Coming off its second bye week of the season, Utah State will play host to Nevada for the final time as a conference foe. For more than 30 years, the Aggies and Wolf Pack have (usually) been in the same conference, starting in 1992 when Nevada joined USU in the Big West, before both teams eventually migrated to the WAC and later Mountain West. Now, with Utah State set to make the jump to the Pac-12 and leave Nevada behind in the MW, it’ll be time for one last showdown in a rivalry that’s lasted the entire modern era of these two often-overlooked programs in the western U.S.
This is the in-depth preseason preview of Utah State’s ninth opponent of the season, the Nevada Wolf Pack.
Other Opponent Previews
Game Info
- Game Day: Nov. 8
- Location: Merlin Olsen Field (Logan, UT)
- Kickoff Time: 5:30 p.m.
- TV Broadcast: CBS Sports Network
- Radio Broadcast: KVNU 102.1 FM / 610 AM
Quick-Hit Info on Nevada
- Head Coach: Jeff Choate (2nd season at Nevada, 3-10 record)
- 2024 Record: 3-10
- 2024 Offense Rank: 105th (23.1 points per game)
- 2024 Defense Rank: 95th (28.8 points allowed per game)
- Returning Starters — (4 offense, 2 defense)
- 2025 Preseason Average Ranking — 124.3
Returning Production Rank — 126th
History of Utah State vs this opponent
- All-Time Series: Nevada leads 8-19
- Series During MW Era: Utah State leads 3-2
- First-Ever Meeting: Nov. 9, 1904 (Nevada won 24-5)
- Most Recent Meeting: Nov. 11, 2023 (Utah State won 41-24)
This is a series that Nevada dominated for the better part of 20 years — from 1992 to 2011 — spanning the time in which the Aggies and Wolf Pack were in the Big West and later the WAC (Nevada was 12-3 against USU in that stretch). Since both teams joined the Mountain West, the series has evened out with a slight edge toward the Aggies. Nevada’s only two wins against Utah State game in 2016 and 2020, years in which the Aggies won a combined four games. In all other years (2015, 2019, 2023) Utah State went to a bowl game and beat Nevada, twice by blowout scores.
Opposing Players to Watch
- Chubba Purdy (QB)
- Herschel Turner (RB) – former Utah State athlete
- Marcus Bellon (WR/PR)
- Thomas Witte (DT)
- Stone Combs (LB)
- AJ Odums (CB)
The Wolf Pack in 2024
Nevada hired Jeff Choate to take over a program that saw a steep decline after Ken Wilson took over for Jay Norvell when the latter jumped ship to coach at Colorado State. Wilson led the Wolf Pack to a 4-20 overall record in two seasons, turning a once-consistently solid program into an FBS bottom-feeder. Choate, who cut his teeth as a head coach at Montana State from 2016 to 2020 (and earning two FCS Playoff berths) was brought in to stabilize the floundering program in a time where having a good football team could make-or-break a program in the rapidly-evolving landscape of conference realignment (he’s also a former Utah State coach, being a graduate assistant in 2002 and then safeties and special team coach from 2003-04)
Unfortunately for Choate, and Nevada, things didn’t go smoothly in year one. The record technically was better, 3-10 vs 2-10, but the Wolf pack went winless in conference play when it had at least managed two such wins in 2023.
The strange thing about Nevada, though, is how close it consistently came to winning. Six of its losses were by one score or less, five of those were by less than a touchdown. And these close games included matchups with two eventual College Football Playoff squads, SMU (29-24) and Boise State (28-21). Nevada was one of just two teams last year to have at least 10 losses but also have a point differential better than -151 (Nevada’s was -74).
Simply put, the Wolf Pack may very well have been the best 3-10 team that ever existed, whatever that statement may be worth.
2025 Season Prospects
Building on the close-but-almost-never-quite-good-enough foundation will be tricky for Nevada given it ranks 126th in returning production. Choate had clearly begun a rebuild, one that could revive Nevada football but so much was lost to offseason attrition.
Quarterback Brendon Lewis accounted for a significant portion of the team’s offense (2,290 pass yards, 775 rush yards and 24 total touchdowns) and he’s now the QB for Memphis. Top running back Savion Red (119 rush, 687 yards, eight TDs) and each of the top two receivers, Jaden Smith (62 receptions, 849 yards, seven TDs) and Cortez Braham (56 receptions, 724 yards, four TDs) are gone as well. On top of all that, five of the top seven offensive linemen (including four starters) are also gone.
There are a lot of empty shoes to be filled on the offensive side of the ball.
Filling the biggest shoes, those at quarterback, is Chubba Purdy, the sixth-year quarterback who spent his first four seasons at Nebraska and Florida State. Purdy transferred to Nevada prior to 2024, likely in hopes of winning the starting job over Lewis. That didn’t materialize but now the way has been cleared for Purdy to take over.
Purdy should follow in the steps of Lewis as a dual-threat QB. In the eight games across his career where he’s played extended snaps at QB (defined as any game where he threw at least 10 passes), he’s completed 58.1% of his passes for 864 yards while rushing for 329 yards (including a career-best 105 rush yards at Wisconsin in 2023 while playing for Nebraska). His efficiency is certainly something to worry about, with his career completion percentage of 54.8 and a 7-to-8 TD-INT ratio, but his brief showings at Nevada have provided some promise. Last year Purdy went 18 of 25 for 239 yards with one TD and one INT across his seven appearances.
To fill out the weapon slots around Purdy, Choate leaned into internal development rather than spending tons of time searching the transfer portal. He did bring in Jordan Brown from Texas Tech, but the other top receivers are a pair of returners, Marcus Bellon and Marshawn Brown. Bellon caught 39 passes for 522 yards and four touchdowns and seems primed to become a potentially all-conference level producer as a wide receiver this year (he’s also a preseason All-MW punt returner). Brown, a redshirt sophomore, doesn’t share that level of production in his history, but brings enticing size with his 6-foot-4 frame (something much of the remaining WR corps at Nevada largely lacks).
The offensive line is where Choate really started to hit the portal. His top two returners, Andrew Madrigal and Josh Grabowski, will anchor the interior offensive line at center and guard. The remaining spots figure to be filled by a trio of transfers — Hadine Diaby from Tennessee State, Trenton Scott from Texas St. and Jack Foster of Idaho. All three were full-time starters at their previous stops.
Behind the big hogs at running back there’s a small host of options. Aggie fans will remember the name Herschel Turner, the young RB who starred a few times in the Aggie Blue but is now wearing Wolf Pack colors. He’s one option in the backfield along with Caleb Ramseur and Ashton Hayes. Turner has the most rushing yards at the FBS level of any of those three by a significant margin (405, to be exact, compared to the next-closest at 110 from Ramseur).
It’s an offense that is probably filled with as many relative unknowns as Utah State. There are a lot of players searching for their first big break at the FBS level, from quarterback to the offensive line and most of the skill position guys. But there’s also some guys that should be very capable stars. The biggest thing the offense needs is guys that will be efficient and make big plays when the chips are down. The Wolf Pack didn’t do that really at all last year and it’s why they only had three wins.
While the offense has a lot to fill in for, the defense has it even worse with only one of the top 13 players in snaps played back for this season, that man being defensive tackle Thomas Witte. Everyone else expected to play significant snaps on this unit are up-and-comers looking for bigger roles or incoming transfers fighting for playing time.
A lot of guys in the mix for key roles on the defense are transfers from Power Four conferences. There’s defensive ends Myles Williams (California) and Jack MacKinnon (Michigan), linebacker Nahji Logan (Indiana), and defensive backs DJ Warnell (UCLA) and Cooper Wilson). The defensive backfield is particularly transfer-heavy with additions like AJ Odums (UTEP), Edward Rhambo (Bowling Green), Hayden McDonald (Columbia) and Murvin Kenion (Sacramento State) all shoring up a DB room that got pretty much entirely depleted in the offseason.
Choate got the defense pretty much under control in his first year, bringing the defense fram ranking in the bottom 30 the few years prior to mostly OK in 2024. The unit ranked 95th in points allowed, but kept the majority of opponents under 30. As a defensive coach, he should be able to continue the trend, even if he’s had to create this year’s defense by picking up players from around the country and molding them together in just a few weeks of fall camp. It’s unlikely to be an elite, or perhaps even great unit, but it probably won’t be among the worst in the conference.
Preseason Game Prediction — Comfortable win
Barring a really bad season from Utah State, this should be a game it can win and win comfortably (i.e. by a touchdown or two). The last decade-and-a-half of history has sided with the Aggies in this matchup during any year in which they weren’t terrible. Nevada has also just fallen from grace as three consecutive seasons of three or fewer wins is attesting to. Can the Wolf Pack storm back to relevance? Possibly. But it’s just as likely, probably more likely, that it ends up being Utah State which catches the conference off guard with a dominant year. The fact this game is at home is a further help for USU as it hasn’t lost on Merlin Olsen Field to the Wolf Pack since before it was called Merlin Olsen Field (2009).
