All I Want for Christmas...2008

Do I expect the Pack to compete for a national championship? Well, no, I don't. At least, not until the beloved Pack is able to give a decade or more of Boise St.-esque seasons; but, in the meantime, I DO expect the Pack to compete with Boise St. regularly. Yes, it was close this year, but a loss is still a loss.

However, I do think that I have some realistic wishes for next season; so, with appologies to F. F. Ellis, here's my 2008 X-mas List:

Vs. Grambling
Nevada 52, Grambling 10
This is still the first game of the year, so I'm fronting Grambling ten points.

Vs. Texas Tech
Nevada 24, Texas Tech 35
A superficial look at Tech next year would imply that they will be very, very good. They return their All-American receiver as a sophomore next season and should have a very good core to work with. Their secondary may be a bit weak (superficially, anyway), but they will still have a great product on the field. This will be the second game for us, but the first against D-1A competition. I expect us to be able to put up a reasonable number of points, make a good showing, and keep it within two scores; I don't expect us to pull it out.

At Missou
Nevada 17, Missouri 49
Missou loses 19 seniors, including a couple of safeties, a couple of tailbacks, and quite a few linemen. I am still giving the benefit of the doubt to the almost-national-contender Tigers to run over the Pack at home, but, again, I expect us to score more than a token score against them.

At UNLV
Nevada 27, UNLV 24
UNLV will by hyped up a bit again, and at home there will be at least enough talk of the cannon going red. But they almost always let themselves down. More than anything, though, I'm being a total homer here and going with the Beloved Wolf Pack because I'd kick my own butt if I didn't.

Conference, in no particular order...

At LaTech
Nevada 35, LaTech 21
I expect LaTech to improve...but not enough.

At Idaho
Nevada 45, Idaho 21
We'll see how schizoid they are next year; they could be pretty good, but, again, I don't think they'll be good enough, even in the Kibble, erh, Kibbie dome.

At Hawai'i
Nevada 27, Hawai'i 35
We may be able to avenge our loss this year, maybe, but don't bank on it. It will be fascinating to see what Hawai'i will do without Brennan, but if I were in Honolulu I wouldn't be too woried.

At Fresno St.
Nevada 28, Fresno St. 32
I think we can keep this one close, but Pat Hill is always ready for us, unless we get him in the last game of the season and they've just played at top 40 team.

Vs. New Mexico State.
Nevada 49, NMSU 28
Pack defense will do enough to keep the game a bit less close than it was in 2007; I'm not worried about the offense in this one, though.

Vs. San Jose State
Nevada 38, SJSU 24
Vengeance will be ours!!!

Vs. Utah State
Nevada 41, Utah St. 3
No shutout, but I think that this matchup will still write itself.

Vs. Boise State
Nevada 21, Boise St. 38
Something of a repeat of two years ago. Face it, we're still not going to be able to compete with them, and they're not about to let us put another scare into them. We will score, though.

So, I expect a 7-5 season; that's not too much at this point in time. While to don't expect national championship calibre at Mackay in 2008, I do, however, think that it's sad that over .500 is all I can realistically expect.