When Wolf Pack quarterback Tyler Stewart was redshirting as a true freshman in 2012, he stayed in the team hotel and dressed for only one game that season. It was the game at UNLV.
There was no way Stewart was going to play. He was a fourth-string player. But, with hindsight, Stewart, now a junior and Nevada’s starting quarterback, realizes why coach Chris Ault took him on that trip. Ault wanted the wet-behind-the-ears Stewart to see the rivalry up close because one day he’d play in it.
And after Nevada beat UNLV in Las Vegas that season, digging out of a 21-0 deficit to post a 42-37 victory, the eighth straight in the series for the Wolf Pack, Stewart was the first guy on the team bus.