Maybe we all had it wrong. Maybe USC wasn’t the best team on Hawaii’s schedule.

Or at least the best offense.

Before you dismiss it out of hand consider that Nevada piled up 575 yards against UH in its 69-24 national-TV romp Saturday that was both teams’ Mountain West debut.

But the Trojans managed a football field less yardage in their 49-10 season-opening win against the Warriors. And don’t forget the USC game was on the road for Hawaii and Nevada made up for a decade of disappointment in one single evening at Aloha Stadium.

Nevada scored 31 points in its win at Cal; USC scored just 27 in its victory over the Bears on Saturday after losing to Stanford the week before.

OK, it’s established that Nevada is good. But you want to know how a team that Hawaii used to master at home can put up video-game numbers in the Warriors’ house.

Well, you knew UH is rebuilding. New coaches, new players. But who expected a score this lopsided? Perhaps we all should have, since no one else has slowed Nevada this year.

This is what you get when you combine old man Chris Ault’s ever-evolving pistol and young man Nick Rolovich’s run-and-shoot expertise. A monster. Breaking bad, very bad for opposing defenses, especially when Nevada plays a clean game with no turnovers and the opposition can’t keep up.

The pistol messes up the defense’s timing more than a typical option offense. Then add the no-huddle to the madness.

“When you run 87 plays a game it wears down a defense,” said the best football player in the place Saturday, TV analyst and Hall of Fame DB Rod Woodson.

The Wolf Pack only snapped it 76 times, but 34 of the plays involved Stefphon Jefferson, who had us thumbing through the UH opponents’ records by halftime — and before it was over, the NCAA benchmarks. Marshall Faulk called. He wants his Aloha Stadium touchdowns record from 1991 back.

And quarterback Cody Fajardo. A tough and crazy runner like Tim Tebow and Jake Locker, with a more accurate arm. We saw what Fajardo could do as a freshman athletically out of the pistol last year at Reno with a variety of weapons, including himself, when it seemed like Ault never called the same play twice.

Hawaii didn’t have the speed and depth to deal with it last year, and that was with some experienced linebackers. Now Fajardo is the one with the experience.

Nose tackle Moses Samie could have provided some experience, but he is out for the year.

No one likes to see a fine player and good person get hurt; Rolovich said he feels very sad for Samia. But the stout nose tackle’s absence in the middle of UH’s defense was a gift for Nevada, and one it exploited time after time. Gashing the middle, where the Warriors had just lost maybe the most important player in their defense — and in a spot where they lack depth.

“It did hurt us,” Hawaii defensive coordinator Thom Kaumeyer said. “But our guys played hard to the end and that’s what we can take away. Our aiming points were off, and they did a good job of running away from our (strongside linebacker). The way Coach Ault does it is a fantastic deal. They have great blocking angles.”

Kaumeyer wasn’t offering up excuses. He was just trying to explain some of the reasons something like this can happen. We agreed it takes an incredible adjustment in timing to slow down the pistol.

And while it is also bad timing for a rebuilding team to catch Nevada now, what will this already potent offense be like when Rolovich’s passing-game tweaks are fully installed?

Saturday’s outcome wasn’t determined by one of UH’s all-time great quarterbacks and former offensive coordinator being in the Nevada coaches’ box. But what one fan stage-whispered as he passed by me near the end is a sentiment surely shared by many: “I want Rolo back.”

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Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.