Joe Santoro
Sports Fodder:
The first big game on the Nevada Wolf Pack football schedule is roughly nine weeks away on Sept. 6 at Mackay Stadium against Sacramento State.
Yes, we understand the official Wolf Pack season begins about eight weeks from now on Aug. 30 at Penn State. But that's the Pack's Indecent Proposal game, the one not talked about in mixed company. The Pack, roughly a 45-point underdog at Penn State, will grit its teeth, close its eyes, hope it ends quickly and then come home with a fat $1.45 million paycheck, making the accountants happy.
And then we'll get ready to begin the real season on Sept. 6 against the hungry, hungry Hornets.
The Sac State game is when we'll find out if the Pack program has a true heartbeat. It will be the home opener against an FCS opponent from the Big Sky Conference. The Pack, which must give $400,000 of its Penn State appearance to Sac State, should even be favored on Sept. 6.
The problem with Sac State is that they won't be simply closing their eyes, gritting their teeth, hoping the afternoon ends quickly and at Mackay Stadium just for a paycheck.
Those ungrateful Interstate 80 neighbors to the west are planning on coming to Reno for $400,000, a victory and the chance to stick the knife in the heart of a hoity-toity Mountain West program that thinks it’s better than the little old Big Sky Conference.
The Hornets, be warned, think they belong in a FBS conference like the Mountain West. Why the always-behind-the-curve Mountain West hasn't already added the Hornets to their lineup for 2026 is a bit confusing. Heck, the Hornets think they should be joining the Pac-12 in 2026 instead of Texas State.
The always-backward-thinking NCAA didn't agree this spring and denied Sac State's request to make the jump to big-boy football. But that, of course, hasn't stopped the Hornets, who will move all the rest of their sports not named football to the Big West a year from now. The Hornets are already threatening lawsuits against the NCAA and, well, we all know how well the NCAA reacts to lawsuits. It cowers and goes to hide in the nearest closet.
The Hornets truly believe, despite their 3-9 record of a year ago, they can come to Reno the first week of September and hit the biggest jackpot of the weekend. It should be a very entertaining Wolf Pack home opener.
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Why should the Wolf Pack be concerned about a 3-9 Big Sky team? Well, a lot of reasons.
Have you seen the Pack play the past three seasons? That's one reason. Are you aware that the Pack will likely take a seven-game losing streak (six to end the 2024 season and one at Penn State) into the Sac State game? That reason No. 2. And do you understand that the UNLV Rebel offensive coordinator and offensive genius that put 45 and 38 points on the Pack the last two years is now the Sac State head coach with his own FCS-vs.-FBS ax to grind?
Yes, for some reason, the Rebels didn't immediately hire Brennan Marion to be their head coach when Barry Odom jumped for the dollar signs to take over at Purdue after last season. Marion then took the Sac State top job and clearly intends to make the Hornets every bit as good, if not better, than any school in the Mountain West or Pac-12, moving forward.
Marion was always the engine that ran the Rebels the last two seasons, even though Odom got most of the credit. Marion and his Go-Go Offense averaged about 415 yards and 35 points a game over the last two seasons. He did it with four different starting quarterbacks (Doug Brumfield, Jayden Maiava, Matthew Sluka and Hajj-Malik Williams), a stable of running backs (Vincent Davis, Jai'Den Thomas, Donavyn Lester, Courtney Reese, Kylin James, Greg Burrell) and receivers (Kaleo Balungay, Ricky White, Jacob DeJesus, Senika McKie).
Marion's Rebels scored 40-plus on Vanderbilt, UTEP, Hawaii, Nevada and New Mexico in 2023 and dumped 30 or more on 10 of their 14 opponents. Last year, they blitzed Fresno State for 59 and Utah State for 50 sandwiched around a 41-point effort against Syracuse. They shredded San Diego State for 41 and Nevada for 38.
Marion went to Mountain West schools this past off-season and stole a dozen players and counting, including five from UNLV and even two (running back Savion Red and defensive lineman Kristopher Ross) from the Wolf Pack. Ross came to the Pack from Texas because of Pack head coach Jeff Choate and is now at Sac State, it seems, because of Marion.
The Hornets and Marion are serious about proving they belong in FBS on (the scoreboard) and off (NIL dollars) the field. The Pack, which has really been a fake Mountain West team in Big Sky Conference clothing the last three years, needs to be ready.
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The UNLV Rebels found out exactly what their football program means to Allegiant Stadium recently.
The good folks that run the monster known as Allegiant Stadium told the Rebels to move their football game against Idaho State this season from Sept. 13 to Aug. 23 just to make room for the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight on Sept. 13.
We fully understand Beyonce (who will be at Allegiant later this month) and the NFL pushing the Rebels around on the schedule like they are just another monster truck rally. But a boxing match that can fit in on any date?
Why did they have to move the UNLV-Idaho State game a full three weeks?
The Rebels' move to Allegiant has always felt wrong, artificial and a little bit desperate. The Rebels always look like a 3-year-old boy putting on their father's suit when they play at Allegiant. It feels forced and silly.
But, hey, its Las Vegas, the city that invented fake, forced and silly. But moving a game three weeks earlier leaves no doubt as to how much the Rebels truly belong at Allegiant. The game against Idaho State will be the earliest on the calendar in Rebel history, eclipsing the Aug. 27, 2022, game (also against Idaho State) by four days.
The Rebels now have three bye weeks this season (Sept. 13, Sept. 27 and Oct. 25). They will take off more days in a season than Joel Embiid.
Now, no matter what UNLV tells you, nobody in his or her right mind wants to play a college football game on Aug. 23. It's like playing a hockey or basketball game in August and a baseball game in the middle of March (oh, wait). The players aren't ready, and the fans aren't ready. If you lose, your season is over before anyone realizes it started. If you win, nobody will remember it by Sept. 1.
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When will the so-called Pac-12 have enough integrity, honesty and guts to officially change its name?
First, most of the schools would need a map, tour guide and GPS to even find the Pacific and, second, the conference starting in 2026 will only have eight football teams and nine basketball teams.
Washington State and Oregon State, the two schools the other 10 Pac-12 schools left behind to beg for food and shelter, have added five Mountain West schools (San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State, Utah State and Colorado State), one Sun Belt team (Texas State) and one West Coast Conference team (Gonzaga, which doesn't play football) and will pawn it off as the new Pac-12.
That is supposed to be the new Pac-12? USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Arizona and Arizona State was the Pac-12. This thing with five Mountain West schools, Gonzaga and Texas State is like sticking Ferrari hubcaps on a Ford Maverick and entering it in a Formula 1 race.
Do they think the television networks, which run college sports, are that stupid or simply that desperate for late-night programming? We get it. This is the same as if Elvis' Graceland was destroyed in a fire and replaced by a mobile home in a trailer court five miles away and they still called it Graceland.
The tourists, no doubt, would still show up just to buy a limited-edition Elvis bobblehead in the gift shop. The new Pac-12 is banking on college football fans and viewers to be that stupid and desperate for entertainment.
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Rafael Devers, it turns out, hasn't exactly caused a run on postseason tickets for the San Francisco Giants.
The former Boston Red Sox malcontent has gone 10-for-50 (.200) since joining the Giants on June 17, with two doubles, two homers and five RBI. He's struck out 21 times and walked eight times and has scored just four runs. His OPS is a pedestrian .670.
In short, he's been Luis Matos.
The worst part is that the Giants have gone 4-9 since the trade, getting swept in a three-game series by Miami and losing two of three to the Chicago White Sox.
If Devers was on your fantasy team, you'd be trying to deal him before his value completely disintegrates. The Giants are probably stuck with him for the next 10 years.
The message here, though, is to not panic just yet. You shouldn't have expected Devers to come to San Francisco and immediately become the next Barry Bonds, and you shouldn't expect his current struggles to continue until the Giants fall completely out of the wild-card race.