When Cal and Nevada line up Saturday, it will be Nevada's first game against a power five opponent since September 7th, 2019. Like Saturday, that game was against a Pac-12 opponent on the road, a trip to Oregon for the Wolfpack. Cal OLB coach Keith Heyward was on the staff at Oregon at the time, as the Ducks ran over Nevada on their way to a 77-6 victory, and he's seen plenty of changes as Nevada has morphed into a winning program

"They’re a little more 10 or 11 personnel (now)," Heyward noted, "however you choose to view number 19 (TE Cole Turner) there. They flex him out a little bit, they have flexed him out a lot in last year’s games. He wasn’t one of those guys that was on the field much when we played them two years ago at Oregon, they used number 9 and number 31 (Reagan Roberson) when they were in their 12 personnel."

Nevada did only use Turner in for seven reps against Oregon, as Nevada's 6'6" TE didn't break out until a year later. While nearly the entire offensive line and one tight end are gone from that roster, the skill players from that game remain. Romeo Doubs (two receptions for 13 yards) and Elijah Cooks (one reception for 15 yards) were starters at wideout. Toa Taua (six carries for 13 yards) started at running back. Carson Strong was in his second game as a starter, going 13-25 for 95 yards and two interceptions (eventually getting relieved by Hamish McClure, son of Cal OL coach Angus McClure).

Since then, Nevada has obviously improved, with a 13-7 record and a bowl win to cap off a 7-2 season in 2020, and Heyward has seen that change on film.

"Romeo Doubs was a younger player that we knew had the talent that he has come to show today," Heyward recelled, "he has developed and Elijah Cooks was their go-to-guy. Carson, he was young, but he’s a stud. I remember them really trying to run the ball a little bit, when you see them now they have a good pass attack with the tight end and the receivers, with Elijah, Romeo, Cole, and (Melquan) Stovall, and the running backs are tough, hard-nosed guys."

Two years later, and Heyward is also in a new place, coaching outside linebacker, where he's been working with defensive line coach Andrew Browning with a focus on stopping Taua and the Nevada run game.

"We’ve got to make sure they stop the run," Heyward said, "because they can run the ball, they’ve got a good offensive line, some really physical guys like (RT Aaron) Frost, (LT Jacob) Gardner, and (LG Jermaine) Ledbetter. They just made a change at one of their guards. I’m focused on the interior, to make sure we stop the run, whereas before I was coaching nickels and safeties and studying those perimeter guys."

On the Nevada Defensive Line

"I know one of their noses is 260, but they all play extremely hard. That’s the one thing that jumps out on film, these guys may not make the tackle on the first effort and sometimes guys may give up on the second effort, but they keep running and keep pursuing. We’ve got to get on our blocks and maintain them. Even if undersized a bit, they make up for it in how hard they work"

They’re gonna run some games, and they get a lot of pressures through those games. We’ve practiced them and we’ll be ready for them. They’ve got some good pass rushers, 99 (Dom Peterson) has some moves, 98 (Sam Hammond) is a good pass rusher, he brings a lot of good bullrushing power to his game. I’m really excited to go out there and battle against these guys." - Will Craig

"They roll some other guys in there, they played some other guys at the end of the year last year who may have been bigger in stature than their starters, but their starters are strong. A couple of them are former offensive linemen who played for Angus when he was at Nevada" - Bill Musgrave

On Carson Strong

"Very accurate, he throws the ball short, intermediate, and long. He has got all those throws in his arsenal, and when you look at the completion percentage on throws under 15 yards, it is exceptionally high. He is a very accurate passer, and not that he’s not good down the field, I think it’s exceptionally high 15 and under. He does a great job running their offense, they’ve got some really good skill on offense, but he makes it go." - Justin Wilcox

"When I looked at the statistics there were six receivers with over 20 receptions, that’s a pretty good distribution. The running backs, the position had roughly 48 catches. The quarterback, Carson Strong is doing a nice job distributing the ball, as you watch film, Doubs is a very talented player, but the quarterback is going through some progressions and taking what the defense gives him." - Peter Sirmon

On Nevada's Defensive Scheme

"They play a lot of cover 3 and cover 3 weak is what we’ve been seeing. They tend to stay in that zone coverage, they rarely go to man. Those are the tendencies we’ve seen from them so far. When we go to our 3 by 1 (trips) sets, we’ll see a lot of cover 4, but that’s the extent of what they’ve shown on tape so far" - Nikko Remigio

On TE Cole Turner

"He does a little bit of both, there is some film of him playing some in-line tight end, but the strength of what he did last season was being a guy that was flexed out. The size creates some mismatch issues, then the quarterback does a good job of throwing him open" - Sirmon

On Nevada's WR group

"This is going to be a very talented group coming in, they can go all the way across the board with size. Number 4, Elijah does a nice job with his body, Stovall does a good job, number 20, guys who can return some kicks too." - Sirmon