College Football Coach Hire Grades: Nevada

Nevada Wolfpack: Jeff Choate

Why the job was open: Nevada is known for the pistol offense, Colin Kaepernick and the man who orchestrated it, former HC Chris Ault. Ault’s success in recent history made a lot of folks forget that this is a tough job, but it’s starting to become more apparent in recent years as Nevada has struggled to consistently find their footing since Ault retired. Jay Norvell found some success but also found better facilities and opportunities within the conference over at Colorado State. Him leaving for another program in the same conference was just plain insulting to Nevada’s program, Ken Wilson who’s been around the program a long time was hired replace Norvell but never got anything going. Two extremely uninspiring 2-10 seasons later Nevada was back in the market for a coach. If you’re wondering how uninspiring those seasons were, Nevada’s Wikipedia page doesn’t even have the Ken Wilson era listed.

Coach Profile: Choate spent a lot of his early career as an assistant including at Boise State for a while during their prime days. He got his first head coaching job at Montana State and did a fantastic job with the Bobcats program. When Choate got to Bozeman, Montana State had been coming off a stretch of rough seasons but in year 3 he got them back in the FCS playoffs and won a game. The next season was even better because he led the Bobcats to the semifinals. Following that he left to become the Co-DC on Sark’s Texas staff.

Why he will succeed: Choate is very good at developing players and knows this part of the country well. It could take him a couple years to get it going but he is definitely capable of bringing Nevada back to the top half of the MWC. He’s very energetic and isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers. Despite the Fremont Cannon currently residing in Vegas, Choate wasn’t afraid to fire the first warning shot. Nevada has more often than not been a winning program in the modern era.

What obstacles are in the way of success: Nevada is a very challenging job. There isn’t a lot of money for the program, Choate is one of the highest paid coaches in program history yet is still one of the lowest paid coaches in the Mountain West. Facilities are way behind, Nevada doesn’t have an indoor practice facility, suboptimal for the unpredictable climate they are in. Reno isn’t exactly fertile recruiting territory either.

Grade: A- – Choate seemed bound to land somewhere in the Mountain West this offseason. I’m a big fan of this hire, of all the expected candidates for Nevada it felt like Choate was the best choice. He’s a coach who’s had success already, and has some big program experience too. He will face challenges for sure but I think Nevada gave themselves the best shot possible here.