Nevada head coach Chris Ault is in the Hall of Fame. He’s only one of three active college football coaches in the Hall, and you may have heard of one of the others: Joe Paterno. The Hall of Fame inducted Ault based on consistent success at Nevada that allowed the Wolfpack to rise from Division II to the top subdivision of Division I. After his induction in 2002, Ault could have rested on his laurels and enjoyed the perks of being the athletic director at his alma mater Nevada. Instead, he hires himself as the head coach again in 2004. After a tough opening 5-7 season, Ault decides to revamp the offense. Frustrated with all the sideline to sideline running in the fashionable spread offensive of the day, Ault and his staff start working on plays suited for running the ball downfield. In the spread offense, the quarterback lines up the “shotgun” 6 yards behind the center with a running back to his side. Ault found it was easier to run the ball up the middle if the quarterback stood 4 yards behind the center with the running back behind him. The Pistol offense was born.
At first, the Pistol was a disaster. The center spent spring practice hiking the ball over the quarterback’s head, while the assistant coaches worked on their resumes in anticipation of unemployment. But the Wolfpack slowly made it work. Finally, in 2009, Nevada led to nation in rushing offense and had 3 players rush for more than 1000 yards. The Pistol offense has spread to Arkansas, Indiana and UCLA among other programs. It’s remarkable that a college football coach finds the time to innovate a new offense. The modern coach is the CEO of a multi-million dollar business. He spends his time fund raising, dealing with the media and bailing players out of jail. Chris Ault found time to think about football too. Nice work.
The Pistol wielding Wolfpack of Nevada are currently 12th in The Power Rank. They face 2nd ranked Boise State on Friday in a game that not only decides the conference title but also has huge national championship consequences. While The Power Rank has them as 6 point underdogs, don’t count the Wolfpack out. Two weekends ago, Nevada trailed Fresno State late in the 4th quarter. The Bulldogs were effectively stuffing the Pistol offense and celebrating after each play like they had won the Super Bowl. It was a youthful display of energy that seems productive but perhaps puts a bit too much emphasis on a single play in a long game. Nevada ignored these theatrics and kept plugging away. Finally, calmly, they ran the ball up the middle again out of the Pistol. This time, Vai Taua ran untouched into the endzone for the go ahead score. Moments later, when the defense stopped Fresno State on fourth down, the Nevada players finally celebrated.
4. Stanford (10-1), 31.33. Stewart Mandel led off his College Football Overtime with the sad story about how Stanford will most likely get stiffed by the BS Cartel Series (BCS). If you’re a Stanford fan, root hard for Alabama to win the Iron Bowl over Auburn.
1. Oregon, 10-0, 41.18
2. Boise State, 10-0, 35.12
3. TCU, 11-0, 33.12
4. Stanford, 10-1, 31.33
5. Auburn, 11-0, 28.06
6. Virginia Tech, 9-2, 27.80
7. Alabama, 9-2, 27.71
8. Ohio State, 10-1, 27.34
9. Arkansas, 9-2, 25.46
10. Nebraska, 9-2, 24.93
11. Wisconsin, 10-1, 24.65
12. South Carolina, 8-3, 24.35
13. Oregon State, 5-5, 23.68
14. Arizona State, 4-6, 23.55
15. Nevada, 10-1, 23.41
16. Missouri, 9-2, 23.38
17. Oklahoma State, 10-1, 23.33
18. USC, 7-4, 23.01
19. Oklahoma, 9-2, 22.74
20. LSU, 10-1, 22.60
21. California, 5-6, 22.41
22. Iowa, 7-4, 21.87
23. Texas A&M, 8-3, 21.45
24. Arizona, 7-3, 20.46
25. Miami (FL), 7-4, 20.40
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