Delvon Hardaway gets a sixth year and Bulldogs are ready to take advantage of it

Fresno State has taken advantage of an NCAA rule change to get wideout Delvon Hardaway a sixth year of eligibility and plugged perhaps the only hole in the Bulldogs’ enviable group of receivers.

Hardaway, who lost his fifth-year senior season when he suffered a knee injury on the second day of fall camp a year ago, adds positional versatility and more so a veteran presence to a group that does lack game experience behind returning starters KeeSean Johnson and Jamire Jordan and Oklahoma transfer Michiah Quick.

“To have him compete to be in the rotation will be good,” coach Jeff Tedford said.

Hardaway has played in 33 career games and has 42 receptions for 489 yards (11.6 yards per catch) with two touchdowns, both coming in his redshirt freshman season in 2014.

Johnson, who is on the watch list for the Biletnikoff Award for a second year in a row and one of the top returning receivers in the nation, has played in 37 games with 180 receptions, 2,123 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns.

Jordan in 37 career games has 118 receptions for 1,815 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Quick at Oklahoma played as a defensive back and as a receiver, but in 18 games on offense caught 34 passes for 340 yards and one touchdown.

But after that the Bulldogs’ receivers group, though talented, does lack experience.

Junior Derrion Grim last season caught 13 passes for 193 yards and one touchdown. Add in Justin Allen, Nanami Parker, Anthony Grayson and redshirt freshmen Chris Coleman, Zane Pope and Patrick Elima-Jeune and the group has a total of 20 receptions.

“I think he’ll be a productive guy,” Tedford said of Hardaway. “Not necessarily just on the field, but as a mature, seasoned guy.”

Hardaway had missed time after suffering a knee injury during spring practices before his sophomore season, making a quick comeback in the fourth game in 2015 at San Jose State, just sixth months after surgery. He played in nine games, but still was working his way back to full health, running routes, exploding out of breaks.

This time, when fall camp rolls around, Hardaway will have had almost a full year to rehab from surgery.

The knee, he said, is solid, and on Monday when the Bulldogs were wrapping up a strength and conditioning program with the first of two days of testing he set personal bests in the bench press, power clean and vertical and broad jumps. He hit 325 pounds on the bench press. The vertical jump was 35 inches.

“With it being a full year I feel great,” he said. “I actually feel stronger than I did before. I feel more in shape than I did before, and that hunger is there.

“Sitting out and missing your senior year, not knowing what can happen, not knowing if you’ll ever play again, that definitely puts a chip on your shoulder.”

Hardaway had considered playing this season at the Division II level. But after the NCAA Division I Council in April passed a rule change that would make gaining a sixth year of eligibility a possibility, he started the process of returning to Fresno State where he could play a role in a passing offense expected to make a significant leap in a second season under offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer and with Marcus McMaryion at quarterback.

Under the new rule, a student-athlete can play four or fewer games in one season due to an injury or reasons beyond his control and gain a sixth year, not including a redshirt season. The rule previously had been four or fewer games in two separate seasons.

“I went from thinking I wasn’t playing again and I have to get ready for pro day, then that’s not going to work and I have to go D-II and it seemed like that wasn’t going to work and God blessed me with another year,” Hardaway said.

“Going into fall camp, my first instinct is always going to be to compete, just to compete on and off the field in everything that I do. I’m definitely going to be a leader, knowing the offense, knowing every position and having the experience of what goes on in games with different coverages and things like that. I’ll definitely be able to help out with that knowledge and just looking at the depth we have at the position, honestly, we should have the best receiving corps in the nation.”