SEATTLE (AP) On the heels of probably the biggest win in
Nevada football history, athletic director Chris Ault is already
looking to the future.
``There'll be bigger wins coming,'' Ault said of the Wolf Pack's
shocking 28-17 upset of the University of Washington at Husky
Stadium on Saturday.
``You never know when you are making a memory, but I think we
just made one,'' he told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
It was the first time in 10 tries that Nevada had beaten a team
from the Pacific 10 Conference since it joined Division I-A in
1992.
In front of 70,149 cold and wet fans at a drizzly Husky Stadium,
defensive tackle Jorge Cordova had 16 tackles and five quarterback
sacks to set the tone.
``This has to go down as the biggest win in our school's
history,'' Cordova said.
An effective offense and consistent special teams play
contributed to the upset of the Huskies, who were favored by 17 1/2
points.
``This is by far our biggest win at Nevada and one of the
highlights of my career,'' said Nevada Coach Chris Tormey, who was
an assistant coach at Washington for 13 seasons in the 1980s and
90s.
The Pack hadn't beaten a Pac-10 team since 1947, when it won at
Oregon, 13-6. Since then, it didn't even play a Pac-10 school until
1996, when it began the stretch of nine straight losses.
Nevada is now 4-2 on the season and remained 2-0 in the Western
Athletic Conference. With six games remaining, the Pack has a good
chance of going to its first bowl game since 1996. Since that year,
Nevada has had only one winning season.
``Today we learned how to win,'' Ault said. ``We had struggled
so much over the last six years, this is just so exciting. But now
we have more important victories that we have to go get.''
After the final ticks had melted off the clock and the post-game
handshakes and prayers were over Saturday, the Nevada football team
rushed over to a Wolf Pack cheering section of about 700 fans and
erupted in a joyous moment.
Running back Talib Wise, with a smile on his face that stretched
across nearby Puget Sound, said with a mighty air of confidence in
his voice, ``I told you we were going to shock the world.''
Ault heaped praise on Tormey, who is 14-27 at Nevada, for
rallying the troops after last week's loss to rival UNLV.
``To do what he did after that disappointment, I can't emphasize
enough what a great coaching job it was,'' Ault said. ``There may
have been people talking about his future, but it wasn't in
question.''
The Pack plays at Tulsa on Saturday in a return to WAC play.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)