Nevada Football: Wolf Pack Must Commit To Winning Football After Firing Of Ken Wilson
The Wolf Pack must put the effort into building a winner after firing Ken Wilson on Friday.
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Nevada Fires Ken Wilson After Two Season And A 4-20 Record
On Friday, Nevada fired Ken Wilson after two seasons as the head coach of the Wolf Pack program.
Show of hands, who is surprised by the firing.
If you are surprised, then you are lying.
Anyone who has paid attention to the Nevada football program knew that Wilson’s time was up. The 4-20 record in two seasons as head coach and an offense and defense that was horrendous doomed Wilson. Also, the third thing that brought the Wilson era to an end was Nevada athletic director Stephanie Rempe did not hire Wilson.
During his two year tenure as head coach at Nevada, Wilson failed to keep the Wolf Pack as a competitive team in the Mountain West. Wilson’s predecessor, Jay Norvell, elevated Nevada into the championship picture despite not winning the Mountain West.
Wilson never got the Wolf Pack football program to those heights under Norvell. Instead, Nevada found itself at the bottom of the conference standings. Nevada only won two conference games during the Wilson era. Those conference wins came this season when Nevada defeated San Diego State and New Mexico.
After the 2022 season, Wilson did infuse the Wolf Pack with talent via the transfer portal. Players like RB Sean Dollars and QB Brendon Lewis to name a few were brought in to pump life to an anemic offense. But the results did not improve as Nevada’s offense was statistically worse this season than last season. The Wolf Pack offense in 2022 averaged 18.8 points per game and this season they averaged 17.3 points per game.
The Nevada defense gave up 33.4 points per game this season. That number is worse than last season when they gave up 30.9 points per game. An offense that got worse and defense that failed to improve. Add in the coaching staff that looked incapable of getting the best out of the players, you have a disaster that is Nevada under Ken Wilson. And now he is out as head coach of the Wolf Pack.
So where does Nevada go from here?
Well if you look at the list of potential candidates per Nevada Sports Net’s Chris Murray, it is a very unique pool of candidates.
(I do like that Nevada can hire a head coach from Yale whose last name is Reno. And also, if Nevada wants publicity, there are better ways to get it than to hire Jon Gruden)
Whoever Nevada hires as head football coach, I will say that there has to be a concerted effort from the athletic director on down to elevate Nevada football to a championship level.
In the past, Nevada has had a lot of success with a limited amount of money and resources. In this era of the transfer portal and NIL, the Wolf Pack will need to step up their commitment to winning football.
Nevada has shown recently that they are more committed to winning football such as raising the head coaching salary. But Nevada can’t just dip their feet into the pool of competitive college football in the 21st century, they need to jump all the way into the pool.
Yes, I know of the struggles Nevada has in terms of money, resources and in state talent. But Boise State has almost all of those disadvantages that Nevada has and Boise State has been successful for 25+ years.
It is past time for Nevada to get serious about winning football. Firing Ken Wilson is a step in the right direction, now it is up to AD Stephanie Rempe and the Wolf Pack nation to elevate the program.
Ken Wilson seems to be a good man who loves Nevada and the football program. But the Wolf Pack have to see the bigger picture and bring in a head coach who can get Nevada back into contention. And most importantly, the Nevada athletic department and the school must set that coach up for success year in and year out.
Nevada is one of three programs in the Mountain West who have not played in a conference championship game in football. The Wolf Pack’s rivals to the south, UNLV, will play in their first conference championship game on Saturday.
Time to step up your football program, Wolf Pack.
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