I was riding my bike this weekend when a lady in her 50s scooted past and said, “You’re getting lapped!” What a blow to my ego. My dad gave me his old road bike a couple of months ago, and I’ve been riding most mornings on the southeast connector, which has a great bike path. And while I’m generally pushing it around 15 miles per hour, which is a decent pace, this was no test for the 50-year-old woman who whizzed past me before her “getting lapped” zinger. So, if you’re reading this, 50-year-old lady who shot past me on the southeast connector Saturday morning around 7 a.m., this Monday Mailbag is for you. Thanks, as always, for the inquiries.
I would rank Nevada football’s home games (from most to least attractive) as follows:
1. Montana State (Sept. 12)
2. New Mexico (Nov. 6)
3. Hawaii (Nov. 21)
4. Air Force (Sept. 26)
5. Western Kentucky (Sept. 5)
6. San Jose State (Oct. 24)
There are no terrible games on the home schedule, but it lacks a marquee opponent. This marks the first non-COVID season since 2016 that Nevada does not host UNLV, Boise State or a power-conference program at Mackay Stadium. Montana State should travel well and could set the high-water attendance mark at Mackay this season given the New Mexico game is a Friday night and the Hawaii game is Nov. 21, and it could be really cold in Reno by then. If Nevada is going to make a bowl game this season, it probably needs to go 4-2 in those home games plus pick up road wins at two of Northern Illinois, UTEP and Middle Tennessee.
I don’t think so. Nevada’s special teams ranked 37th in ESPN’s efficiency rankings (16th among Group of 6 schools) last season. It returns kicker Joe McFadden, who made the preseason All-Mountain West team, and kickoff specialist Ky Woods, who averaged 25.9 yards per return last season. Gerick Robinson will likely replace Marcus Bellon at punt returner and has looked good at practice in that role. The question mark is punter after Nevada lost Bailey Ettridge to Oregon following one season with the Wolf Pack. Nevada swapped one Australian import for another, adding Ewan Baulch at punter. From what I’ve seen, there’s a sizable difference between the two. So, there’s a question at punter, but the rest of the special teams looks good.
The expectation is late October, so I’ll say Oct. 23 to offer a random date. Some walls are also going up on GSR Arena in recent weeks, too. Progress is being made.
It hinges on the Wildfire Gods since the Fieldhouse won’t be completed until later in the fall. We have gotten lucky in this area the last couple of years after some terrible wildfire seasons from 2015-20. We’ll keep our fingers crossed on good weather, so I’ll say the poor air quality stays away this month and Nevada practices in the Fieldhouse before having to deal with a wildfire practice.
We’re trying to put it in the universe that there won’t be any wildfire smoke in Northern Nevada this fall.
The Wolf Pack is expected to unveil a new uniform during Saturday’s Fan Fest and teased those uniforms in a tweet over the weekend. In that tease, they were black jerseys with blue numbers outlined in silver, which Nevada wore in 2022 against Colorado State and in the 2023 season finale against Wyoming. That uniform is below. I guess we’ll see what Nevada has in store at Fan Fest (5-7 p.m. at Mackay Stadium).
Dalevon Campbell rocks a black Nevada uniform with blue numbers and silver lining. (Nevada athletics)
UNLV’s patch deal with Acesso Biologics is valued at five years and $11 million.
Air Force’s patch deal with USAA is valued at five years and $10 million
Wyoming’s patch deal with Tallgrass is valued at five years and $4.5 million.
North Dakota State’s patch deal with Gate City Bank did not disclose a value.
So, four of the Mountain West’s 10 football schools have landed patch deals thus far, and Nevada should desperately be trying to land such a deal to increase revenue. Given the going rates posted above, the Wolf Pack would probably be looking in the $750,000-$900,000 range annually for an all-sports jersey sponsor.
I don’t think it will impact Nevada’s rosters too drastically outside of potentially the softball and baseball teams, which we will discuss below.
Yes, this is the major development from that ruling (if it sticks). Nevada softball has six players who were out of eligibility who are suddenly eligible for this season. Those players include Mountain West player of the year 1B Hannah Di Genova, RHP Hailey McLean (former All-MW), RHP Tess Bumiller (former All-MW), SS Haylee Engelbrecht (former All-MW), OF Matlyn Leetch and UTL Maya Larsen. That’s four potential All-MW players added to the roster if they all opted to return. At this point, I have no insight on whether that will happen. Di Genova would be an attractive transfer-portal option if she wanted to play a fifth season. This is something to track in the coming weeks and months.
He is not. Corey Camper Jr. was only eligible last season because of the one-year exemption for junior-college players, as he was technically out of eligibility after playing two seasons in junior college and two seasons at UTEP before joining Nevada. This most recent court ruling only applies to 2022 recruits who played four seasons in four years ending with the 2025-26 campaign. Camper was a 2021 recruit who played five seasons in five years ending in 2025-26. The only Nevada men’s basketball player who would regain a year of eligibility under this ruling is Tayshawn Comer, who announced today he has signed with a team in Macedonia, which would make him NCAA ineligible.
I have not checked in on any specific players, but there are roughly 30 Wolf Pack players from last year who would qualify for that fifth season. Those most notable are Mikey Cruz Jr. (baseball), Junhyuk Kwon (baseball), Jayce Dobie (baseball), Jack Metcho (baseball), Ryan Oakes (baseball), Jackson Waller (baseball), Hannah Di Genova (softball), Hailey McLean (softball), Tess Bumiller (softball), Haylee Engelbrecht (softball), OF Matlyn Leetch (softball), Chloe Williams (basketball), Gabby Kano (golf), Anna Shultse (golf), Maddie Benson (soccer), Rylee Husted (soccer), Abigail Souza (soccer), Marlene Foerster (tennis), Wiem Boubaker (tennis), Amahée Charrier (tennis), Silvia-Maria Costache (tennis), Bella Snyder (volleyball), Nicanora Clarke (volleyball), Chris Smalley (football) and Nelson Ropati (football).
Given the school year starts in a couple of weeks, it’d be a quick turnaround for fall sports to add any of these players. Maybe some spring sports like softball or baseball could. And women’s golf and women’s tennis have some key players from last year who are suddenly now eligible (this could change before the spring semester starts, with the NCAA appealing the ruling). As a result, I don’t see this ruling deeply impacting Nevada outside of potentially the diamond sports.
Yes, the current crop of Northern Nevada high school girls basketball players is one of the most talent-rich in the area’s history. The list includes Brookesly Wilson, Charlotte Olson, Gabby Hall, Mia Hall, Josie Williamson and Ani Carpenter (all but Wilson attend Bishop Manogue). Aaliyah Vance, the reigning Northern 4A player of the year, also is a next-level player. All but Vance play for Gabby Williams Elite, which has won back-to-back AAU national titles. I would compare this group to the 2013-16 wave that included Gabby Williams (Reed High/UConn), Mallory McGwire (Reno High/Oregon/Boise State); Morgan McGwire (Reno High/Santa Clara); Shalen Shaw (Reno High/Boise State); Breezi Holt (Bishop Manogue/Cal Poly); Gigi Hascheff (Reno High/Sacramento State/Long Beach State); Kelly Lujan (Bishop Manogue/Air Force); and Sarita Jo Condie (Pershing County/Navy). There is a lot of talented bubbling up. We’ll see if the Wolf Pack can keep any of these players home.
Those odds have certainly increased considered San Diego State has won five straight Mountain West women’s swim and dive championships and seven of the last eight. Fresno State, which recently has been strong, will also join SDSU in the Pac-12. That leaves Nevada and UNLV as the top remaining MW schools in swim and dive with Hawaii joining the MW in that sport and also being strong. I’d favor UNLV at this stage as the Rebels have won topped the Wolf Pack in four straight MW swim and dive championships. But Nevada should be a top-three team in swim and dive. So, I’ll put the odds of a title this year around 25 percent.
There are at least four known groups eyeing an expansion team in Las Vegas with the group headlined by Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley. The expansion fee is projected between $7 billion and $10 billion, which could be achievable given the number of interested parties. Add an expansion team from Seattle and every NBA owner could get more than $500 million from a two-team expansion, which is crazy.
Well, physical media guides (at least at Nevada) are long gone. They haven’t printed those for the last few years and haven’t even assembled them as online guides the last couple of seasons. I have every Nevada football media guide back to 1973 and every Wolf Pack men’s basketball media guide back to 1976 in my office. Those are great resources. As for the actual media days, they’re as valuable as you make them. We sent Shannon Kelly to the Mountain West football media days to get interviews with all 10 teams and will turn that into an hour-long MW football preview show later this month. We also got a lot of great stuff that has been released on social media over the last two weeks from the Vegas event. And we got Nevada to reestablish a local media day, which it will hold Tuesday. That’s the first full media day for Nevada football in at least five years. We’re setting up our mobile desk outside Mackay Stadium on Tuesday for a special NSN Tonight that will air Wednesday. We’ll also get five or six Wolf Pack All Access sit-down interviews from media day. So, we’re working to make those media days worthwhile.
The state already has a Nevada Wolf Pack license plate option. I doubt it adds another.
Colorado would owe Deion Sanders $26.6 million if fired before Dec. 31, so he’s pretty secure given that gigantic number.
Guggenheim Baseball Management bought the Dodgers for a record $2 billion in 2012 and is now valued at $7.8 billion, according to Forbes’ March 2026 valuation. So, the Dodgers’ value has increased quite a bit.
No. The Tarik Skubal trade had zero impact on whether there’s a lockout (there 100 percent will be a lockout) or whether there are lost games in the 2027 season (there won’t be any).
As noted above, there is a 100 percent chance of a lockout this December. It’s all part of the negotiations the owners are planning like they did when locking out the players in 2021 before the Dodgers became a superpower.
Yes. I would rate the Orioles as MLB’s most disappointing franchise of the last half-decade along with the Mets. But at least the Mets made the 2024 NLCS. You could also make the case for the Giants, Padres and Mariners for MLB’s most disappointing franchise of the last half-decade. But the Orioles are an easy No. 1. Baltimore was God awful from 2017-21, averaging 105 losses per full season during that period, to load up on top draft picks. And while it hit on some of those picks, it never (a) put together a healthy, winning, sustainable young corps; (b) signed any of those young players to long-term deals; and (c) supplemented the hitting group by getting legitimate pitching to match. The result? One excellent season in 2023 when Baltimore went 101-61, but with zero playoff wins during that period. In fact, Baltimore’s last playoff win came in 2014. And now that young Orioles corps is being dismantled with the Adley Rutschman trade to Boston, which leaves only Gunnar Henderson (who is hitting .219 this season) as a high-level young building block. And he only has two seasons left before becoming a free agent. How does Mike Elias still have a job?
I would give it an 8 out of 10 (or 80 out of 100, using your metric). It’s a good movie. It’s visually stunning. The cinematography is amazing. The acting is mostly strong (Anne Hathaway might win an Oscar). The script is OK. And the pacing is fine, although a little slow in the middle. It’s a good movie. The script could have been better. I’m a big Odyssey fan, and Odysseus’ story is fascinating because it’s a push and pull of several motivations simultaneously. Those motivations include legacy, lust, survival, pride, homesickness, loyalty and restoring order. The Odyssey doesn’t successfully hit on all of the internal struggles and driving forces behind Odysseus’ journey back to Ithaca. It’s basically just homesickness and regret for the Trojan horse ploy. That’s where the movie fell a little short for me. The Athena and Calypso characters also fell short. Calypso, played by Charlize Theron, is essentially a therapist in this movie, which she is not how she is portrayed in Homer’s poem. I also am shocked Christopher Nolan worked a sex scene into Oppenheimer but didn’t have one in the The Odyssey. That’s insane given the lust theme in the poem. Still, it’s a good movie worth a watch. But I’ll admit I prefer Troy to The Odyssey. Hard to beat Brad Pitt as Achilles.
After watching The Odyssey last weekend, the plan is to watch Spider-Man: Brand New Day this weekend. I’m mostly out on Marvel, which hasn’t put out a great movie since Avengers: Endgame in 2019. But The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts* were improvements over recent offerings, so I’ll give Brand New Day a shot.
See y’all next week!
Sports columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. He writes a weekly Monday Mailbag despite it giving him a headache and it taking several hours to write. But people seem to like it, so he does it anyway. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.