Editor's note: Brian Edwards is on fire in college football, posting a 9-3 record (75%, +754!) since Sep. 30 with a pair of money-line winners last Saturday on Auburn (+120) and Miami (+260). Don't miss his pay-if-it-wins-only selection for tonight!

If there’s going to be a school that challenges Boise St. for WAC supremacy in 2009, it will most likely be the winner of tonight’s game between La. Tech and Nevada. Las Vegas Sports Consultants opened the Wolf Pack as a seven-point favorite with a total of 59.

However, as of early this morning, most books had Nevada (1-3 straight up, 1-3 against the spread) listed as an 11-point home favorite with the total adjusted down to 58. La. Tech (2-2 SU, 1-2 ATS) is plus-325 on the money line (risk $100 to win $325).

Chris Ault’s team finally picked up its first victory of the season last week when it spanked UNLV by a 63-28 count as a 6 ½-point home ‘chalk.’ The Wolf Pack produced an astounding 773 yards of total offense, the most by a Division I team all season.

Mike Ball ran for 184 yards and the first five touchdowns of his career. Junior QB Colin Kaepernick had 173 yards rushing, while RB Luke Lippincott produced 170 yards on the ground. Lippincott ran for a TD and threw for another, a six-yard strike to Kaepernick, who completed 15-of-18 passes for 208 yards and one touchdown without throwing an interception.

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Kaepernick, the WAC’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2008, had been struggling before facing the Rebels. For the season, he has now 1,055 yards of total offense (754 passing, 295 rushing and 6 receiving). Kapernick has completed 64.5 percent of his throws with a ¾ touchdown-interception ratio.

Junior RB Vai Taua led the WAC in rushing last season after Lippincott went down with a season-ending knee injury in Week 2. But then Taua was injured in September, paving the way for Lippincott’s return to the lineup after he was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.

Lippincott has responded with back-to-back efforts of 100-plus yards on the ground. And now Ault has Ball in the mix in his Pistol Attack. Also, Taua is nearly ready to return and is listed as “questionable” tonight.

La. Tech (2-2 SU, 1-2 ATS) hails from Ruston, which is not a short plane ride to Reno. With that said, we should note the extra rest the Bulldogs have going into this spot. They played their WAC opener last Wednesday, punishing Hawaii 27-6 as six-point home favorites.

Like Nevada’s Kaepernick, La. Tech senior RB Daniel Porter was off to a slow start in 2009. Until Hawaii came to town, that is. Porter went off against the Warriors, rushing for 160 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the run-away-and-hide triumph.

La. Tech’s defense also put together its best performance of the year last week. This unit held Hawaii without a touchdown for the first time in a 62-game span. Also, they knocked Hawaii QB Greg Alexander out for the season with a knee injury (not that that’s a good thing).

When these teams met in 2008, Nevada captured a 35-31 victory but the Bulldogs took the money as 4 ½-point home underdogs. La. Tech actually led 31-14 late in the third quarter before Kaepernick orchestrated three straight TD drives of 71 yards or more.

When Derek Dooley took his team to Reno in 2007, the Wolf Pack crushed the Bulldogs 49-10 as seven-point home favorites. Nevada has prevailed in each of the last four head-to-head meetings.

La. Tech has not thrived in road underdog situations during Dooley’s three-year tenure. In fact, the Bulldogs own an atrocious 3-9 spread record in 12 games as road puppies.

During Ault’s third tour of duty as head coach at Nevada from 2004-present, the Wolf Pack are an incredible 16-3 ATS as a home favorite.

Kick-off for tonight is slated for 9:00 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.

**B.E.’s Bonus Nuggets**

--La. Tech junior QB Ross Jenkins has completed 61.5 percent of his passes for 759 yards with a 3/2 TD-INT ratio. His favorite target has been speedster Phillip Livas, who is also a dangerous return man on special teams. Livas has 12 catches for 148 yards to date.

--Porter is now No. 8 at La. Tech in career rushing yards. Jason Cooper is the school’s all-time leading rusher with 3,342 career yards from 1991-1994. Ryan Moats is second with 3,112 yards from ’02-’04. You may remember the school’s all-time leading receiver, the diminutive Troy Edwards who went on to have a few nice years with the Steelers. Tim Rattay and Luke McCown are 1-2, respectively, in all-time passing yards at La. Tech.

--Perhaps, just perhaps, we should’ve also mentioned Idaho as a potential WAC contender in the intro to this preview. The Vandals? Yes, the Idaho Vandals. They are 4-1 SU and most importantly, 5-0 versus the number this year. They have been underdogs in every game and are again this week (+3 ½) at San Jose St. Whether or not Idaho emerges as even a semblance of a threat to the Broncos is probably at stretch, but what’s not up for debate is the Vandals have been dynamite money makers to date in 2009.

Brian Edwards can be reached at briane@vegasinsider.com.

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