WESTERN ATHLETIC ROUNDUP : Nevada Given Rude Welcome to the Big Time

Wyoming made the University of Nevada’s move to the big time look like a mistake Saturday.

“I’m really disappointed about the way we played,” Wolf Pack Coach Chris Ault said after his team lost its Division I-A debut, 25-6, to a sluggish Wyoming team at Laramie, Wyo.

“Nothing they did should account for the way we played. We have a lot of work to do.”

Last season Nevada, playing a Division I-AA schedule, compiled a 12-1 record and averaged 45.1 points per game.

On Saturday the Wolf Pack couldn’t reach the end zone, marking the first time in 108 games--dating to 1983--that it failed to score a touchdown.

Nevada passed for 342 yards against the Cowboys but managed only 38 rushing yards and two field goals by Steve Terelak.

Wyoming didn’t sparkle on offense, either, as eight of its points came on a safety and a blocked punt that was returned 32 yards by Mike Jones for a touchdown.

Quarterback Joe Hughes, making his major-college debut after two years in junior college, scored twice on second-half runs but completed only 14 of 32 passes.

Twice Wyoming strong safety Junior Marcellus intercepted Chris Vargas, who came off the bench late in the second quarter in an effort to inject life into Nevada’s offense. The safety’s second interception came with 1:35 to play and Wyoming laying back to prevent a long score.

BYU 38, Texas El Paso 28--John Walsh, last year’s understudy to record-setting Ty Detmer, threw three touchdowns and set up a fourth with a 42-yard bomb as Brigham Young held off the Miners at El Paso.

Walsh, who beat out four others for the right to replace two-time All-American Detmer, completed scoring passes of 13 and 18 yards to Eric Drage on consecutive first-quarter touchdown drives. He added a 24-yarder to Byron Rex and hooked up with Drage again in the third quarter on a 42-yard pass that helped put BYU up 35-21.

BYU shut down the Miners through most of the second quarter on the way to a 28-14 halftime lead. But the pesky Miners revived about five minutes into the third quarter when backup quarterback Mike Perez took over and drove the Miners 54 yards to a score. The Miners cut it to 28-21 when slotback Kenny Brown scored on an 11-yard option play.

New Mexico 24, TCU 7--Rookie receivers Chris Griffin and Turhon O’Bannon caught touchdown passes, freshman Winslow Oliver ran for 130 yards and the Lobos once porous defense came up with a slump-stopping performance at Albuquerque.

The season-opening win, spiced by a series of standing ovations from New Mexico fans who have seen only one winning season in the last decade, made first-year coach Dennis Franchione’s debut a stunning success.

Franchione took over a program that had won only nine games in five years. The loss spoiled the head coaching debut of 1971 Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan, a former assistant at Auburn.

Air Force 30, Rice 21--Jarvis Baker and Joe Parisi each scored two touchdowns and the Falcons’ defense held off a late rally to defeat the Owls at Air Force Academy, Colo.

Baker, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound senior quarterback getting his first start, staked the Falcons to a quick 14-0 lead on touchdown runs of nine yards and one yard. Parisi, a backup fullback, scored on runs of 24 yards and one yard.

Rice came within a touchdown twice in the second half before Air Force linebacker Vergil Simpson stopped Rice quarterback Josh LaRocca in the end zone for a safety with 2:33 left.