six. The staff is clearly high on Jones.
“It was a really good growing and learning day for Carter Jones,” Nevada coach Jeff Choate said. “He was in some situations, crowd noise, not paying attention to the play clock, a veteran linebacker saying, ‘Go ahead and throw it there,’ and then stepping in front of him and taking it the other way. I think he’s gonna learn and grow a lot from that. Practice is about stressing yourself. You can’t go out there to not make mistakes. You gotta rip it, you gotta cut it loose, you gotta stress yourself in those situations, know what works, know what doesn’t work so you’re ready to go in the game. I thought today will probably be one of the biggest learning days Carter will have in his entire college career.”
The Wolf Pack will almost certainly add a transfer quarterback next offseason for added competition. It didn’t do so this offseason because it didn’t want to scare its top-three quarterbacks into the portal. But I would say there’s a 65 percent shot Nevada’s 2026 starting quarterback is already on campus (either Jones or Bianco).
Well, Nevada doesn’t play Air Force this season, so the Wolf Pack isn’t beating the Falcons. Of those other three games, the best chance of a win is over San Jose State, which will play at Mackay Stadium. Nevada plays at Fresno State, which is always a tough place to win, and hosts Boise State. I could see the Wolf Pack beating the Bulldogs, who have a first-year head coach in Matt Entz. After going 2-6 in one-score games last season, Nevada should be close to .500 in those games this year. Nevada’s penalties and special teams were the biggest reasons behind that poor one-score record. I wrote about that here.
Nevada vs. UC Davis is going to happen because the Aggies are joining the Wolf Pack in the Mountain West (except for football) in 2026-27. Nevada football doesn’t have a game with UC Davis on its future schedule, but the Wolf Pack doesn’t have any FCS opponents on its schedule past 2026, so some need to be added and there’s a solid shot the football teams meet in the relatively near future. I wonder if UC Davis would wear its Lake Tahoe-themed helmet for that game, as those have drawn some derision from Wolf Pack fans and Nevada football coach Jeff Choate.
The legalization of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals added a wrinkle for the fundraising arms of athletic departments because all of a sudden the same boosters are making the choice between donating to NIL (essentially player salaries) or facility upgrades. Some donors have enough money for both. But there’s a limited numbers of big-money donors for schools like Nevada, and some don’t want to donate to NIL, which is a one-year roster boost, compared to facility upgrades, which have a longer-lasting impact. Post-NIL, the Wolf Pack has still got major donations for facility upgrades (Mackay Stadium’s new playing surface; baseball’s new locker room; football’s upgraded strength center), but it definitely forces some boosters to pick between NIL or facilities when making donations. A change has come this season with schools now allowed to share revenue with players, so NIL deals don’t only come from donors. That could allow schools to refocus the attention of its donor base on facility improvements, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a focus on garnering donations for NIL. It comes down to understanding each of your boosters and where they want their money going. There’s certainly a donor defraying element at play.
Well, $300 million is a lot of money, but Nevada does actually have an alum who could make a pledge like this in Fatih and Eren Ozmen, who both graduated from the university and own the Sparks-headquartered Sierra Nevada Corporation. The Ozmens’ net worth is a reported $4.4 billion. I’m not aware of any donations they’ve made to Wolf Pack athletics, but they’ve made major donations to academics before with the Ozmen Center for Entrepreneurship established in 2014 after a $5 million pledge.
Too light. Take the title away. Almost every Power 4 school has at least one donor who would pay a $30 million fine for their football team to win a tainted national championship, as Michigan did. I wrote about this topic in last week’s Week in 1,000 Words column here.
It depends if you’re going solo or trying to set up a larger tailgate. For larger groups, Nevada has four tiers of tailgating where the department has full setup and takedown service (the packages are listed here and cost $500, $870, $993, $1,063). If you’re going solo, just DM “Fake Coach Mumme” on Twitter and he’ll take care of you. There better be some folding tables involved, ala Bills Mafia.
Speaking of Fake Coach Mumme, here he is. Nevada has announced its game themes for the 2025 home football season (story here), and Beerfest is slated for the Middle Tennessee game Sept. 13. More details to come, I’m sure. That’s also Educators Day, Vamos Pack Day and Band Day. I’d pay extra to see the band perform after taking part in Beerfest (minimum five drinks per band member could lead to some interesting things).
Yes. Nevada basketball has averaged 3.6 blocks per game in each of the last two seasons, and no football team is averaging 3.6 picks per game. Wolf Pack men’s basketball has averaged at least 3.0 blocks per game in each of the last 24 seasons. To hit three interceptions per game, Nevada football would need 36 picks this season; last year’s college leader had 22 (or 1.7 per game). A better goal would be Nevada football’s offensive touchdowns per game (3.1 last year) surpassing Nevada men’s basketball’s blocks per game.
The Raiders have two winning records since 2003 (out of 22 seasons), so I’ll take the under on a 9-8 record for Las Vegas; the betting odds are 7.5 wins. The Raiders play the NFC East (Eagles, Cowboys, Commanders, Giants), which is the NFL’s hardest division. I’ll go 7-10 for the Raiders. As for coach Pete Carroll, he has a reputation for valuing the building of genuine relationships. He once described the culture of his teams as “trying to help people find their best, one person at a time,” and that seems to resonate. I’m not a huge Dave Roberts fan in terms of his in-game decisions for the Dodgers, but, like Carroll, he has the ability to connect with players, and that’s worked well for him and his teams.
I would bet my life NSN has given more coverage to non-large-class high school teams (in all sports and not just football) than the rest of the Reno-based sports media combined since we were established in 2018. Is it always appreciated? Certainly not. Most people always want more, more, more and don’t realize we’re a seven-person regional sports network that broadcasts more than 125 live games annually, write eight to 10 locally produced stories each day, get millions of views on our social media each month and produce and broadcast a local sports show every weekday. That takes a lot of manpower. We do the best we can with our staff size, which has included plenty of shine for non-5A high school teams and athletes. We already have this week’s Friday Night Lights schedule and are covering games that include Elko, Spring Creek, South Tahoe, Incline, Sparks, Churchill County and North Valleys. That’s seven non-5A/4A teams we’ll be shooting.
Nevada’s athletic budget (using revenue and not expenses) in 2023-24 was $47.9 million, which ranked 71st in the nation, per USA Today’s database. Washington was 25th at $145.1 million. Ohio State led the way at $251.6 million.
Yes, I think the ACC will fall apart and the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 will move forward with a new college athletics hierarchy, which would leave some ACC teams behind as the new Power 3 forms (most likely to be left behind are Cal, Stanford, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Boston College, Louisville, Virginia Tech). The Power 3 would still play teams from other leagues, so those “money” games would be protected. But you’re going to see more consolidation in the future rather than expansion of the Power 3/4 level.
Starting pitching.
The Dodgers’ starting pitchers allowed 15 earned runs in 14 innings in the three-game sweep loss to the Angels (that’s a 9.64 ERA). The Dodgers’ starting pitchers allowed three earned runs in 17 innings in the three-game sweep win over to the Padres (that’s a 1.59 ERA). Starting pitching is important. And has anybody seen Manny Machado? He was nowhere to be seen in the Dodgers series, going 1-of-12 with four strikeouts in three games. That’s Michael Conforto-level productivity.
After a bunch of injuries to their starting staff, the Dodgers’ rotation is healthy and fully formed, which makes them dangerous in the playoffs, although their bullpen is still a mess. The team needs to get back a healthy and productive Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, Michael Kopech, Brock Stewart and Brusdar Graterol (at least three of them) if it’s going to do anything in the postseason.
This season, the Mountain West has the best Group of 6 conference. Next season? It will be the Pac-12 or American Conference. I’d lean Pac-12 due to men’s basketball. That’s going to be an elite college basketball conference.
And I’ll take original Mike & Ike over any variant Mike & Ike.
My favorite local French Dip used to be Redwood Rotisserie and Grill, which all of a sudden vanished in July 2023. They literally knocked the building down less than two weeks after I ate there. Rumor was an In-N-Out was going in that location, but I’m still waiting. Now that Redwood Rotisserie is gone, I’ll go with Great Basin Brewing Company’s French Dip. I haven’t tried the French Dip at Full Belly Deli. I always get the meatball sub there. Maybe I should give that a try.
It was a great show. Glass Animals joins my “three time” club after previously seeing the band at Red Rocks in Colorado and Shoreline Amphitheatre in the Bay Area. I still haven’t seen them play “Pools” live, and that’s my favorite Glass Animals song, although “The Other Side Of Paradise” is the band’s best live song. That one rocked last night. They also played their new single “Vampire Bat” twice last night, which was odd, but I guess they’re going to make it into a music video, which should be cool.
See y’all next week!
Sports columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. He writes a weekly Monday Mailbag despite it giving him a headache and it taking several hours to write. But people seem to like it, so he does it anyway. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.
