Murray: Here’s how I spent my $15 building Nevada football’s all-time offense

Last week, we posted a fun Wolf Pack football pick’em on social media asking Nevada fans to build their all-time skill position group and coach for $15. We got to pick one quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end and coach from the list. The most important positions in football are quarterback and coach, especially at the college level, so that’s where I spent the bulk of my money. Here’s the team I came up with.

Coach: Chris Ault ($5) — Ault is the only head coach to have his team lead the FBS in passing yards and rushing yards in separate seasons. He was an expert in adapting his scheme to fit his personnel, which is perfect for this exercise because he would get the most out of his talent. And frankly, the rest of Nevada’s history of head football coaches has been unimpressive. Ault is the only coach in the Wolf Pack’s FBS who proved he could get and keep the Wolf Pack at a championship level. Spending $5 on Ault was an easy call even if that meant cutting some corners on the rest of the roster. Coaches in football make a huge impact on the game, and Nevada’s record with and without Ault at the helm is drastically different.

QB: Colin Kaepernick ($5) — This was another easy $5 splurge. Kaepernick is the best quarterback in Nevada’s history by a significant margin. He’s the only Wolf Pack quarterback to start an NFL game in the Super Bowl era and led the 49ers to back-to-back NFC championship games plus a Super Bowl berth. Before his pro career, Kaepernick was a revelation in college and the perfect fit for Nevada’s Pistol offense created by Ault and his staff. He’s the only player in FBS history with 10,000 passing yards and 4,000 rushing yards in a career and accounted for 142 touchdowns (82 passing, 59 rushing, one receiving) while minimizing mistakes (just 24 interceptions in 51 games). He is the ultimate — and often unstoppable — weapon.

RB: Chance Kretschmer ($2) — Kaepernick and Vai Taua were a perfect pairing, but we don’t have enough money for Taua, so we’ll go instead with Kretschmer, who like Taua was a one-cut running back who would fit the Pistol scheme. A walk-on out of Tonopah, Kretschmer led the nation in rushing as a freshman in 2001, gaining 1,732 yards and scoring 15 touchdowns. A torn ACL wiped out his 2022 before he rebounded with another 1,000-yard season and 12 more touchdowns in 2003. Overall, Kretschmer rushed for 3,782 yards, 5.0 yards per carry and 35 touchdowns in 37 college games (that’s 102.2 yards per game). Kretschmer didn’t get to play on any great teams at Nevada, but his physicality fits Ault’s run-first scheme.

WR: Trevor Insley ($2) — Nevada has had a lot of great wide receivers, so Insley at $2 is a bargain. He set FBS records for career catches (298) and receiving yards (5,005) in four seasons at Nevada, averaging 16.8 yards per catch and 113.8 yards per game. He scored 35 touchdowns and his name remains in the NCAA records books in a variety of categories 25 years since his last college game. A broken ankle cut his NFL career short, but the 6-foot, 190-pound Insley was an elite route runner with incredible body control and strength. His top-end speed might not have been elite, but he would have manufactured space for his quarterback, Kaepernick, which is ideal since Kap could sometimes struggle with accuracy.

TE: Jarred Gipson ($1) — We have $1 left and will spend that on Gipson, who was an undersized (and underrated) tight end at 6-1 and 240 pounds. But he was a four-year starter who was recruited by Ault and thrived under Brian Polian, earning All-Mountain West honors. Gipson caught 80 passes for 758 yards and 10 touchdowns in 48 games, starting all but three of those. But we really want him for his blocking ability as Gipson’s 2012-16 teams were all run-first operations with him playing a big part in their success on the ground. With rushers like Kaepernick and Kretschmer, Gipson would be paving the way for a pair of 1,000-yard gainers.

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I thought about spending an extra $1 at wide receiver to get Rishard Matthews, which would have meant going from Chance Kretschmer to James Butler at running back. But I felt Kretschmer’s running ability was a perfect fit for the Pistol, which is a downhill scheme. Any team with a starting point of Ault and Kaepernick is going to be solid, but adding a former NCAA-leading rusher (Kretschmer) and receiver (Insley) makes this offseason almost unstoppable, as long as we have a good offensive line. And Ault would develop that.

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.