Nevada Fires Head Coach Ken Wilson After Just Two Years
The reduced buyout had to be a key factor.
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4-20 record won’t cut it
Nevada football did what had to be done and saved a few bucks in the process. Nevada Sports Net is reporting that after just two seasons Ken Wilson is out as the Nevada Wolf Pack head coach.
The Wolf Pack athletic department has not yet made a public decision on Wilson’s future.
BREAKING: Nevada football coach Ken Wilson has been fired after two seasons on the job. His tenure ends with a 4-20 record. Wilson was informed of the news at 9 a.m. this morning.https://t.co/eyIv5XVjRJ
— Chris Murray (@ByChrisMurray) December 1, 2023
This had to be done. Wilson previously was Oregon’s defensive coordinator and was a defensive coach at Nevada from 1989 through 2012. So, a return to a school he was very familiar with would pay off, unfortunately it didn’t.
The move to relieve Wilson of his duties today as opposed to right after the regular season was due to a lower buyout on Dec. 1. Nevada will save $500,000 by being patient and have to pay coach Wilson $1 million per the buyout.
Per Chris Murray of Nevada Sports there were conversations about his future to see if it was worth it to keep Wilson around.
Wolf Pack administration spent this week having in-depth conversations with Wilson and his staff to assess the program and why it has struggled the last two seasons.
The higher ups decided to go with a fresh start after a 4-20 record that was not showing much if any improvement. Wilson did inherit a tough situation with Jay Norvell leaving for Colorado State and that caused a ripple in talent to follow Norvell and other locations.
The lack of improvement and fight had to be the doing in for Wilson. The offense was inept with rotating quarterbacks throughout the year either due to ineffectiveness or injury made life difficult.
The defensive coach also never fielded a great defense in his time in the Mountain West.
Not being competitive is the worst part of the situation. Sixteen of Nevada’s 20 losses under Wilson were by double digits. They lost to two FCS teams in two years against Incarnate Word and Idaho, were winless in year one in the Mountain West, and endured a 16-game losing streak.
The stats don’t lie either when looking at scoring points and allowing points. Nevada was 128th in scoring in 2023 and 120th in 2022. The team scored 1.4 fewer points per game in that time.
Defensively it was not much better. In 2023 that unit gave up 33.4 points per game which was 115th in FBS, and in 2022 allowed 30.9 and 103rd in all of college football.
This Nevada football program has had lots of success but very little has happened in the Mountain West. Their FCS tenure under Chris Ault was elite as was their final years in the WAC where they were pulling off upsets with Colin Kaepernick at quarterback. They have gone to bowl games in the conference with seven since they joined the Mountain West back in 2012.
Nevada is at a crossroads because it is widely known they are not extremely committed to football. Compare that to basketball where things are a bit better with facilities and a well known coach in Steve Alford.
This next hire is important for Nevada as they need to find someone to get them back to the success of being at worst a bowl-eligible team with upside.
