Fresno State quick hits: McMaryion quickly finding range

Fresno State quarterback Marcus McMaryion, the transfer from Oregon State, got his first reps in a team period on Tuesday and fired some solid shots working with the No. 2 offense.

His second throw was a perfect strike downfield to sophomore wide out Derrion Grim for a touchdown.

“He has really picked things up quickly,” Coach Jeff Tedford said of McMaryion. “He did some good things. He threw some nice balls. He understands concepts; it’s just a matter of learning terminolgy, which he has done a good job with. He got in team, and there wasn’t a glitch. It looked like he had been here the whole camp.”

Grounded – In the first fall camp scrimmage, running back Josh Hokit went airborne trying to leap over tacklers, once at the goal line and once in the open field.

In the second scrimmage, he didn’t try it even once.

In between, he was grounded by Tedford.

“When you get the ball in your hands you have to try to make something happen, and I like jumping over people,” Hokit said. “I was just trying to make something happen. Nobody is going to like it if you don’t successfully jump over somebody, but he (Tedford) was scared I was going to hurt myself. I think it was just for my safety. Being that high in the air, I could land on my head or something like that.

“He also told me I weigh 220 pounds, I shouldn’t be going over people I should be going through them, so I took that into consideration.”

Tedford was the coach at Cal in 2009 when running back Jahvid Best was injured going airborne trying to get into the end zone in a game against Oregon State, a frightening play.

“Yes, for sure,” Tedford said. “That’s dangerous. I told him Jahvid Best really hurt his career by jumping. Unfortunately, he (Hokit) landed on the back of his head. It’s very dangerous.”

Flying around – Like McMaryion, the Bulldogs also have Kesomi Mafi on a fast track, trying to get him up to speed with the defense. Mafi, who joined the Bulldogs last week, got his reps Tuesday with the No. 2 defense.

“We’re trying to get him there,” Tedford said. “He’s a really good player. We’re trying to increase the learning curve and the only way to do that is to put him in, very similar to Marcus, to get those guys in and get them going.

“We’ve been spending a lot of time with them in meetings to make sure they’re on top of it. They’re good learners, but it’s really important that they get in there and learn under fire a little bit.”

Divided – It appears the majority of team and 7-on-7 reps at quarterback are going to go to returning starter Chason Virgil, junior college transfer Jorge Reyna and McMaryion.

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Fresno State quick hits: McMaryion quickly finding range."