Eric the Red
Team HuskerBoard
Pack football team gets its biggest stage
DAN HINXMAN
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 8/26/2007
In six days, the Nevada football team, in its white-over-blue jerseys, will jog out of its locker room and onto the Memorial Stadium turf in Lincoln, Neb., where it will be greeted, so to speak, by a sea of 85,000, screaming, red-clad Nebraska fans.
And this ...
5 national titles;
3 Heisman Trophy winners;
106 All-Americans;
44 bowl game appearances;
282 consecutive sellouts;
43 conference titles;
and 803 all-time victories.
It's no contest, Wolf Pack head coach Chris Ault said last week. The Nebraska Cornhuskers are unequivocally the most storied program the Pack has ever faced.
"Without question," Ault said. "It's one thing to face them, and then it's one thing to play. We know where we stand with this thing. ... You've got a storied program. I think that's a thrill. I think anybody in their right mind would give their right arm to have this opportunity."
It is an opportunity that Wolf Pack players are eagerly awaiting, even if they have no idea what to expect.
"I don't know because I've never experienced it before," nose guard and two-year captain Matt Hines said. "I'm excited. I think it will be a good experience, but I don't know because I've never seen that many people in a stadium before."
Added junior running back Luke Lippincott, "It means everything to me. If we're going to be a Division (I-A) school, in order to be one of the best, we have to play the best. In order to make our program better, to get better recruits and to just get this school more known nationwide, we have to play those teams and win."
The anticipated crowd of 85,000 would no doubt be the largest ever to see a Nevada football game. Attendance records are not kept, but it is believed that the largest crowd previously was the 70,149 who watched Nevada beat Washington, 28-17, in Seattle in 2003.
And whether there are 85 fans in the stands or 85,000, Nevada's task is a large one. The 20th-ranked Cornhuskers are a three-touchdown favorite for the 12:30 p.m. kickoff (televised regionally on ABC).
"We're playing in a hostile territory, it's a team ranked in the top 20, and it's your opening game, and you're a young team," Ault said. "All those things come into play."
The tradition is defined in the numbers listed above, specifically two of those numbers.
Only three schools -- Michigan (860), Notre Dame (821) and Texas (810) -- have more victories than does Nebraska, and no team has won more games since 1970 than Nebraska has.
No team has more national championships since 1970 (Miami and Alabama also have five). Nebraska won titles in 1971, 1972, 1995, 1996 and 1998. Notre Dame has won eight national titles since The Associated Press began certifying a champion in 1936.
Interestingly, the Wolf Pack will have played back-to-back games against two of the nation's most storied programs. Miami defeated Nevada, 21-20, in the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho on New Year's Eve.
"When we played Miami, people asked us about the 'wow' factor, but we played them in Boise," Hines said. "Here, we're going into their territory, their stadium, all those people. Hopefully, when we get there Friday, it will take away some of that 'wow' factor for us. But I can't say there isn't going to be, because there is going to be a 'wow' factor for us."
Some might argue that Nebraska's stay atop the "most storied program Nevada has ever faced" list will be a short one, though. The Wolf Pack will travel to South Bend, Ind., to take on Notre Dame in 2009.
"When we moved to Division I-A (in 1992), this was the future," said defensive coordinator Ken Wilson, who has been an assistant under Ault at Nevada since 1989. "Now the future's here. We've lined up against some of those teams. It's not enough to play them anymore. Certainly, with 80,000 people, it's going to be exciting. But once the ball's kicked off, it's football. We're going to play hard, I know that.
"It'll be interesting to see the look in their eyes. Miami and Nebraska, those are the teams you want to play."
Lippincott, who said everyone on the team "has Google-earthed (Memorial Stadium) to see how big it is," said he thinks the Pack can use the underdog role to its advantage.
"I think it will actually help us get fired up, pumped up," he said. "It'll be like pilgrims in an unholy land, coming in there like a band of brothers."
DAN HINXMAN
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 8/26/2007
In six days, the Nevada football team, in its white-over-blue jerseys, will jog out of its locker room and onto the Memorial Stadium turf in Lincoln, Neb., where it will be greeted, so to speak, by a sea of 85,000, screaming, red-clad Nebraska fans.
And this ...
5 national titles;
3 Heisman Trophy winners;
106 All-Americans;
44 bowl game appearances;
282 consecutive sellouts;
43 conference titles;
and 803 all-time victories.
It's no contest, Wolf Pack head coach Chris Ault said last week. The Nebraska Cornhuskers are unequivocally the most storied program the Pack has ever faced.
"Without question," Ault said. "It's one thing to face them, and then it's one thing to play. We know where we stand with this thing. ... You've got a storied program. I think that's a thrill. I think anybody in their right mind would give their right arm to have this opportunity."
It is an opportunity that Wolf Pack players are eagerly awaiting, even if they have no idea what to expect.
"I don't know because I've never experienced it before," nose guard and two-year captain Matt Hines said. "I'm excited. I think it will be a good experience, but I don't know because I've never seen that many people in a stadium before."
Added junior running back Luke Lippincott, "It means everything to me. If we're going to be a Division (I-A) school, in order to be one of the best, we have to play the best. In order to make our program better, to get better recruits and to just get this school more known nationwide, we have to play those teams and win."
The anticipated crowd of 85,000 would no doubt be the largest ever to see a Nevada football game. Attendance records are not kept, but it is believed that the largest crowd previously was the 70,149 who watched Nevada beat Washington, 28-17, in Seattle in 2003.
And whether there are 85 fans in the stands or 85,000, Nevada's task is a large one. The 20th-ranked Cornhuskers are a three-touchdown favorite for the 12:30 p.m. kickoff (televised regionally on ABC).
"We're playing in a hostile territory, it's a team ranked in the top 20, and it's your opening game, and you're a young team," Ault said. "All those things come into play."
The tradition is defined in the numbers listed above, specifically two of those numbers.
Only three schools -- Michigan (860), Notre Dame (821) and Texas (810) -- have more victories than does Nebraska, and no team has won more games since 1970 than Nebraska has.
No team has more national championships since 1970 (Miami and Alabama also have five). Nebraska won titles in 1971, 1972, 1995, 1996 and 1998. Notre Dame has won eight national titles since The Associated Press began certifying a champion in 1936.
Interestingly, the Wolf Pack will have played back-to-back games against two of the nation's most storied programs. Miami defeated Nevada, 21-20, in the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho on New Year's Eve.
"When we played Miami, people asked us about the 'wow' factor, but we played them in Boise," Hines said. "Here, we're going into their territory, their stadium, all those people. Hopefully, when we get there Friday, it will take away some of that 'wow' factor for us. But I can't say there isn't going to be, because there is going to be a 'wow' factor for us."
Some might argue that Nebraska's stay atop the "most storied program Nevada has ever faced" list will be a short one, though. The Wolf Pack will travel to South Bend, Ind., to take on Notre Dame in 2009.
"When we moved to Division I-A (in 1992), this was the future," said defensive coordinator Ken Wilson, who has been an assistant under Ault at Nevada since 1989. "Now the future's here. We've lined up against some of those teams. It's not enough to play them anymore. Certainly, with 80,000 people, it's going to be exciting. But once the ball's kicked off, it's football. We're going to play hard, I know that.
"It'll be interesting to see the look in their eyes. Miami and Nebraska, those are the teams you want to play."
Lippincott, who said everyone on the team "has Google-earthed (Memorial Stadium) to see how big it is," said he thinks the Pack can use the underdog role to its advantage.
"I think it will actually help us get fired up, pumped up," he said. "It'll be like pilgrims in an unholy land, coming in there like a band of brothers."
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