The Nevada Wolf Pack look to challenge for the 2016 MWC title behind an experienced offense.

Overview: Brian Polian has plenty of weapons offensively but needs to fill some holes on defense to be competitive against some of the bigger Mountain West offenses.

Offense: Nevada brings in Tim Cramsey from Montana State to run the offense which might mean more of a spread attack then Pistol. Tyler Stewart was a decent dual threat under center for the Wolf Pack with 2,139 passing yards while running for nearly 500 yards. The Pack gets back their top four receiving options including Jerico Richardson and Hasaan Henderson who combined for 1,479 receiving yards. James Butler was Nevada’s second leading runner with 1,346 yards a year ago and he’ll get help from Penn State transfer Akeel Lynch. The Wolf Pack get back eight players back on the offensive line so the ground game should not miss a beat.

Defense: The major concern for Nevada is there are so many holes to fill on the front seven. The defensive line graduated their top four and despite several three star athletes available, the Wolf Pack need them to produce immediately. Patrick Choudja and Malik Reed need to step up at defensive end while Salesa Faraimo returns at DT to give the team something to build around. The Pack also lost their top four linebackers with LJ Jackson, Alex Bertrando and several three star athletes stepping in. The Nevada secondary is loaded with nearly everyone back led by safeties Asauni Rufus (81.5 T) and Dameon Baber (6 INT’s).

Special Teams: Everybody returns on the Nevada special teams including punter Alex Boy and automatic placekicker Brent Zuzo while Elijah Mitchell and Andrew Cells will handle kicks and punt returns respectively.

Outlook: The Wolf Pack have all the pieces on offense and are needing pieces on defense so the strength of the team will be moving the chains, eating some clock and putting points on the scoreboard and I think they’ll do that well enough to easily make the postseason.

Schedule:

9/3 Cal Poly

9/10 @ Notre Dame

9/17 Buffalo

9/24 @ Purdue

10/1 @ Hawaii

10/8 Fresno State

10/15 @ San Jose State

10/22 Wyoming

11/5 @ New Mexico

11/12 San Diego State

11/19 Utah State

11/26 @ UNLV