Don't count Hill out just yet

Published online on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

On the list of things that refuse to go away -- white sunglasses, karaoke, Jesse Jackson, the band Kiss, the person in front of you at the post office with 14 packages and insurance aspirations for each -- Pat Hill has to be in there somewhere.

Admit it, three weeks ago you were sharpening your obituary pencil. The Anti-Pat Coalition had commissioned trumpeters for taps. The Over-The-Hill Gang had gathered, noose in hand, ready to ride.

Whoa, Nellie! Put the horse back in the pasture. The coach with the cowboy mustache ain't done just yet.

What smelled of disaster has been Febrezed. Halfway through the regular season, the Bulldogs are back to even (3-3) and beating conference teams the way Tyson used to win fights, early and easy.

No, Hawaii didn't have its starting quarterback, but the game was at its place, where the locals could beat Fresno State with a flag football squad they found on Craigslist that morning. The island is haunted. Amelia Earhart disappeared near there, and usually, so do the Bulldogs.

Not only that, Fresno State had just lost an emotionally and physically painful game in Cincinnati. The team was 1-3, and if there was going to be a collapse, a drop in effort, an overall disinterest in the rest of the season, that was the moment.

Instead, there was Hill, pulling the starters with a lead against Hawaii, taking no revenge for beatings Colt Brennan inflicted on the Bulldogs a couple seasons back. Merciful in the land of Warriors.

A week later, Hill had San Jose State down 41-14 and the starters resting again. Could this be the season Fresno State does what people always say it should: plow over every WAC team not located in Boise?

And if they do, wouldn't that make Hill the conference coach of the year, flying with two new coordinators and a rookie quarterback at co-pilot? Well, it would if Robb Akey wasn't currently pulling off the Miracle in Moscow. The Idaho football team winning even half its games would have been worth phoning a relative. The Vandals at 6-1 deserves Al Michaels with a microphone.

Wait, you didn't expect Hill to just slink away, did you? Stubborn men don't fade. His house isn't on the market. He hasn't lowered expectations.

Hill made sure to ask reporters about his quarterback's stats after Saturday's game, even though he pretty much knew. His point being that Ryan Colburn is playing darn well the past two games. "Efficient" is the word Hill used; it's hard to argue with a 73% completion percentage, four touchdowns and zero interceptions.

But also give credit to Hill and offensive coordinator Jeff Grady for putting Colburn in the good situations, giving him just enough work to build confidence, letting him fling in play-action situations where the opponent thinks run.

And let's face it, everyone should be thinking run every play. What else do you do with the nation's best college running back? Ryan Mathews is so good, Lonyae Miller's last season evaporates on the bench, a sports car in cobwebs.

How good has Mathews been? If every running back in Division I stayed at his current pace, Mathews would be the nation's leading rusher by 400 yards at season's end.

So, yes, it is convenient to have brilliance in the backfield, but it was no accident. It was Hill and his staff who invested time in Mathews back at West High-Bakersfield, trusted that he would qualify academically, trusted that he would stick with Fresno State when the Pac-10 schools tried to cherry-pick him.

This is the halfway point. Hill's grade has to be a good one. A mid-major won't be a national contender every season, but a fan-base needs to feel that even when you aren't sprinting, things are at least moving in the right direction. It's only half a season, but if the Bulldogs play this way and finish 9-3 or 8-4, the man in charge will have earned that dangling contract extension.

Just like in the Westerns, the tough ones don't go quietly.