Nevada football coach Jeff Choate and Wolf Pack players Chubba Purdy and Thomas Witte spoke with reporters at the annual Mountain West football media days last week in Las Vegas. You can watch those interviews at the bottom of the page, but I pulled 13 takeaways from Choate’s nearly 40-minute discussion with the media, which is outlined below.
Picked last in the MW
Nevada was picked to finish last in the MW for the second straight season. The Wolf Pack has finished last in the conference three straight years and returns just four players who started at least half of Nevada’s games last season. “Candidly, I don’t think this is an indictment on any of our players,” Choate said of the last-place pick. “I think it’s an insult to me. That’s how I look at it. I’ve been doing this 30 years, and I’ve pretty successful everywhere I’ve been, and so my team will play like I coach them.”
Bowl game is the goal
Choate said he’s seen improvement entering his second season at Nevada with the stated goal being a bowl berth, which would be Nevada’s first since 2021. “We haven’t arrived by any stretch of the imagination,” Choate said. “But if we’re climbing up the mountain, we’re definitely further along than we were a year ago. Go to a bowl game, I think that’s the goal. That’s at the top of the pyramid. I don’t control what bowl game that is, but if we put ourselves in a position where we get to six, seven, eight, nine wins, we’re gonna have that opportunity … and let’s go to whatever bowl game they say we get to go to and let’s try to win that sucker.”
Increasing the discipline
Nevada went 2-6 in one-possession games last season, which was partially a result of ill-timed penalties and late-game mistakes. One of Choate’s focuses this year was increasing a team-wide level of discipline. “We just eliminated some of the biggest culprits,” Choate said. “That was probably the biggest thing we did. You make a mistake, you get emotional, whatever the case may be. But when you repeatedly have the same lack of discipline and it’s hurting the organization, that’s not good enough. I think that was the No. 1 thing. You send a message that that behavior is not gonna be accepted, and so we’re just gonna move on from individuals that are gonna exhibit that behavior. And then we’re gonna require the offseason to be about accountability and discipline so they develop those calluses, both mentally and physically. They know this is how we operate, and in critical times I’ve got to make good decisions and when the game’s on the line you can count on me because I’ve shown that you can count on me over the last nine months.”
Sharing revenue with players
New this season is schools being allowed to directly pay players. In past years, those payments had to come from third parties in the form of name, image and likeness checks. Now schools can share up to $20.5 million annually with athletes after the House vs. NCAA settlement was codified. “I think that’s the first domino that needs to fall, and I’m glad it finally did,” Choate said. “I can only speak to the challenges that we’ve had internally. You’re trying to meet payroll with third parties that have real jobs, too. They’ve got other things that they’ve gotta do, and so what constitutes an emergency on our part does not on theirs. Now to allow the school to handle that, I think it’s better for everybody involved.”
Opening season at Penn State
Nevada opens the season at Penn State, which could be the preseason No. 1 team in the nation after reaching the College Football Playoff semifinals last year. “You look at it and you go, ‘That’s kind of one of the shrines of college football,'” Choate said. “So, if you’re a college football player or coach or fan, that’s somewhere on your bucket list, right? The only thing that would be better is if it was a Whiteout. I think that’s going to be a really cool opportunity. The travel part of it, we had to go to Troy, Ala., last year. We also go to the island every other year, generally speaking. We’ve tried to do it a bunch of different ways. Do you go a day early? Do you not go a day early? Last year we went a day early to Troy, we went a daily to Hawaii. We had different results. I think we’re gonna kind of stay on Pacific time, but we’re just gonna leave earlier Friday. We’ll go to the stadium a day early, which we don’t normally do. We’ll get the ambiance drill out of the way. I think it’s important for them to see the place. ‘OK, I’m big eyed, but when I come here tomorrow at 3 o’clock, I’m ready to roll.’ And then you remind them, ‘This is an opportunity for us to go and put our brand on a national stage. You have individual aspirations. Do your job really, really well and you’ll be recognized for that. And let’s go and embrace the opportunity to compete against one of the best teams in the country and put our brand out against them. But remember this, fellas, it’s one game.’ I think that’s the mindset.”
Scheduling preference
Nevada also has non-league games against FCS school Sacramento State (home) and Conference USA opponents Western Kentucky (road) and Middle Tennessee (home). “We have a voice in scheduling games, but you’ve got to remember football’s scheduled so far out,” Choate said. “My first scheduling will be in 2027, although we swapped a game in 2026. But my philosophy has always been you play an ‘A’ opponent, a ‘B’ opponent and a ‘C’ opponent, meaning that you’re going to schedule up and go get a paycheck or whatever the case may be. I don’t think we should be going to the Eastern time zone to do that. I think we can do that a little closer to home, but that’s not my call. I didn’t make that decision. But that ‘A’ opponent should be somebody that regionally makes sense. As long as they’re gonna let us, we’re gonna play some of these money games, right? That’s an important part of it. A ‘B’ opponent to me would be another Group of 6 opponent that is a quality opponent where that win could mean something for you down the road. And then a ‘C’ opponent is, ‘Hey, maybe this is an opportunity for us to get a ‘W’ in the column and hopefully not get beat up physically too much.’ I think that’s the approach, and I think we’re trending toward that more.”
Play-calling involvement
Nevada returns defensive coordinator Kane Ioane and promoted David Gilbertson from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator after losing Matt Lubick to Kansas. Choate said he’s involved to a degree in game-day play calling. “Do I get involved?” Choate said. “One-hundred percent I get involved, but I I stay in my lane as much as I can. I feel like I hired those guys to do a job and I need to let them do it. I know this is gonna sound funny, but I probably lean in a bit more on offense than I do on defense because I feel I can look at what they’re doing as a defensive-minded guy and say, ‘This is going to give them problems. Go to this play.'”
Defensive improvement
Nevada allowed 28.8 points per game last season, which ranked 95th out of 134 FBS teams in scoring defense. The Wolf Pack then lost all but one starter this offseason, that being Witte. Choate said that could “addition by subtraction” based on last season’s defensive rank, adding that side of the ball should be better in 2025. “The only guy that we had that I don’t feel like we could replace was the one that got drafted,” Choate said. “Kitan Crawford’s a different type of athlete, and that’s why he’s playing in the NFL. I feel like we’re gonna be a better defense because we have better players. We’re a faster team, we’re a longer team and we’d better be a more disciplined team, and I think that’ll lead to some success.”
Third-down defense
Choate said a key area Nevada must improve is third-down defense, the first step toward accomplishing that being an improved pass rush. Nevada had just 14 sacks in 13 games in 2024 and allowed opponents to convert 52.4 percent of their third downs, worst in the nation. “I think that’s going to be a critical part of our success, our ability to get off the field on third downs,” Choate said. “We were one of the worst teams in the country on third down. And if you can’t affect the quarterback, you’re not going to be very good. I think some of it starts with personnel. I think Dylan Labarbera emerged for us at the end of the year and will bring something to us there. I think Jonathan Maldonado’s had a tremendous offseason. We’re counting on him to take the next step as a player in our program. And we went out and signed two guys that have played a bunch of football, one from an FCS level in Sam Cook, who transfers from Southeast Missouri, and then another from an FBS school in Myles Williams, who comes to us from Cal. He’s coming off an injury, but when he’s healthy and you look at his ’23 tape, he’s got the ability to make a difference. We had to invest in that position, and we had to develop that position.”
Special teams woes
Nevada also struggled on special teams last season and has made changes there. “That cost us games last year,” Choate said. “There’s no question about it. And so we’ve done a couple of things. No. 1, we went out and we invested in specialists. We signed a U.S. Army All-American long snapper (Cian Stack) to replace our graduating long snapper. We went and got a D-II All-America kicker (Keaton Emmett). We brought in another combo guy who’s got experience, played at UConn (Joe McFadden). And then we went to Australia and got a punter (Bailey Ettridge) that we feel like can be a game-changer for us. No. 1 was invest in the specialist. No. 2 was to move B.J. Robertson from a recruiting role into a senior specialist special teams analyst role. So he and Parker (Henry) now will handle that. And we have a GA there. So, we invested in talent and manpower there, and we’ve made that an emphasis throughout our offseason workouts.”
A more together team
Choate said Nevada has invested in team bonding since the start of June, which included hiking to the top of Mt. Rose, learning how to fly fish and going to the Reno Rodeo, among other things. He also said he’s been pleasantly surprised at the attendance at a player-led Bible study that started this offseason. “The kids themselves got this Bible study together and it just kept growing and growing and growing,” Choate said. “I thought that was kind of a cool deal. That stood out to me. Gerick Robinson was kind of the driving force behind it. But guys that I would not necessarily think would be drawn to that were and it became something that was important to them. I thought that was really cool.”
Anti-UC Davis’ Tahoe helmet
Choate was asked about UC Davis’ Lake Tahoe-themed helmet and is not a fan. “That’s ridiculous,” he said. “I’m sorry, UC Davis, but that’s a fail in my book. No. 1, Lake Tahoe obviously is a gorgeous place, but the shape of the lake itself isn’t really that majestic. It kind of looks like a blob, right? And No. 2, as a crow flies, it’s about 22 miles from Reno. It’s a little further to Davis, so you can plant your flag wherever you want, but I don’t see that one happening.”
Celebrity on the sideline
Choate also was asked to weigh in on which celebrity he’d like to take to a football game and dipped to his past as an assistant coach at Texas. “I’d say Matthew McConaughey, but I got to stand next to him on the sideline at Texas a bunch,” Choate said. “He was a pretty interesting dude. You keep asking us 50-year-old-plus guys questions like this, and we’re not used to that. Our brains don’t work like that. But I’ll go with Chris Petersen. Is he a celebrity? I’ll bring Chris.”
One of Choate’s assistants, wide receivers coach James Price, caddied for his former college teammate, Josh Allen, at this month’s American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament in Tahoe. Choate was asked for his feedback on Price caddying for the reigning NFL MVP.
“He needs to learn how to hold a bag,” Choate joked. “That was what I took away from seeing him on video there. Work on looking like a caddy a little bit more. Slap it around your back. No, obviously he and Josh have a great relationship going back to their days at Wyoming. I think he did it last year a little as well, and so what a cool opportunity for him.”