He’s just kicking it at Nevada

His return to Vacaville High School on Friday would have been far different if Brandon Talton was nothing more than a walk-on freshman at Nevada with no promise of ever kicking for the Wolf Pack. There would have been no talk of his 56-yard field goal as time expired to beat Purdue on Aug. 30. No one would have asked if his kick made ESPN’s Top 10 Plays and Talton replying it did at No. 3.

His father Drew would not be knocking on a wooden table when he says his son has made all 10 of his field-goal attempts. His parents would be not breathing a sigh of relief because Nevada coach Jay Norvell gave Talton a scholarship about 12 hours after telling him he would kick against Purdue. And his parents would not have been refunded thousands of dollars for a semester of tuition, room and boar

Brandon Talton

Talton would have a English class on Fridays instead of adding it to his three classes on Mondays because he has to be free on Fridays to travel with the team as he has twice in five weeks thus far. He did not need to lower his head to say grace before having breakfast Sunday to realize he has been blessed. He did anyway because as much as his life has changed since Aug. 31, he remains the same.

A bye Oct. 5 allowed Talton, who graduated from Vacaville High in June, and quarterback Carson Strong, a 2018 Will C. Wood graduate, to jump into Talton’s car and come home for the weekend. The bye was also an opportunity for them to catch their breath and get ready for seven more weeks of football.

Nevada returns to action Saturday by hosting San Jose State at 1 p.m. Strong will start as he did in four of the first five games. He was held out of the Sept. 21 game at UTEP to heal his bumps and bruises. Senior Cristian Solano led the Wolf Pack to a 37-21 win over the Miners, but the job again is Strong’s.

Talton also had to contend with a senior, Spencer Pettit, to win the kicking job. Talton was on his way to a team meeting at lunch on Aug. 30 when Norvell took Talton aside and gave him the good news. Talton sat next to Pettit in the meeting as usual and knew Pettit had already been told he was out of luck.

“I’ve never talked to Spencer about it,”  Talton said. “We’re friends. I think we got closer after that.”

Out of respect to Pettit, Talton opted to keep the good news to himself and let his teammates find out on their own. That was his plan until he ran into Strong, who gave Talton a pep talk just in case the former Bulldog got an opportunity to play. Talton eventually cut the ex-Wildcat off and told him he would be.

Talton would have preferred Strong keep it a secret, but he did not say as much. “Carson was so excited for me. He had the biggest smile on his face,” Talton said. “It was Carson who started telling everyone.”

If losing his job to a true freshman was not bad enough, Pettit got kicked in the teeth when Talton won the opener with his 56-yarder. The moment of Norvell presenting Talton with the game ball and a full scholarship after the game was caught on video with Strong providing the shout-out. “And he’s from Vacaville!”

Sleep was a priority for Talton once all the postgame interviews were finished. He turned down an invitation by his parents to go out to dinner and retreated to the five-bedroom apartment he shares with four teammates. He will move to a two-bedroom apartment next year with his sister Nicole, who transferred to Nevada after two years at Sonoma State.

“He was tired,” his father Drew said. “He just crashed.”

A modicum of normalcy had returned  when Talton met his parents for breakfast the following day.   He was not recognized wearing a Nutrishop Vacaville T-shirt and Lulu Lemon shorts instead of his No. 43 jersey. And at 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, Talton hardly looks like a football player at a Division I university.

“It felt like a normal day,” Talton said.

Sure it was.

Four of a kind will win in Reno


A quarterback from Will C. Wood High School, a kicker from Vacaville High, a running back from Vanden and a cheerleader from Dixon – Reno is known for buffets, but this four-course meal Sept. 14 would have been enough to satisfy the appetite of anyone who roots for any or all of the four schools.

His time has arrived at Nevada

Carson Strong cried after every Will C. Wood High School football game in 2017. His tears were born of frustration more than sorrow. After the five victories, Strong did not feel as if he deserved to celebrate with his teammates. After the five losses, he could only wonder if he could have changed the outcome in any of those games.

A knee injury and the subsequent surgery reduced Strong to a sideline spectator as a senior. The quarterback was denied an encore after passing for 2,732 yards and 26 touchdowns with just four interceptions in 2016. His only comfort was those numbers leading the University of Nevada to offer him a scholarship.

Carson Strong

Strong was also robbed of a last hurrah in basketball at Wood because his right knee refused to cooperate. To this day, Strong likes to think he could have stopped Vacaville’s Zach Perlstein from sinking two last-second shots to give the Bulldogs a sweep of the Wildcats. No one needs to remind Strong that Vacaville ended Wood’s two-year reign as the Monticello Empire League champion by going 10-0 in 2018.

“It was a dark time for me. It was definitely tough,” Strong said. “I didn’t feel like I was a part of it.”

At least Strong was spared the agony of witnessing those two defeats. He was attending classes at Nevada  after leaving Wood, his family and friends at the winter break to get a head start on his college career. There is little chance he would be where he is today if he had stayed at Wood for all the senior frolic.

Behind center is where Strong will be Friday night when he becomes the first freshman to start at quarterback for Nevada in a season opener since 1998. Strong is a redshirt freshman after playing in one game last year. Purdue will be a far tougher test for Strong on Friday than Portland State was last season.

Sacrificing the second half of his senior year now seems as if it was not a sacrifice at all. And with three semesters and two summer sessions under his academic belt, he plans to earn his business degree with two years of athletic eligibility remaining. That will give him ample time on scholarship for a master’s.

From the day he left Wood, Strong realized his world would be much more demanding. He had to get serious. “I was going to 5 a.m. workouts instead of having a cakewalk senior year,” he said. “I missed all the fun stuff (at Wood), but I know what’s best for me. It was the right decision to come here early.”

Practices and scrimmages have prepared Strong for his leading role, but he knows better than to kid himself. He has not thrown a pass or taken a hit in a game since a 38-15 loss to Vacaville in the 2016 Black and Blue Bowl. He has not taken a snap in a game with his right knee in the brace he now has to wear.

None of that can shake Strong’s confidence, however. All those long days of rehabilitating his knee and dragging tackling dummies to the practice field in the chill of a Reno night to use them as targets to improve his accuracy are in the past. The future is knocking and the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Strong is at the door.

“When I get hit for the first time and get up, it’ll be like ‘I’m good. I’m rocking.’ That will knock the butterflies away,” he said. “I couldn’t be better physically, mentally and emotionally. I’m right where I want to be. I’m ready for this.”

Will new be improved at Wood?

Will C. Wood has a new offense with Kirk Anderson employing the spread option.

Kirk Anderson has the utmost respect for all that Carlos Meraz achieved in nine years as Will C. Wood High School’s football coach. Respect apparently does not go that far these days, however, because Anderson has wasted no time in getting rid of Meraz’s pistol offense and buying new home uniforms.

Putting his stamp on the program does not mean as much to Anderson as devising an offense that suits his philosophy. That would be the spread option. The quarterback will have the option of handing off to the fullback, pitching to the halfback or carrying the ball himself. Whoever starts at quarterback could have as many rushing attempts as passing if all goes as planned for Anderson and the Wildcats this season.

“Stylistically, we’re polar opposites,” Anderson said of Meraz. “Carlos did a lot of good fundamental things. I have my own ideas and thoughts. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but we’re making a lot of progress.”

In 2016, junior Carson Strong had 266 passing attempts and Wood had 279 rushing plays. All those attempts led to Strong throwing for 2,732 yards and 26 touchdowns. Strong missed his senior season with a knee injury and is now in competition to be the starter for the University of Nevada as a redshirt freshman.  

Meraz used three quarterbacks in 2017 with Strong sidelined, and they combined to pass for 676 yards and four touchdowns. Jhalen Grayer was one of the three as a junior. He returned in 2018 to throw for 2,081 yards and 18 touchdowns. There is little chance of the 2019 quarterback coming close to those numbers.

And that is just fine with Anderson, who joined Meraz’s staff in 2018 after being hired as a physical education teacher. Anderson was no stranger to the Monticello Empire League after spending three years as an assistant at Napa. He resigned at Napa in 2017 as the football program was investigated for hazing.

Troy Mott resigned as Napa’s head coaching in March 2017 after being informed he could not hire assistants without the school’s approval. Mott’s assistants at the time were informed they would have to reapply to stay. Anderson opted not to do so and jumped to American Canyon in 2017 as an assistant.

Mott praised Anderson when asked if the Wildcats will be in good hands with their new coach. “He’s very good at teaching the game to his players. He believes fundamentals are important along with effort and a belief in what you’re doing can win games,” Mott wrote in a text message. “He really is the total package as a coach and he will grow nicely into the role of ‘CEO’ as he gains more experience.”

Anderson will make his debut Aug. 23 when Wood travels to Vintage. The home opener is Aug. 30 against Clovis East. Instead of wearing blue jerseys at home, the Wildcats will have new gray jerseys and gray pants. The white helmets remain as do the white jerseys for road games, but the Wildcats will have the option of wearing blue or white pants when they travel. The blue pants could also go with the gray jerseys at home.

Wood will host the Black and Blue Bowl against Vacaville in Wildcat Stadium for the first time on Nov. 1.