The first halftime speech was given by Pat Hill, so it started at the top.
As soon as he got to the locker room, Hill called the entire Fresno State football team into a huddle and had plenty to say about, and to, the defense.Not a bad place to start. The Bulldogs' defense had played pretty terribly Saturday. No one would argue that. It allowed 27 points. It had given up yardage by the acre, 363 by the time the clock mercifully limped to halftime.Utah State didn't punt, didn't even bother with third down more than a few times. It looked like the Bulldogs gave up trying to tackle Utah State quarterback Diondre Borel, and just sort of herded him toward the sideline."It definitely didn't look too good," safety Lorne Bell said. "I'm sure there were a lot of fans that were nervous."Either that, or they were exercising the quietest confidence you've ever heard. Or not heard. It was so noiseless in Bulldog Stadium, you could hear your own pulse.Call it moments of silence for a fallen defense.You know it's bad when the guy with a club for a hand gets a face mask penalty. And that was on third-and-27."I didn't do it," defensive end Chris Carter said. "I grabbed his shoulder pad."The pounding the Bulldogs took in the locker room was just as brutal. In the news conference, Hill called it a "challenge of love," but if this was love, it was from a Tonya Harding courtship. "In my four years here," safety Moses Harris said, "I've never experienced or seen our coaches that way."Defensive coordinator Randy Stewart had to walk from the press box, so it took him a little longer to get there. He was somewhat displeased, you might say."You couldn't print any of it," Harris said.Stewart told the team he'd been walking next to some Utah State players on the way to the locker room, and overheard them saying all sorts of things about the Fresno State defense. Whether Stewart actually heard Aggies talking, or was just grasping at motivational ploys, isn't entirely clear, but the message was delivered.Stewart yelled at the defense. Assistant coach Will Plemons called out the defensive line. They should have extended halftime for all the speeches. It was part graduation ceremony, part domestic dispute.When they got down to the sideline for the second half, linebacker Ben Jacobs gave a passionate speech, and public speaking is not his area of interest or expertise. When he or Bell talk, though, people listen, because they don't do it often.You know what happened in the second half. Utah State didn't score a point, partly because it missed a field goal. Fresno State tackled better, tightened the corral around Borel a little. They came back and beat Utah State 31-27 in a game that was gone. The goldfish was halfway down the toilet and came back to life.This is a defense that needs leadership, needs to communicate, needs to be as flawless as possible, because it just isn't that fast. Everyone says they need to work as a unit, but this defense really does, because its parts are not flashy. Fresno State tickets for games against option quarterbacks should come with Maalox. Nevada's Colin Kaepernick is still to come. He ran for 114 yards and two touchdowns against Hawaii on Saturday. He faces the Bulldogs in two weeks. Is it too early to start the speeches now?