CFB – Hawaii at Nevada

Two teams remain unbeaten in college football

2007-11-19

Two teams remain unbeaten in college football, Hawaii and Kansas. The former will face a potentially dangerous road test on Friday night when it visits the Biggest Little City in America, Reno, to take on Nevada. The Warriors opened as a 9-point road favorite but the line has since moved to minus-6. Kickoff is 11:00 PM ET on the Deuce.

Cold temperatures are expected on Friday night in Reno, and will provide another factor for QB Colt Brennan and the Hawaii offense to “weather”. His club owns a 10-game winning streak overall, and is 9-0 in ’07, considered by many to be the product of a weak schedule. In their latest outing, the Warriors beat Fresno State 37-31, nearly giving up a game in which they were leading by 24 point in the first half.

As for the Wolf Pack, a team that is currently 5-4 overall and still in the hunt for a postseason bid, the schedule has been kind of late, as they have won three straight games against the weakest teams in the WAC since their four OT loss in Boise. They’ll close the season at San Jose State then by hosting Louisiana Tech, and nothing short of a 2-1 mark in the three remaining contest will generate a bowl bid.

The offensive merits of Hawaii are indisputable. Brennan is leading this team to 50.2 PPG and over 450 yards passing per contest. The surprise numbers come on the defensive side of the ball where the Warriors are holding opponents to just 4.6 yards per play, a figure that finds them ranked 17th in the country heading into tonight’s game. In fact, their yards per play differential, that is offense to defense, of +2.8 YPP is the best in the nation.

Nevada and its pistol offense is a pretty powerful unit in its own right. They are scoring 37.3 PPG and gaining 496 yards of offense per contest. Their obvious problems lie on the defensive end though, as yielding 36.7 PPG and 6 YPP, they will have their hands full with the Hawaii attack. Colin Kaepernick is the signal caller for the Wolf Pack and he has been absolutely sensational through the seven games in which he has appeared, completing 55.9 percent of his pass attempts for 13 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

The Warriors have to take care of their own business and then look for some help from teams ahead of them in the BCS rankings if they are to crash this year’s party. They also can't afford to be looking ahead to their meeting with nationally-ranked Boise State next week.

As far as the series between these two teams is concerned, Nevada still holds a 6-5 advantage over the Warriors, even though it was Hawaii that picked up a 41-34 victory in last year's meeting in Honolulu. The StatFox Game Estimator calls for: Hawaii 45, Nevada 29

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