Note: As the Nevada football awaits its selection for a bowl game in 2018, we are taking a look back this week at the Wolf Pack's history of bowl game appearances.

The Nevada football team has made the pre-holidays trip to Honolulu and the Hawai`i Bowl three times in its history.

Most recently, the Pack dropped a tough one to Southern Miss in 2011. That came two years after a loss to former Hawai`i coach June Jones, who headed up the SMU Mustangs that season.

Nevada's first appear appearance in the bowl came in 2005, when then-coach Chris Ault dubbed his squad "Nevada's Christmas Team" after the Pack took down Central Florida on Dec. 24, 2005 to cap a re-emergent season for the Wolf Pack as Nevada captured a share of the Western Athletic Conference title that season.

Nevada won't return to the Hawai`i Bowl this season as the game has already announced the hometown Rainbow Warriors will play Louisiana Tech in the game.

2011: Southern Miss 24, Nevada 17
HONOLULU (AP) - Austin Davis made the plays when it counted to send Southern Mississippi coach Larry Fedora out a winner.
Davis threw two touchdowns, including a 4-yarder late in the game, and No. 22 Southern Miss earned a school-record 12th victory by holding off Nevada 24-17 in the Hawaii Bowl on Saturday night.
"It wasn't his best game, but he did enough to help us win this football game," said Fedora, who is leaving after four seasons to take over at North Carolina.
Davis overcame a shaky game for the Conference USA-champion Golden Eagles (12-2), and the defense in the second half managed to shut down Nevada's potent pistol attack led by Lampford Mark.
"I thought we struggled the entire game offensively. We made a few big plays at the end, but really the defense, these guys were special and they've done that all year," Davis said. "We made a play or two on offense when we needed to."
Davis was off most of the night but made it count on the game-winning drive. On third-and-goal, he scrambled right and found Kelvin Bolden for the 4-yard score, capping a seven-play, 68-yard drive. He had just 59 yard passing at halftime and finished 18 of 41 for 165 yards.
On the winning drive, Davis was 3 of 4 for 66 yards, including a 43-yard completion to Dominique Sullivan down the right sideline and a 19-yarder to a crossing William Spight. Sullivan had five catches for 75 yards.
With Davis held in check, the Golden Eagles relied on their defense, stopping Mark on fourth-and-1 at midfield with 3:56 left. Mark had 183 yards rushing for the Wolf Pack (7-6) but was held to just 21 yards in the second half.
"Our offense in the second half - our offensive front just didn't get it done at all and I was really disappointed in that aspect of it. We got stopped on two fourth-and-1s," Wolf Pack coach Chris Ault said.
Nevada was without its top receiver, Rishard Matthews, who has 91 receptions for 1,364 yards and eight TDs.

2009: SMU 45, Nevada 10
HONOLULU, HAWAII (AP) -Freshman Kyle Padron threw for an SMU-record 460 yards, leading the Mustangs to a 45-10 victory over Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl on Thursday night - SMU's first postseason appearance in 25 years.
The 18-year-old Padron, who was 32 of 41 and completed two touchdown passes, was confident and composed on the biggest stage of his career.
He earned the starting job after Bo Levi Mitchell was injured in the seventh game of the season and was largely unknown coming out of Southlake Carroll in Texas, which produced quarterbacks Chase Daniel and Greg McElroy.
Despite the tiny crowd at the game, people are paying attention to Padron - and SMU.
The Mustangs (8-5), who were 1-11 the previous two years, have their most victories since their last postseason game - also in Hawaii. SMU beat Notre Dame 27-20 in the 1984 Aloha Bowl to finish 10-2.
Shawnbrey McNeal added 63 yards rushing and three touchdowns, including two in the first quarter. He also had seven catches for 53 yards.
The loss was the fourth straight in the postseason for the Wolf Pack (8-5), whose No. 1 rushing offense in the nation was grounded. While SMU racked up 534 yards of offense, Nevada had held to just 314, including 137 yards rushing. The Wolf Pack averaged 362.3 yards rushing during the regular season and is the first team in NCAA history to have three 1,000-yard rushers. But Nevada was without two of them in running backs Vai Taua and Luke Lippincott.
Taua was ruled academically ineligible and Lippincott was sidelined with
a toe injury.

2005: Nevada 49, UCF 48, OT
Nevada made its first bowl appearance in 10 years a memorable one, spoiling Central Florida's bowl debut with a thrilling 49-48 overtime victory in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.
Nevada junior quarterback Jeff Rowe scored on a 4-yard naked bootleg in overtime to lead Nevada to the win.
Senior B.J. Mitchell ran for 178 yards and two touchdowns, and junior Robert Hubbard had 126 yards rushing and three touchdowns for the Wolf Pack, which turned in its best season since 1996.
UCF kicker Matt Prater booted a 46-yard field goal with 1:32 left to draw UCF to 42-35, and the Golden Knights recovered the onside kick with no timeouts left to set up Brandon Marshall's dramatic 16-yard TD catch that sent the game into overtime.
Trailing 32-28, the Wolf Pack took the lead on Hubbard's 5-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. Nevada scored again on Rowe's 7-yard scoring pass to Travis Branzell for a 42-32 lead with 3:18 remaining.
Kevin Smith scored on a 19 yard run to tie the game at 48 but
Prater, who had three field goals during the game, missed the game-tying extra point wide right, giving the Wolf Pack the win.