Utah State is the only school ever to share the Big West Conference football championship its first season in the league. That was in 1978, when the league was called the Pacific Coast Athletic Association.
Chris Ault's Nevada Wolf Pack is poised to become the second team to win a Big West title in its maiden season. And the only team standing in the Pack's way is, of course, Utah State.Saturday's 2 p.m. MST game between Nevada (4-1, 5-4) and Utah State (3-1, 4-5) in Reno's Mackey Stadium is the last Big West game of the Wolf Pack's debut season in the league.
If Nevada wins, it can do no worse than share the title. A Pack victory would eliminate two of the other three contenders - Utah State and Pacific. If USU wins, the Pack would have to await the outcomes of next week's USU/Pacific and San Jose/New Mexico State season finales to find out its fate.
"Both teams have something to play for," says Charlie Weatherbie, the Aggie coach, who's not usually given to such understatement.
Nevada made the move to the Division I-A Big West this season after terrorizing the I-AA Big Sky since 1979. The Pack made the I-AA playoffs in 1979, '80, '83, '85, '86, '90 and '91 but never won the national championship.
"That experience helps them," says Weatherbie. "Playing at home (where they have won 21 of their last 22 regular-season games) helps them."
Nevada has the league's best record and statistically leads the BWC in seven team and three individual statistical categories. It has two players in the top 10 or better in six areas - interceptions (Brock Marion, 5; Xavier Kairy, 4), rushing (Dedric Holmes, 439 yards; Cornel West, 328), scoring (kicker Steve Terelak, 57 points; Bryan Reeves, 48), all-purpose yards (Reeves, 1,086; West, 768), receiving (Reeves, 7.4 catches; Michael Stephens, 3.6) and total offense/pass efficiency (league leader Chris Vargas, 240.3 TO; Fred Gatlin, 331.3/Gatlin, 118.34 PE; Vargas, 107.04).
Quarterback Fred Gatlin leads the league in passing, but the team's relief quarterback, Chris Vargas, has engineered two amazing comebacks - the NCAA-record 41-straight-point effort to beat Weber 55-49 last year and the 21-point comeback that fell four shy at San Jose State last week.