The Mountain West as a complete conference isn\u2019t going to be as competitive as it was last season, as the clear favorites are the Boise State Broncos and Fresno State Bulldogs in their respective divisions. <\/p>\n
\nNevada<\/h3>\n
\n
- Mountain West Conference 2014-15 College Football Previews:<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Head Coach: Brian Polian<\/strong><\/li>\n
- 2013 Record: 4-8<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Nevada Gambling Odds to win BCS Championship: (Field) 100-1<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Nevada Gambling Odds to win Mountain West Mountain Division: OFF<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Nevada Gambling Odds to win Mountain West Conference: 7\/1<\/strong><\/li>\n
- [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The West Division, however, has a close competition for second place, and that\u2019s a competition the Nevada Wolf Pack should have an edge in at the start of the year.<\/p>\n
Nevada\u2019s biggest competition for second place in the division will be the San Diego State Aztecs. SDSU should be strong this season, but a difficult schedule with tough away games could be the difference maker between second and third place in the division.<\/p>\n
Team Strengths:<\/h3>\n
Quarterback Cody Fajardo played much of the 2013 college football season with a leg injury that took away a key aspect of his game: mobility. But even with his mobility limited, he managed to throw the ball at a decent rate. That efficiency should increase this season with his returned health, but also with the team\u2019s group of receivers.<\/p>\n
\nCLICK to GRAB OUR BEST Expert Sports & Football Picks for 2014 GAMBLING!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
With Richy Turner leading the way on the outside, Fajardo will have at least one go-to option that can take the pressure off of him to make plays with his legs.<\/p>\n
The 6\u20195\u201d senior is a big target, and one who caught for 755 yards and 61 catches last season.<\/p>\n
Defensively, the frontline should be solid, but it wasn\u2019t as good as advertised against the run in 2013. It will need to improve that part of the game this year, but with players such as Brock Hekking, Ian Seau and Lenny Jones on the ends, this group should improve.<\/p>\n
Team Weaknesses:<\/h3>\n
The pistol offense and high-scoring, efficient rushing groups have become synonymous with Nevada football. That is, until last season.<\/p>\n
Under a first-year coach, the team\u2019s infamous and effective approach fell off the map. The team was held to an anemic 3.8 yards per carry, and it scored just 26.9 points per game, which was only good enough for 76th in the country.<\/p>\n
The good news? The team returns eight starters on that side of the field. The bad news? The offensive line last season was a major problem, and it would be risky to assume it got better this offseason.
\n[soliloquy id=”82219″]
\nOn the other side of the ball, you\u2019ll notice a familiar theme, which is an unreliable secondary. It sounds strange to say that with Charles Garrett leading the way, as he\u2019s one of the best that the Mountain West has to offer, but he can\u2019t cover every spot on the field by himself.<\/p>\nThe Wolf Pack sure wish he could, but he\u2019s going to need someone else to step up if the team is going to improve against the long ball and breakaway runs.<\/p>\n
2014-15 Boise State Football Gambling Prediction: 6-6<\/h3>\n
Nevada\u2019s schedule is friendlier this season than it was in 2013. That, as well as having more experience on the roster from returning players, should result in at least two more wins in 2014.<\/p>\n
If Nevada can show a true turnaround on defense while returning to the effective offensive team it\u2019s historically been, this team could compete with Fresno State for a spot atop the division. The Bulldogs are going to be reeling from significant losses, and while they\u2019re the favorites, they\u2019ll be vulnerable.<\/p>\n
All that said, it would take a significant defensive improvement for this group to truly make the No. 1 spot in the division its own.<\/p>\n
Expect a second or third place finish in the West Division.<\/p>\n
2014 Nevada Schedule<\/h3>\n
\n
- Sat, Aug 30 vs Southern Utah<\/li>\n
- Fri, Sept 5 vs Washington St<\/li>\n
- Sat, Sept 13 @ Arizona<\/li>\n
- Sat, Sept 27 @ San Jose State<\/li>\n
- Sat, Oct 4 vs Boise State<\/li>\n
- Sat, Oct 11 vs Colorado State<\/li>\n
- Sat, Oct 18 @ BYU<\/li>\n
- Sun, Oct 26 @ Hawaii<\/li>\n
- Sat, Nov 1 vs San Diego State<\/li>\n
- Sat, Nov 15 @ Air Force<\/li>\n
- Sat, Nov 22 vs Fresno State<\/li>\n
- Sat, Nov 29 @ UNLV<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
CLICK HERE TO GRAB OUR BEST Expert CFB Picks for 2014 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2014-15 Football Previews \u2013 (Mountain West) \u2013 Wolf Pack The Mountain West as a complete conference isn\u2019t going to be as competitive as it was last season, as the clear favorites are the Boise State Broncos and Fresno State Bulldogs in their respective divisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":66624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[62612,63154,14304,50611,16229,16018,63293,50850,50851,50852,7495,50849],"class_list":["post-80812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2014-bcs-lines","tag-2014-mountain-west-football-previews","tag-football-season-preview","tag-mountain-west-football-predictions","tag-mountain-west-odds","tag-mountain-west-picks","tag-nevada-football","tag-nevada-football-predictions","tag-nevada-gambling-odds","tag-nevada-schedule","tag-nevada-wolf-pack","tag-wolf-pack-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80812"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81310,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80812\/revisions\/81310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}