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Nevada's Jeff Rowe By Ron Jumper The WAC hasn’t been a conference that has received much praise over the years. It hasn’t been a big producer of great players or high caliber teams. In fact, for years I only referred to it as the Worthless Athletic Conference. With Dan Hawkins leaving Boise State, many would say the conference wasn’t going to have even one legitimate team this season. That can always be debated but there is one thing I can tell you. They have the best-kept secret in Nevada quarterback Jeff Rowe.  I bet you had no idea Rowe was in the top 25 in the nation last season in yards and touchdown passes, with 2,925 yards passing and 21 TD tosses. He was in the top 35 in both QB rating and completion percentage, with a rating of 137.79 and a completion percentage of 62%. To put that in perspective, his rating was higher than Chris Leak, JaMarcus Russell, Brett Basanez, Charlie Whitehurst, Brodie Croyle, Chad Henne, Michael Robinson, and even Jay Cutler. What makes his rating and completion percentage even more impressive is that he kept those good statistics despite also being in the top 20 in pass attempts. Nevada was 15th in points per game and 14th in total offense last season. Rowe led the Wolfpack to 9 wins and a Hawaii Bowl victory over the University of Central Florida in 2005. Not to bad for a young man from Reno, NV. The Nevada football program as a whole has somewhat resurrected itself into a competitive football team. Before last season, basketball was the only real attention-getter the school had. Now, this is a team looking to place itself at the top of the WAC for seasons to come. Head Coach Chris Ault has a very unique offense that he has brought to Nevada. He calls it the “Pistol” offense. In this offense, the quarterback lines up roughly three yards away from center and the halfback lines up a few yards directly behind him. It allows for both quick handoffs and quick throws, not to mention keeping the defense off balance throughout the game. The first time I saw it, I thought it could never work but it kept working over and over. In fact, it worked good enough to average 34.2 points a game. The part that really jumps out at you is that this offense lead the nation in time of possession at 33:12 per contest. They were 22nd in the nation in rushing with 199.5 yards a game. This season, the offense returns 7 starters. If the new starters on the offensive line can get in-sync early, this offense will once again be able to move the ball all over the field. The defense was definitely the weakness on this team. It ranked 101st as a unit in 2005, which you should keep in mind there are only 117 Division I teams. The bright side is that the unit didn’t allow a 100-yard rusher in the last 8 games and 5 of the front 7 will be back again this season. The secondary allowed a mind-boggling 269.3 yards a game and it only returns 1 starter. That one starter is CB Joe Garcia, who lead the team in interceptions with 4. My thinking is that it might not be such a bad thing for those other starters to not be coming back. Maybe give some young guns a chance to fill the void. The problem with this team having the same success as last season lies in the schedule. With the first two games at Fresno State and at Arizona State, an 0-2 start is very possible. When they get back home, they have Colorado State and Northwestern waiting. The next two games are on the road at UNLV and Hawaii. This team could literally start anywhere from 5-1 to 0-6. One thing that is surprisingly certain though, the “Pistol” offense will be exciting to watch. ****** On another note… Dennis Erickson has his hands full, but if anyone can turn around the Idaho football program it would be Erickson. Having coaching experience previously at Idaho, not to mention Miami and the San Francisco 49ers, should allow for him to quickly raise the standards in Idaho. Erickson wasted no time making his mark on the Vandals program. The tickets sales have gone drastically up and recruits suddenly want to play football in Moscow. Erickson has already found his way into the deep talent pool that is California, having signed 10 players from there for his first recruiting class. Think about that for a second, from California to Idaho. Talk about a culture shock, these young men must really beleive in Erickson. Back to reality, this is a 2-9 team with only 14 returning starters. Erickson is probably the answer long term, but don’t expect too much to change this season. Anything above 3 or 4 wins would be an achievement for this team. The good thing about playing in the WAC, though, is that it will only take a couple of solid recruiting classes to completely change the talent level on this team. The incoming freshman for this season are ranked as one of the top non-BCS recruiting classes. Running back Andre Harris should help add some balance to an offense that did rank a very solid 28th in passing last season. With all that being said, I expect Idaho to emerge as a consistent team in the WAC over the next few years. They just don’t have the facilities or the talent pool to draw from to really ever become a nationally prominent football program. Having 6 or 7 win seasons in the WAC is really the limit for a school like Idaho, but who said there was anything wrong with that? July 25, 2006 |
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Be Careful What You Wish For
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Jumpology: My Bracket Jumpology: Scouting The Heavyweights Jumpology: Reviewing The Bracket
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