Bulldogs got more out of blowout than just big stats and a big win

Fresno State won its opener, beating up on Incarnate Word, which was not at all unexpected even for a team loaded with question marks coming out of a 1-11 season.

Even the final score – 66-0 – and the margin of victory was not out of the realm of possibility going in, though it had been 26 years since the Bulldogs last rolled anybody that badly; in 1991 they beat New Mexico 94-17.

But even with a low degree of difficulty limiting any takeaway from this game, the first of the Jeff Tedford era was important in one aspect.

The Bulldogs competed. They played hard, particularly a defense that allowed 125 yards and forced two turnovers. They executed in all three phases of the game. That competitiveness has been diminishing a bit every year since Derek Carr led Fresno State to the second of back-to-back Mountain West championships in 2013.

In going 1-11, they didn’t get it nearly enough and in some games not at all.

A 45-20 loss at UNLV was a total no-show, and that was the conference opener.

“It’s definitely a good thing to see, everybody on both sides of the ball, offense, defense and special teams going out there and executing,” said defensive end Robert Stanley, a fifth-year senior. “Just seeing all the hard work we put in from spring ball to summer and fall camp showing up on the field, it’s definitely a good thing to see.”

The difference?

“I feel like everybody really just bought in,” Stanley said. “Everybody stopped pointing fingers, everybody just pointed fingers at themselves first before anybody else.

“That’s something that everybody needed to work on, something that we did work on. It’s showing up in our play. Everybody is working at it collectively. It’s a group effort. It’s a team sport, so just happy to see everybody is contributing, everybody is working together as a team. Last year, with the record we had, it was real easy to point fingers.”

Incarnate Word is what it is, a fledgling championship subdivision program picked to finish last in its conference. But the easy victory raised the Bulldogs ceiling in the Mountain West Conference – it helped, also, that UNLV went out and lost as a ridiculous 45-point favorite to an FCS program in Howard – because in this game and coming off 1-11 it wasn’t about who they played but how they played.

The program and everything around now is just different, said defensive tackle Nathan Madsen, another fifth-year senior who had seen better times at Fresno State.

“It really is,” he said. “It’s not just something that happened overnight. I feel like we’ve been working hard on it all summer and all through fall camp. It’s something that has been in the works for a while. We have a different atmosphere around the team and with the coaches, a different attitude.

“It feels really good to get out there and do what we’ve been practicing and really execute our game plan. We’re going to enjoy this tonight, but we’re going to get back to work tomorrow. We’re just getting started and we’ll see where this goes.”

The larger test, of course, comes Saturday when the Bulldogs play at No. 1 Alabama.

It’s a lot easier to push around an Incarnate Word than it is to keep swinging in hopes of landing a few shots against a team like the Crimson Tide, which spent far more on football last year ($56.2 million) than Fresno State will this year on its entire athletic department (about $38 million).

That said, the Bulldogs couldn’t exactly muster that same effort last season against an FCS program in Sacramento State. Fresno State went into the fourth quarter of that game with a 10-3 lead before winning 31-3.

Tedford is well aware of that.

The Bulldogs’ coach was given a game ball after the victory, a prize he pushed back toward his players. “It really has nothing to do with me,” he said. “They put in all the work. Any time something like that happens it’s a team effort and this is all about team. They played together as a team. I was proud of that.”

He should have that thing chopped into 120 pieces for his players and his staff as a reminder.

If they do compete at a credible level at Alabama – forget winning, just compete; the Bulldogs have lost their past seven against Power Five teams by 34 points a game – that will be another plus for Tedford and his staff tasked with a 180-degree turnaround.

That, over the next three months of football will be far more important than the 66 points against Incarnate Word. It will be more important the 8 yards per play against the Cardinals, a number they have not hit in 42 games since averaging 9.6 in a 62-52 loss at San Jose State in 2013. More important than allowing minus-30 rushing yards, the first time an opponent has been under water since San Jose State was held to minus-5 rushing yards in a 24-10 victory in 2008. More important than their nine tackles for loss – the last time Fresno State had more was a 28-21 victory over Hawaii in 2014 when it had 11.　　

Not in a rush – The Bulldogs averaged 5 yards per rush, which is the flimsiest thing on the stat sheet.

Ronnie Rivers had a 30-yard touchdown run for the Bulldogs, one of five rushing plays of 10 or more yards totaling 87 of their 199 yards on the ground.

With their other 35 rushing plays the Bulldogs averaged 3.2 yards, shockingly close to where they were in 2016 when averaging 3.17 yards per play.

Fresno State rushed the ball 40 times with 16 of those plays going for less than 3 yards and more than half (21) of them going for 3 yards or less.

Freshmen on the field – The Bulldogs had 27 players in their first year in the program get into the game and Rivers became the first freshman running back to start an opener for the Bulldogs going back to 1980.

There were seven true freshmen that got in – Rivers, running back Jordan Mims, defensive end Damien DeGruy, safety Arron Mosby and offensive linemen Syrus Tuitele, Quirero Woodley and Zelan Tupuola.

Production in new places – Defensive end Emeka Ndoh had three of the Bulldogs’ nine tackles for loss. Robert Stanley and. Stephen Van Hook each were credited with one. As a group, that’s five for the D-ends.

Last season, the Bulldogs defensive ends accounted for 3.5 tackles for loss.

This story was originally published September 3, 2017 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Bulldogs got more out of blowout than just big stats and a big win."