Fresno State will be shorthanded in practice. What it means for Saturday at Nevada

Fresno State is back in football game-prep mode, though it will be short handed in practice this week with players exiting COVID-19 quarantines.

But the Bulldogs are on track to play at Nevada on Saturday in what will be their first game in three weeks following cancellations against San Jose State and San Diego State due to a positive coronavirus test within the program, contact tracing protocols and football-related injuries that have impacted the depth in certain position groups.

“We’ll be missing still key players,” coach Kalen DeBoer said. “You can do the timeline. It doesn’t take much to figure out 14 days from when everything started. There are guys that will be able to come back a little bit earlier, but there’s different waves of them.

“We have different contact tracing beyond people that were positive in our program. Every place does it a little different. Every county does it a little different. Every conference does it a little different. It’s definitely a modified practice that we’ll be going through all week long.”

The Bulldogs’ players, coaches and staff are tested for COVID-19 three times per week. As of Monday, Fresno State was aware of 48 positive tests within the campus community since the start of the pandemic, an increase of three from the previous week. That would include members of the basketball program, which is in a 14-day quarantine period for a third time.

But the Bulldogs football team is back after quarantine and will be playing Nevada in what amounts to an elimination game for a spot in the Mountain West Conference championship.

The Bulldogs (3-1) and Wolf Pack (5-1) trail San Jose State (4-0) and Boise State (4-0) with two games to play. Fresno State ends its regular season with a game at 0-5 New Mexico; San Jose State this week plays Hawaii (3-3) and ends with Nevada; and Boise State plays at UNLV (0-5) and then at Wyoming (2-2).

When last seen, the Bulldogs were beating up Utah State, a 35-16 road win in which quarterback Jake Haener hit 29 of 38 passes (76.3%) for 422 yards and four touchdowns and sophomore wideout Jalen Cropper had 10 receptions for 202 yards and three of those scores.

It was the third game in a row Fresno State had scored 35 or more points.

That game was played with Utah under a state of emergency order due to a surge in coronavirus cases and to address overcrowding at hospitals in the state

The Bulldogs, who have won three in a row, were dealing with a few injury issues and down key players then and still are. With injuries and players coming out of the coronavirus quarantines, DeBoer said it is unlikely all hands will be cleared to play at Nevada.

“Right now we’re getting close and that could be a possibility, that we do have everyone back, but I don’t know if we’ve played a game this year where we haven’t withheld someone just out of precautionary reasons,” he said.

Next for Fresno State

Saturday: 7:30 p.m. at Nevada

TV: Fox Sports 2

Radio: ESPN 940 AM

This story was originally published November 30, 2020 at 2:56 PM.