6 Comments

Reasonable and knowledgeable folks. Thanks for this. If I were them, I would go into this confidently too. Let me see, this game could. be UNR blowout ala Kap, a slugfest as they predict, which favors Cal, or a Cal blowout ala Tedford 1.0. I'll take the last door please.

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Boise State and UNLV really are bastions of evil though.

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The fact that Nevada played nine games last year, with all of those extra practices would seem to be a factor. Plus, the fact that we have had to reshuffle the O-line and reload the D-line with guys with little experience also could be a factor. I still see Cal winning if we can have even a mediocre offense, which would be a big step up for Cal.

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I love these! Thanks Shoup and Ritenhouse for educating us on UNR. Similar to the Vegas lines, I've been thinking it's a toss-up game with an edge to Nevada. However, I've swapped my stance and think Cal has an edge due to Nevada's inability to practice consistently given the Caldor fires.

Beyond football, I hope CA/NV can control the fires soon...

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September 3, 2021
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My guess is that Nevada competes for a lot of the same recruits as Cal, particularly in the Bay Area, but loses out if the offer comes first from Cal. I believe that Nevada is continually pretty good year-in, year out because of really strong coaching.

When Nevada knocked off Cal the first time with Kaepernick, they were coached by the legendary Chris Ault, master architect of the pistol offense. He found the perfect guy to run it in Kaep, and that pistol utterly bewildered Cal's defense. They had NO answers to stop it that night. And then Nevada comes into Cal a few years later and knocks off the Bears again with an underrated and probably under recruited quarterback named Cody Fajardo. Fajardo had led Servite H.S. in the Southland to a number 3 national ranking, but it is doubtful that anyone from the Pac 12 gave him a second look.

We fast forward today, and Nevada has a quarterback being touted as a number one pick in the NFL draft. Again, not recruited by Cal or much of anyone else because he was injured his entire senior year while playing in Vacaville. I just think it takes some strong coaching to be able to identify and build up those hidden gems. Looks like Nevada scored again when hiring Jay Norvell as their head coach in 2017.

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