This week's picks

Big Al's CFB Lab

Data updated
Mountain West

Nevada

3–4 (2–2 Mountain West). 2026 season, games through Oct 24, 2026.

SP+ rating-4.695th of 138
SP+ offense20.6107th of 138
SP+ defense25.664th of 138
PRIME-0.171st of 138
Elo144879th of 138
Week 9

Nevada at UCLA

Sat, Oct 31, 4:15 PM ET. SP+ projection: Nevada 12, UCLA 33. Big Al's pick: UCLA (89%).

Full head to head

Offense

StatValueRank
Points per game26.388th
Yards per play5.61105th
Success rate39.9%106th
Explosive play rate11.0%99th
Yards per carry5.6038th
Yards per pass attempt5.87126th
Sack rate allowed4.0%32nd
3rd down conversion38.4%81st

Defense

StatValueRank
Points allowed22.053rd
Yards per play allowed5.2531st
Success rate allowed39.7%54th
Explosive plays allowed9.5%26th
Yards per carry allowed4.7164th
Yards per attempt allowed6.5848th
Sack rate9.4%11th
3rd downs allowed30.6%18th

Players

Damien Moun (WR), Dominic Kelley (RB), Dylan Labarbera (EDGE), Herschel Turner (RB), Jeremy Naborne (LB), Rodney Tisdale Jr. (QB).

Results

WeekOpponentResult
1vs. Western KentuckyW 49–14
2vs. Montana StateL 7–20
3at Middle TennesseeL 20–27
4vs. Air ForceL 33–36
6at UTEPW 30–13
7at North Dakota StateL 17–31
8vs. San José StateW 28–13

Ranks are out of 138 FBS teams. Stats from play-by-play; scoring counts FBS opponents only. Compare Nevada with any team.

Site
Picks two teams at random. Any FBS team can come up.

How we picked it

Three ratings look at a team in three different ways. Big Al's pick is the team at least two of them favor.

Where the game is won

Each row puts one team's unit against the unit it faces, by national rank out of all FBS teams. An edge is a gap of 25 spots or more.

What these mean

  • SP+ Bill Connelly's opponent-adjusted efficiency rating. Points better than an average FBS team on a neutral field.
  • PRIME A second opponent-adjusted rating, built from possession efficiency, on the same points scale. SOS is schedule difficulty; SOR is wins above what an average team would get against that schedule.
  • Elo A results-only rating that moves after each game based on the score and the opponent. 1500 is average.
  • Success rate Share of plays that stay on schedule: 50% of the yards needed on 1st down, 70% on 2nd, all of it on 3rd and 4th.
  • Explosive rate Share of plays that are runs of 12+ yards or completions of 16+ yards.
  • Defense rows What opponents did against the team. Lower is better except sack rate and interception rate.
  • Projection Rating gap, plus 2.5 points for the home team, and games usually land within about 14 points of it. A coin flip is 50%.

Ratings: SP+ via CFB Update; PRIME via primecfb.com. Box and play stats computed from CollegeFootballData.com play data (via the public cfbfastR files), FBS games only for scoring. Rushing yards here exclude sacks, so they run higher than official totals. Ranks are out of 138 FBS teams.

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