Game Day: UH vs Nevada

Stephen Tsai's game day preview of tonight's UH-Nevada game has breakdowns of the offense, defense and specialists of both teams. Here's an excerpt about the UH defense:

After failing to intercept a pass in the first three games, the Warriors have eight picks in the past three games. The turnovers were caused by the aggressiveness of the defensive line, which was sparked by Kaniela Tuipulotu's vocal leadership. "After he lost 30 pounds, he became a whole different person," Vaughn Meatoga said of Tuipulotu, who has provided motivational talks. "This is a big boy's sport," Tuipulotu said. "You have to be a man about your business." Corey Paredes is back to good health after playing with a strained neck. He wore a neck collar last week. "It's all good now," he said.

Chris Murray of the Reno Gazette-Journal previews the game.

The last time the Nevada football team beat Hawaii in Honolulu, Wolf Pack coach Chris Ault was wearing diapers.

You know, that doesn't really narrow it down.

I kid, I kid.

"They have three real good receivers, and it's hard to defend them," Wolf Pack cornerback Isaiah Frey said. "But if we do our technique right and cover our assignments, we should do all right."

I predict a breakout night for Rodney Bradley.

Murray also takes a look at key matchups, statistics and position-by-position breakdowns. Here's an excerpt:

» Defensive line: This is likely Hawaii’s biggest weakness. The team ranks 87th against the run and the starting front four has only two sacks and three tackles for loss this season. Nevada’s Dontay Moch dwarves those numbers by himself this season. Edge: Nevada

Oooooo. But I think the UH d-line will step it up tonight. Breakout games all around, aurite.

Pat Hosier of SilverandBlueSports.com has a game preview with a ton of statistical analysis. He also has a prediction:

On this week’s episode of “The Howl”, senior writer A.W. Prince made a prediction quite similar to one I’ve been contemplating. He suggested that Hawaii might attempt to run the ball more than normal in the upcoming game. I feel the same way. SJSU was quite successful with their running game, especially with their first drive where they had 7 carries for 56 yards. The final five plays of that drive consisted of 5 carries for 43 yards, including a 13-yard TD run. Nevada is ranked 45th in rush defense but 85th in allowed yards per carry. This isn’t to suggest Hawaii will have a balanced offense, but I would not be surprised if they came out and attempted to soften up the Pack defense with some early rushing plays.

Stephen Tsai profiles Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick.

In UH meetings and video sessions this week, Kaepernick was labeled as "the X factor."

"We've been showing clips where people have had him leveraged out, they've got him contained, but he breaks contain," UH defensive coordinator Dave Aranda said.

In layman's terms: Just when you think Kaepernick is trapped, he is not.

"His strides are unreal, ridiculous," UH linebacker Corey Paredes said. "And he can throw, too. We have to contain him and tackle him."

And Ferd Lewis writes about Nevada's improved defense.

The joke was that the only way anybody knew Ault even had a defensive coordinator on staff was that he was always changing them. The current tally is up to 14 in 26 years, a job security track record that trails lion tamers and those who inform on drug cartels.

But just when you thought the Wolf Pack defense couldn't say "boo!," its newest coordinator, Andy Buh (pronounced boo), has Nevada playing, get this, commendable defense.