Posted by ESPN.com’s Graham Watson

Nevada has had a week to think about its embarrassing loss to Notre Dame on opening weekend, and it was something coach Chris Ault didn’t want his team to forget.

	Joe Robbins/Getty Images
	Colin Kaepernick and the Wolf Pack offense never got it going against the Fighting Irish.

So, during the Wolf Pack’s bye week, Ault didn’t turn his attention to this week’s game against Colorado State. Instead, he harped on all the things Nevada did poorly against the Irish and made sure his team learned from those mistakes.

“It was a long, long week last week,” Ault said during the WAC teleconference Monday. “I don’t want them to forget the Notre Dame game. I want them to learn from it and where we were and the opportunities that they had. And learn from the mistakes that we made and also some of the good things that happened. We tried to take advantage of that without really trying to focus on the next game. More on us and what we’ve got to do to get better because fundamentally we just, we stunk up the place.”

Little went right in the 35-0 loss to Notre Dame. The Nevada pass defense, which was supposed to be better than its ranking of 119th a year ago, was exploited for 332 yards and four touchdowns. Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen and receiver Michael Floyd connected on the longest touchdown pass of both their careers in the second quarter and then bested it in the third quarter.

Every time the Wolf Pack would get something going offensively, they’d fumble, take a sack or throw an interception. Running back Vai Taua was the lone bright spot on offense with 18 carries for 114 yards, but as he was about to break the shutout, the first against the Wolf Pack since the end of the 2007 season, he fumbled the ball and the Wolf Pack never got that close to scoring again.

Ault said when the team got home, it went right to work on Monday and practiced as if it was preparing for a game -- not a bye -- the following weekend.

“I think they responded well,” Ault said. “We went out Monday and practiced pretty hard. We didn’t pull off too much and I thought they knew their position. They knew there was a nice challenge there, a great opportunity, and we really shot ourselves in the foot. Along with Notre Dame being a very, very talented football team and us finding a way not to get it done on either side of the ball, that’s a pretty tough combination.”

Colorado State had a shocking start to its season with a 23-17 win at rival Colorado. It followed that up by escaping Weber State last week and is 2-0 for the first time since 2006. The Rams haven’t started the season 3-0 since 1994, which is one of the best seasons in Colorado State football history.

Nevada was supposed to be much improved this season. It was supposed to challenge Boise State for the WAC title and quarterback Colin Kaepernick was a highly touted dark horse for the Heisman Trophy.

That team didn’t show up in South Bend two weeks ago, but Ault is hoping it makes an appearance in Fort Collins, Colo., this week.

“I was extremely disappointed with the way we responded at Notre Dame,” Ault said. “Not expecting that we would walk in there, going up and down the field and stopping everything. Just the response of our team and the reaction when people were in place to make plays who didn’t. When your offense is moving the ball fairly well and it seemed like every time we had something going for us, one person would make a critical error, which Notre Dame capitalized on. That was disappointing. I really expected us to play much better at that time and that disappointment still is healing.”