Question About Playing In Reno

[outrunner]

I went to Denver for a weekend including a Denver Broncos game and had no problem. I know I wasn't playing a college football game but I truly think it can be almost be as much psychological as physical

This. Psychology of going into the mountains is huge, and it can also be a huge motivator.

I know it's not quite the same, but when I ran XC in high school, we had one race in the mountains of NC. I had a friend who ran for a different school who was going to be at the race also. They were all talking about how they hills would be and the different weather, while my team couldn't care less. Plus, when we got there, we over heard some teams from NC call us "flat landers" since we were from Florida. Our team ended up winning the race.

If you worry about the altitude, you've already lost half the battle.

[Brad]

Here's a good story, with selected excerpts. click to read full story:

Despite middling attendance, Wolf Pack developing dominant home-field advantage

As the Nevada offense grew stronger, the oxygen-deprived Broncos defense was shriveling up. It was the second half of the Wolf Pack’s historic 2010 victory over Boise State and Nady knew the Broncos were about to break.

“Those guys were just huffing and puffing,” Nady said. “You could tell they were wearing out. Coach (Chris) Ault could tell and that’s why we just kept running the ball. We kept it on the ground and were gaining six yards a carry on them against a really tough defense.”

...

“I think a lot of it has to do with the altitude,” Nady said. “I don’t know that personally because I’m from here, but you hear the freshmen guys who come up here say, ‘I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!’ It’s definitely a factor and as the months go on and the temperature drops, you come up here and it’s a cold and you can’t breathe if you’re an opposing team, but it’s something we used to here at Nevada.”

...

“It was just one of those great nights at Mackay Stadium,” Ault said. “The stadium is a fun stadium. It needs some face-lifting, but it’s really built as a home-field advantage. The fans are right there. They can be involved, and when that thing’s packed, it really is a huge-field advantage.”

...

Additionally, USF’s home stadium is at an elevation around 40 feet. Mackay Stadium sits at 4,610 feet. Instead of sucking in Tampa’s thick, humid air, the Bulls will be in oxygen-thin Northern Nevada.

http://blogs.rgj.com/packblog/2012/09/05/despite-middling-attendance-wolf-pack-developing-dominant-home-field-advantage/

[MikeG]

I knew we should have recruited that stud mountain goat out of Mt Dora

[Carolina_Bull]

I knew we should have recruited that stud mountain goat out of Mt Dora

We should have recruited a band of sherpas for this game.

[Mama_Bull]

USF must battle distractions, too

September, 6, 2012

Sep 6

3:30

PM ET

By Andrea Adelson

When USF added Nevada to its schedule back in January, it had no way of knowing that an already difficult road game would be made tougher by the Big East.

The Bulls were forced to fill a hole in their slate after TCU pulled out of the league, and decided on a tough nonconference road test with a date set for Sept. 8. But two months later, the Big East announced USF would play Rutgers the following week. A month after that, the game was moved to Thurs., Sept. 13 -- a mere five days after the Nevada game.

That made for a few unhappy people in Tampa. Back in April, coach Skip Holtz said, "I don't like it, but I don't have a veto vote."

Now the time has arrived for USF to take on the challenges this doozy of a two-game slate presents.

"All we can do is control what we can control," Holtz said this week. "We can’t change the game. We can’t meet them halfway. We have to go out there and play."

USF is making only the third trip in program history west of the Rocky Mountains, and the first since playing Utah in 2001. The last time it played on the West Coast was in 1999 against San Diego State. The Bulls lost both those meetings, but they were not members of the Big East at that time.

Traveling west from Florida is not easy for any team. USF has a five-hour flight; must cross three time zones; and Nevada is at a much higher altitude than Florida. All of these are intangible challenges that are not part of the typical USF road trip. USF spent extra time on conditioning this summer, and is making sure its players are hydrated and taking care of their bodies this week in preparation for the long flight.

Though as Holtz points out: "It’s better to fly for 5 1/2 hours than bus for 2 days."

The on-the-field challenges are just as difficult. Nevada plays out of the Pistol formation on offense, something the Bulls rarely see in Big East and nonconference play. The Wolf Pack looked terrific in an upset win against Cal last week, grabbing national headlines for putting a damper on the reopening of the Bears' stadium. And Nevada plays well at home.

Nevada is 17-1 in its past 18 home games, including a memorable overtime win against Boise State that shocked the nation.

"In my opinion, this will tell a lot about our team," linebacker Sam Barrington said. "We’re trying to force the urgency we have, and understanding these next 10 days with Nevada, then playing Rutgers on a Thursday prime-time game -- we have to prepare and take care of business. These are the games we have to win."

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/36129/usf-must-battle-distractions-too

[Oldsmobull]

In Reno's thinner air, Nevada players will bounce farther and go down quicker after our Bulls hit them.

[hm101]

USF player himself said their biggest concern of the game was the altitude.