Greg Hansen: 'Mr. Football' on 'blue-collar' physicality, nicknames and Arizona Bowl coaches

Dear Mr. Football: Is Nevada coach Jay Norvell different than Pac-12 head coaches?

A: Norvell walked into Friday’s press conference at a downtown hotel wearing a blue work shirt, sort of like my dad wore when he worked at Jack’s Tire and Oil. Norvell’s hat was filthy, a lot like my dad’s hat when he changed oil every day.

I almost asked Norvell if he could rotate my tires.

“It’s a blue-collar shirt,” he said. “We made a commitment to be a team of action and not of words. There’s a history at Nevada — the program is a blue-collar program, filled with players that were overachievers that may have been overlooked by other schools, bigger schools.

“And they came to Nevada to work, to play hard and to play physical.”

What I liked even more about Norvell’s practice-day attire is that I didn’t see an Adidas logo (or Nike swoosh) anywhere.

Dear Mr. Football: Is this really the Dances With Wolves Bowl?

A: That was the creative genius of Arizona Bowl chairman Ali Farhang, who should feel fortunate that the Arkansas State Red Wolves and Nevada Wolf Pack ditched their sports nicknames of an earlier era.

Arkansas State was once the Gorillas. Nevada was once the Sagebrushers. Let’s see some clever marketing guy work with that.

When Arkansas State decided to change nicknames in 2008 — it had been known as the Indians for 77 years — it chose between Mallards, Mustangs, Red Dragons, Red Storm, Red Wolves, Ridge Runners, Ridge Riders, Thunderbirds and Express Train.

Express Train? Really?

But in a state whose most famous sports cry is “Woo Pig Sooie!” even Express Train sounds good.

Dear Mr. Football: Does Norvell have any Tucson connections?

A: On July 25, 1986, Norvell, a safety from Iowa, and Skip Peete, a receiver from Sahuaro High School and the UA, were teammates with the Denver Broncos. They both were released the next day.

It might’ve seemed like the end of the line to a pair of 23-year-old football players, but it was the beginning of a nomadic journey for both — one that includes 20 coaching stops.

Peete coached at Pitt, Michigan State, Rutgers, UCLA and with the Oakland Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears and now the Los Angeles Rams.

Norvell coached at Iowa, Northern Iowa, Wisconsin, Iowa State, Nebraska, UCLA, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona State and with the Indianapolis Colts and Oakland Raiders.

Norvell has crossed tracks with so many football people that he played at Iowa with ex-Arizona head coach Mike Stoops and succeeded current Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin as Oklahoma’s co-offensive coordinator.

Are they friends?

He calls Sumlin “Summie.”

Dear Mr. Football: Are the coaches at Nevada and A-State chronically overpaid like many in the Pac-12?

A: Nevada defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel, who was paid as much as $500,000 a year in his four seasons as Arizona’s defensive coordinator (2012-15) is the top-paid Wolf Pack assistant coach, $238,703. That’s not even half of what an average Pac-12 DC is paid.

Arkansas State’s most well-paid assistant is defensive coordinator Joe Cauthen, at $220,000.

Without the split of media rights mega-money from their conferences, the Red Wolves and Wolf Pack depend more on gate receipts than Power 5 schools. And this year it wasn’t good for either.

Nevada averaged a mere 17,181 at Mackay Stadium, where capacity is 27,000. ASU averaged just 19,834 at Centennial Bank Stadium, which boasts a capacity of 30.382.

To help pay the bills, Arkansas State played at mighty Alabama this year, which drew 100,495 fans. Over the next three years, ASU has agreed to play “money games” at Michigan, Georgia and Washington.

Nevada has scheduled games at Oregon and Penn State.

Dear Mr. Football: What does it cost for the Arizona Bowl to rent Arizona Stadium?

A: It’s not unusual for a Pac-12 school to spend $300,000 for game-day expenses.

That’s a long list of payouts to traffic control people, parking attendants, ushers, ticket-takers, security and the clean-up squads.

The Arizona Bowl will save money because an 11:15 a.m. start on a Saturday means fewer people will be needed for inbound and outbound traffic control.

Farhang said the Arizona Bowl will pay the UA about $200,000 for use of Arizona Stadium, which should cover the school’s expenses and personnel payouts for such things as a crew of statisticians and the people who run the scoreboard.

Dear Mr. Football: Do either Nevada or Arkansas State “travel” well?

A: That’s bowl language for filling up the seats with people from Reno and Jonesboro, Arkansas. It’s likely that neither school will bring more than 2,500 fans to Tucson.

Tucson hit the bowl jackpot twice in its 14 years as a bowl host: it drew almost 40,000 last year as Southwestern neighbor New Mexico State played in its first game since 1960.

But the 1993 Copper Bowl stands alone; it drew 49,075 when Kansas State, which had been to just one bowl game in 81 years, delivered about 25,000 fans for a 52-17 victory over Wyoming.

Even at that, the ’93 game had several inherent negatives: it kicked off at 6 p.m. on a night temperatures were in the low 40s, and it was played on a Wednesday.

The Arizona Bowl has contractual rights to specify the starting time with the CBS Sports Network, thus it chose the early start.

Nevada has a history of sometimes traveling well. When the Wolf Pack played Boston College in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl at AT&T Park in San Francisco — Nevada’s QB was Colin Kaepernick — it sold 15,500 tickets via the athletic department. Total attendance was 41,063.

Many of the positive variables fell into place for Nevada: it is only 220 miles from Reno to San Francisco, the Wolf Pack was ranked No. 13 and finished 13-1. One negative: there were so many fans that the vendors at AT&T Park ran out of beer late in the third quarter.

When Farhang visited Reno two weeks ago, attending a Nevada-South Dakota State basketball game, he was reminded of the San Francisco beer fiasco.

“I promise, we will not run out of beer in Tucson,” he told the crowd.

Last year the Arizona Bowl reached almost $200,000 in beer sales.

Who wins?

The Red Wolves also beat UNLV this season, a dreadful squad that stunned Nevada to close the regular season.

I’ll take the Wolf Pack anyway, 37-32. Bottoms up.