Santoro: So much has changed for Nevada and Georgia Southern

Sports Fodder:

The Nevada Wolf Pack hopes to give head coach Jeff Choate his first victory at Mackay Stadium this Saturday against the Georgia Southern Eagles. Choate, now 1-1 after a 28-26 win at Troy last Saturday, is aiming to become the first Wolf Pack head coach with a winning record since the Pack was also 2-1 heading into Week 4 of the 2022 season.

But this week's game against the Eagles is not really for and about Choate. This week's game is to begin to correct a nearly four-decade old wrong. It is about the past, when players didn't get paid and couldn't jump into the transfer portal every offseason.

It is for former head coach Chris Ault and assistants Mike Bradeson, Jeff Horton, Ken Wilson, Jim House and Ken Mizell. It is for former Pack quarterbacks Eric Beavers, Fred Gatlin and Chris Vargas. It is for former running backs Lucius Floyd, Charvez Foger and Ray Whalen. It is for former wide receivers Treamelle Taylor, Tony Logan, Bryan Calder and Ross Ortega.

It is for former offensive linemen Bob Brown, Mike Micone, Tony Edwards and Ryan O'Donnell, defensive backs Bernard Ellison, Brock Marion, Joe Peterson and Forey Duckett, defensive linemen Joe Caspers, Bill Bonsall, Neil Hulbert and Mark Drahos, linebackers Matt Clafton and Henry Rolling and, yes, even kickers Marty Zendejas and Kevin McKelvie.

This week's game is for all of the 1986 and 1990 Wolf Pack players, coaches and fans who had their hearts broken by the Georgia Southern Eagles in the Division I-AA playoff semifinals in 1986 and national title game in 1990.

This week's game is about revenge.

Yes, those of us who were there and remember the days before cell phones, meaningless bowl games, head coaching changes every two-five years, and plastic grass, video scoreboards and lights at Mackay Stadium, understand that a relatively unimportant non-conference game in early September will not erase all of the pain of losing to the Eagles in the 1986 semifinals (48-38) at Mackay Stadium or in the 1990 I-AA national title game at Statesboro, Ga. (36-13).

But it's a start.

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Georgia Southern, which won Division I-AA national titles in 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1999 and 2000, is no longer a national power. That bit of reality, of course, is also true for Nevada, which never won a I-AA national title but was regularly ranked in the Top 25 under Ault from the late 1970s until 1991.

But the two schools are now in big-boy football, chasing easy television dollars and the hollow glory of meaningless bowl games playing out of conferences (Georgia Southern in the Sun Belt and Nevada in the Mountain West) the Top 25 voters rarely pay attention to unless they have to.

Are Georgia Southern and Nevada better off now in a mid-major FBS conference than they were competing for national titles in the former Division I-AA? Well, they are certainly better off financially and, well, that's all that matters. All you have to do now for someone to send you millions of dollars in college football is show up. All the games are on TV and those stations are desperate for programming. This week's game at Mackay Stadium is on something called TruTV.

All the Pack and Georgia Southern have to do to pay bills is play at least one football factory school every year and collect a check, and then sit back and rake in the TV money checks. You don't even have to win (see Nevada the last two years) or even worry all that much about selling tickets (again, see Nevada the last two years).

The Pack jumped to big-boy football in 1992 and Georgia Southern did it a decade ago. So good-bye national championships and hello million-dollar deals for head coaches.

Where does this all leave the fans? Well, a little unsatisfied, for starters, especially for those of us who were around back in 1986 and 1990. But the schools don't care about those of us who were around in the dark years unless, of course, they are asking us for money. Neither Nevada nor Georgia Southern will ever likely even sniff a chance at a national title. But, hey, it is fun to beat a school with a more recognizable name once in a while and sneak in and out of the Top 25 rankings.

It is silly to think the Wolf Pack and Georgia Southern will ever go back to what is now called the FCS. It's sort of like wishing the price of a gallon of gas would once again be a dollar (or 35 cents, as some of us remember as children). The people involved in making college football decisions, of course, enjoy earning six and seven figures a year just for making out a schedule and showing up for the kickoff. The Wolf Pack and Eagles players also enjoy getting paid.

College football has always been a business, even in the old Division I-AA days. But in the old days that business was hidden and behind the scenes. College football was about the pageantry, the love of the game and the love of your school. These days, well, that business is no longer behind the scenes. It is shoved in every fan's face when they pay inflated prices for parking and tickets and get asked to donate to their favorite program so their head coach can buy linebackers, defensive linemen and, yes, even kickers to save his seven-figure paycheck.

Is it enjoyable to be told to shut up and donate? Of course not. But, hey, at least we have our memories.

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Georgia Southern last week lost to the Boise State Broncos, 56-45, in Statesboro, Ga. That matchup would have taken place in the Division I-AA national title game in 1990 had the Wolf Pack not beaten Boise State 59-52 in the I-AA semifinals the week before at Mackay.

Would the Broncos have beaten Georgia Southern in 1990 if given the chance? Quite possibly. Boise, after all, shredded the Pack, 30-14, at Boise State just a month before the I-AA semifinal game at Mackay. Had Nevada defensive linemen Joe Caspers (interception) and Neil Hulbert (fumble recovery) not scored touchdowns in the semifinal game at Mackay, Boise likely would have beaten the Pack. Had Boise kicker Mike Black not missed a chip-shot field goal in overtime, Boise would have definitely beaten the Pack.

Boise State was not better than the Pack in 1990. But they were close. Nevada didn't beat Georgia Southern in 1990 simply because of the travel (the game was at the other end of the country and it started at 9 a.m. Nevada time). The Pack, because of emotional, draining triple-overtime wins the previous two weeks against Furman and Boise State, was simply exhausted by the time it got to Statesboro.

Well, this week Georgia Southern has to travel across the country and play at altitude. It's too bad the Pack didn't also dump a 9 p.m. (Reno time) kickoff on the Eagles this Saturday (it is 4 p.m.), so they would have had to deal with severe body clock issues like the Pack had to battle 34 years ago.

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The Wolf Pack, as of Wednesday morning, was a 1-point underdog to Georgia Southern for this week's game. The Pack was a 3-point underdog when the line opened.

The Pack should be favored. Georgia Southern can't tackle, can't stop the run and will be playing a game roughly 2,600 miles from home. The Pack just beat a Sun Belt Conference team (Troy) in their own backyard. Georgia Southern just lost to a Mountain West team (Boise State) at home.

Georgia Southern turned Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty (267 yards, six touchdowns) into a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate. Boise State freshman Sire Gaines also ran for 110 yards and caught three passes for 44 yards and scored two touchdowns. Boise State averaged 10.6 yards per rushing carry on Georgia Southern.

The Wolf Pack, if things go to plan, might have three 100-yard rushers (among running backs Savion Red, Patrick Garwo and Sean Dollars and quarterback Brendon Lewis) this weekend. Georgia Southern's shaky defense was exhausted last week in the fourth quarter against Boise State. Imagine how they will feel in the fourth quarter after playing at about 4,500 feet in the air. In Statesboro, high altitude is considered walking up to the second floor of the Bulloch County Courthouse.

A win on Saturday will not give the Wolf Pack a national title. But there is still a lot riding on this game for the Pack. A Pack victory will continue to prove that Choate has his program pointed in the right direction. It will avoid an 0-2 start to Choate's career at Mackay Stadium. It would keep the Pack on a path to its first bowl game since 2021 and it will send Georgia Southern on a 2,600-mile flight back home in a sour mood.

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The good news for the Wolf Pack is that Tracy Ham will not be in uniform for Georgia Southern on Saturday. That, alone, should make the Pack a two-touchdown favorite.

Ham was one of the more explosive and productive quarterbacks in college football in the 1980s. That fact, of course, was not commonly known outside of Division I-AA. But Ham was the first college quarterback to rush for 3,000 yards and pass for 5,000 in a career.

He didn't get all of those yards against the Pack on Dec. 13, 1986, at Mackay Stadium. But don't tell that to the 13,715 fans who crammed the tiny stadium that afternoon. They saw Ham run the ball 26 times for 162 yards and two touchdowns and also complete 8-of-16 passes for 147 yards and another two scores.

Wolf Pack quarterback Eric Beavers was also brilliant that day, completing 32-of-50 passes for 360 yards and four touchdowns. But Ham was unstoppable as Georgia Southern kept the ball for nearly 37 minutes in a 48-38 win over the Wolf Pack, ending the season of one of the greatest teams in Nevada history (they were 13-1).

Ham went on to have an outstanding pro career in the Canadian Football League. The CFL, unlike the NFL back in 1987, valued dynamic black quarterbacks who could run and throw. See, for example, Warren Moon, Damon Allen, Chuck Ealey, Henry Burris, J.C. Watts and Condredge Holloway.

Ham was drafted in the ninth round in 1987 by the Los Angeles Rams but signed a three-year contract after the draft with Edmonton of the CFL, telling the Associated Press that the Rams wouldn't let him play quarterback. Ham would play in the CFL from 1987-99, completing 2,670-of-4,943 passes for 40,534 yards and 284 touchdowns as well as rush for 8,043 yards and 62 touchdowns. He also won two Grey Cups (the CFL's Super Bowl) in 1987 and 1995, winning the Grey Cup MVP in 1995 with Baltimore, where he was a teammate of former Wolf Pack offensive lineman Shahriar Pourdanesh.

He was the CFL MVP in 1989. Ham won two national titles at Georgia Southern (1985, 1986) and was elected to the Eagles' Hall of Fame in 1992 and had his No. 8 retired. He is also in the College Football Hall of Fame.

So, yes, it's a good thing for the Wolf Pack that Ham won't be on the field Saturday, even if he is now 60 years old.