Fresno State’s Rivers crushes UNLV with 4 TDs, but what about those quarterbacks?
Three games into a college football season in which nothing seems certain, including whether there will be a game played week-to-week during the coronavirus pandemic, Fresno State does have some absolutes.
Ronnie Rivers is at the top of that list. The senior running back had a monster game on Saturday in the Bulldogs’ 40-27 victory over UNLV at Allegiant Stadium, rushing for 133 yards and three touchdowns and catching six passes for 99 yards and one touchdown.
With the four scores he now has 43 in his career and is within one of the Bulldogs’ all-time touchdowns record set by Anthony Daigle, who played from 1991 to ‘93.
The first of those touchdowns, a 6-yard run, gave the Bulldogs a 13-10 lead in the second quarter. The second, a 33-yard pass from Jake Haener, gave the Bulldogs a 20-17 lead just before halftime. The third, a 16-yard run, extended that lead to two scores, 27-17, in the third quarter. The fourth, a 10-yard run, gave the Bulldogs a 34-27 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Big plays, all.
But a question lingering after the Bulldogs improved to 2-1 is about the trigger to an offense that generated 487 yards at a healthy 6.9 yards per play.
Who’s the No. 1 quarterback?
Coach Kalen DeBoer said that Haener is the starting quarterback. But the Bulldogs did give backup Ben Wooldridge more series than might have been anticipated, considering Haener went into it having completed a solid 61.9% of his passes and ranked second in the Mountain West Conference in passing at 300.0 yards per game.
Wooldridge had played one second-quarter series last week in the Bulldogs’ victory over Colorado State, but ran four in the victory over the Rebels including three in a row in the third and fourth quarters. Three of those drives produced points – two TDs and one field goal.
“What I really just want to see from these guys is better game-situation decisions,” DeBoer said. “I think both of them learned some things again (Saturday). They’re both heady guys that love the game and are learning – these are their first snaps, really.
“Their No. 1 job is to take care of the football. No. 2 is to move the chains and if they move them enough they’re going to get us in the end zone. There’s just some times I thought we could learn from those and talk on the sideline. In the end, Jake played a solid game. We got a little pressure on him a couple of times and we got behind the chains a lot when he was in there. Ben, between last week’s game and this week’s game, in most of his possessions did a nice job just moving us down the field so he gives us a spark there.”
Haener took four sacks, which left the Bulldogs in a second-and-12, a fourth-and-5 and back-to-back plays in a second-and-25 and then third-and-23.
The Bulldogs also were only 4 of 12 on third-down plays at UNLV, one week after going 10 of 18 against Colorado State.
Haener did convert on another third-and-long against the Rebels, hitting a 28-yard pass play on third-and-12. But that success isn’t likely to be sustainable over a season – the Bulldogs had converted six plays of third-and-7 or longer going into the game, the most in the Mountain West.
Against UNLV, the Bulldogs were 3 of 8 on third downs when Haener was on the field and 1 of 4 when Wooldridge was on the field.
Wooldridge providing a spark off bench
When Wooldridge has made his initial appearance in games, he has been able to move the Bulldogs down the field very efficiently.
His first series at UNLV would have been a three-and-out, but the Rebels were penalized for roughing the passer when Jacoby Windmon hit Wooldridge after the QB misfired on a third-down pass. From there, the third-year sophomore hit Rivers for 35 yards, then tight end Raymond Pauwels for 12 yards, then Rivers scored on the run from 6 yards out.
When Wooldridge returned in the third quarter, the Bulldogs went 79 yards in 11 plays for a touchdown and got to third down only once.
But Haener, DeBoer said, is the Bulldogs’ starter.
“Jake is 15 for 23 – that’s a pretty good completion percentage right there,” DeBoer said. “Again, like I said, took care of the football. We have to help him out a little with protection – we had four sacks on the day.
“The thing that happened, you know, Ben comes in and moves the ball down the field nicely, just like he did last week, and he does it a couple of series. You feel like you want to give the guy who has a little bit of a hot hand a chance, but Jake is certainly a guy we believe in for sure and we’ll keep rolling with him.”
By the numbers
6 – Sacks by the Bulldogs’ defense, 1.0 for Jacob Hollins, Sherwin King, Kwami Jones, Malachi Langley, Kevin Atkins and David Perales. It is the most sacks in a game for Fresno State since it had six in a 49-23 loss at San Jose State in 2015.
243 – Rushing yards for Fresno State, which had 204 in its first two games (120 in an opening loss to Hawaii and 84 in a victory over Colorado State).
10 – Tackles for loss by the Bulldogs, the most since they had 10 in a 48-16 loss at Washington in 2017. Langley, Hollins, King and Perales each had 2.0 TFLs.
40 – Yards gained on 16 plays in the fourth quarter for UNLV, 2.5 per play.
8 – Career 100-yard rushing games for Rivers, who had 133 yards and three touchdowns on 19 plays, averaging 7.0 per play.
6 – Explosive plays of 20 or more yards for Fresno State – rushing plays of 20, 54 and 35 yards and pass plays of 28, 35 and 33 yards
55 – UNLV converted 11 of 20 third-down plays into first downs, 55%. On the season, the Bulldogs have allowed opponents to move the sticks on 26 of 53 third-down plays, 52%
231 – Rushing yards by the quarterbacks – 139 for the Rebels’ Max Gilliam, 79 for Haener and 13 for Wooldridge.
10 – Conversions on fourth-down plays for UNLV this season. The Rebels were 2 of 2 against the Bulldogs.
Next for Fresno State
Saturday, 11:30 a.m. at Utah State, Fox Sports 2
Around the Mountain West
Week 3
San Jose State 28, San Diego State 17
Thursday, Nov. 12
Colorado State (1-1 MW, 1-1 overall) at Boise State (2-0, 2-1), 5 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 14
Fresno State (2-1, 2-1) at Utah State (0-3, 0-3), 11:30 a.m.
Hawaii (2-1, 2-1) at San Diego State (2-1, 2-1), 1 p.m.
Nevada (3-0, 3-0) vs. New Mexico (0-2, 0-2) at Las Vegas, 3:30 p.m.
Air Force (0-2, 1-2) at Wyoming (1-2, 1-2), canceled (COVID-19 outbreak at Air Force)
UNLV (0-3, 0-3) at San Jose State (3-0, 3-0), 7:30 p.m.
Andersen out at Utah State
Utah State and coach Gary Andersen are parting ways after a 0-3 start to the season for the Aggies. Andersen was in Year 2 of his second stint at Utah State.
Odd exits have been a trend in Andersen’s head coaching career. He abruptly left Wisconsin after two winning seasons to take the Oregon State job and then stepped down at Oregon State midseason in 2017.
This story was originally published November 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.