Now, Ault said, the Wolf Pack (0-2) face an even tougher task than getting fired up to play teams from the Big 12 or Big Ten — focussing in on a second-tier team like Nicholls State (2-0) poised for an upset on Saturday at Mackay Stadium.

Nicholls State — a school of 6,814 in Thibodaux, La., which has beaten Rice and Southern Arkansas — is a member of the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly Division I-AA.

Nevada, once a I-AA team, made the leap in 1992 to what was formerly known as Division I-A, now the Football Bowl Subdivision.

"When we were I-AA here, I used to relish the games we played against the I-A teams because we would beat them," said Ault, now in his third stint as Nevada's all-time winningest coach with a record of 185-80-1.

"This is what these guys look for is playing a I-A team that they can come in and get after them and make a name for themselves. Just ask Michigan," he said about the Wolverines, who were ranked fifth nationally before dropping their opener to Appalachian State and falling at home last week to Oregon.

"This is a tougher game to prepare for than a Northwestern or Nebraska because you don't have to say much about those teams," he said told about 100 boosters today at his weekly coach's luncheon at the Peppermill hotel-casino.

Ault said he was glad to be playing a Big Ten team on the road last week "after the Nebraska fiasco."

"I felt at Nebraska we wilted. Under a very good team and all that stuff, but we wilted," Ault said about the 52-10 loss.

"I wanted all the odds against us — anything you could stack — because you've got to find out if your guys can reach down inside. They did, they just didn't reach deep enough," he said.

With Nevada quarterback Nick Graziano throwing for 337 yards and two touchdowns and Luke Lippincott running for 140 yards, the Wolf Pack led 31-27 with the ball in Northwestern territory with less than 2 minutes left before losing 36-31.

"We had every opportunity to win that football game, should have won the football game," Ault said.

"In my 31 years of coaching football, I can count on one hand the times I've been in losing situations in which in the fourth quarter you didn't have the physical errors, you had what we call critical errors, critical mental mistakes, which any one of them could cost you the ball game. We had five in the fourth quarter."

The errors included wrong alignments, wrong audibles, linemen going the wrong direction and penalties, including a personal foul on redshirt freshman tackle John Bender with 1:58 left, which backed Nevada up 15 yards and forced the punt that gave the Wildcats new hope.

"If you are going to compete at the championship level in the fourth quarter, when that door is open, you have to find a way to close it and we didn't."

"It's the mental errors that are really grating on us," Ault said. "That has nothing to do with how fast you are or how big or how strong you are. ... Obviously, we've got to grow up."

Ault praised the defense for getting Nevada the ball back for its final offensive series after it "stuffed them for less than 1 yard three straight plays."

"I mean, that was it. The game was over. All the offense had to do was hold the ball," he said.