Nevada Visits To Welcome Idaho Into Big West

Hello, Idaho. Welcome to the Big West Conference. Now hurry up and decide the conference football title.

OK, so Idaho’s Big West debut against Nevada won’t determine the championship. Darn near, though.

If Idaho - or Nevada, for that matter - has designs on winning the West, it’d better win today’s 12:05 p.m. showdown in the Kibbie Dome.

“When you only have five conference games and three of them are on the road, you need to win the ones at home,” UI coach Chris Tormey said. “We wouldn’t be out of it (with a loss), but it’d certainly put us in a hole.”

Said Nevada coach Jeff Tisdel: “Realistically, you can get a piece of the title, if other people knock off each other.”

The enormity of this game is even larger when one takes tiebreakers into account. If two teams tie for the title, the head-to-head winner earns the Big West’s berth to the Las Vegas Bowl.

In a three-way tie, tiebreakers frown on the Vandals. Say UI, Nevada and Utah State finish 4-1 in conference - UI beats Nevada, UI loses to Utah State, Nevada beats Utah State. Head-to-head and the next tiebreaker - record against the conference in descending order of finish - wouldn’t resolve the logjam.

The next tiebreaker is a points system based on non-league schedule. A win over a I-A opponent is worth one point, a loss to a I-A and win over I-AA are worth zero, and a loss to I-AA is minus 2.

Idaho has two losses to I-As and a loss to I-AA Southwest Texas State. Ouch. Nevada already has defeated I-A Kent and UNLV. Utah State topped I-A Utah. Advantage Nevada, then Utah State followed by Idaho.

According to oddsmakers, Nevada has a six-point advantage over UI.

Points may be the buzzword today. In national statistics, Idaho is first in pass offense, fourth in total offense and 23rd in scoring offense.

Nevada ranks even better - first in total offense and fifth in scoring. John Dutton is seventh in pass efficiency, wide receiver Damond Wilkins is first in receptions and teammate Geoff Noisy is sixth.

And none are the Wolf Pack’s best player, Tisdel said. Linebacker “DeShone Myles, I feel, is the best player in the conference. He hits like a linebacker, runs like a receiver.”

In fact, Nevada’s strength may be its defense, which leads the Big West in total defense, pass defense and scoring defense. Throw in Nevada’s conference-best kick and punt return units and there are few categories in which Nevada isn’t first.

“We’ve got to get some turnovers for our offense,” UI linebacker Ryan Phillips said. “We’ve got to improve in all areas (defensively). We’re not doing as well as we wanted to.”

Stopping Nevada will require a monumental defensive effort.

“We’d like to play like we did against Montana (last year in a 55-43 win) and do a good job of not giving up the long ball and force them to move it downfield,” Tormey said. “We’re going to need to put up some points because there’s probably going to be a lot of points scored.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Vandals vs. Nevada