Fresno State football: 3 takeaways from coach Kalen DeBoer’s first spring practice
The Fresno State Bulldogs opened spring football practices on Saturday coming off a season heavily impacted by COVID-19, from a late start to a shortened schedule to quarantines and two missed games.
Highlighting the strange times, it was coach Kalen DeBoer’s first spring practice. He was hired Dec.. 17, 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic took hold on the eve of spring 2020 practice.
“I sent a text out to the coaches – we had 15 months to get ready for practice No. 1 of spring. We better not mess it up,” DeBoer said. “It’s just crazy how it has all worked out. A year ago we had talked through how a spring would go and we never got a chance to do that.
“There’s just so much lost in the process as you go through the spring, carry that over to the summer, and we’re getting a chance to do that right now on the heels of a great seven-week training period that we went through during the winter.”
Fresno State, which was 3-1 and had won three games in a row last season when it had to cancel Mountain West Conference matchups against San Jose State and San Diego State due to the coronavirus, had 14 players use a blanket waiver from the NCAA and will have a second senior season including running back Ronnie Rivers.
Quarterback Jake Haener also returns after one of the fastest six-game starts in school history, completing 64.7% of his passes in averaging 336.8 yards per game with 14 touchdowns and only five interceptions.
The Bulldogs are not short on experience, but there are questions with players moving positions. Here are three things to watch through the Bulldogs’ 15 spring practices …
Mosby on the edge
Arron Mosby is lining up at defensive end this spring, a move that has been anticipated since he came into the program five years ago as a highly regarded safety from Sanger High. He also is wearing No. 3, not No. 15, the number worn by former Bulldogs’ defensive end/linebacker Mykal Walker, the fourth-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Mosby, who is up to 247 pounds, gives the Bulldogs another dynamic presence off the edge, coming off a season in which they were third in the nation with 4.2 sacks per game.
The challenge this spring, he said, will be working on his hands and dealing with a 300-pound tackle on every play.
“I’m trying to learn from those guys, (David) Perales, Kevin Atkins, Kwami (Jones), those three main guys right there that are really holding down the D-line,” Mosby said. “Me, I’m just trying to help the team out as much as I can. Moving to D-end is a huge step, but I’m ready for the challenge.”
A hole, again, in the QB depth
There’s no question that Jake Haener is the Bulldogs’ starting quarterback, but they have only three on the depth chart this spring with Haener and redshirt freshmen Logan Fife and walk-on Joseph Campbell.
Jalan Early, who was a late add last season, has been moved to tight end.
Freshman Jaylen Henderson will join the group in the fall, and they could go into the season with just three scholarship quarterbacks as they did in 2019 with Jorge Reyna, Ben Wooldridge and Steven Comstock.
But the plan is to look around for a fifth quarterback to join the position group, which they can fill a number of different ways. They could take a scholarship quarterback or a walk-on. They could find a Division I transfer, a junior college transfer or a quarterback coming out of high school. Moving Early could be a hint how they view the upside of Fife, and the incoming freshman Henderson. But there is an obvious void between Haener, a senior with two seasons of eligibility remaining, and the other quarterbacks.
“It’s a delicate deal, right,” offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said. “You don’t bring a guy in and undercut Logan Fife if he has had a great spring and what you think Jaylen Henderson can do.”
Running behind Ronnie
The Bulldogs are not going to take any chances with Rivers, who is on the verge of breaking several school records including career touchdowns.
He will not take much if any contact this spring. But there will be some serious competition to be No. 2 with a group that includes Jordan Mims, Jevon Bigelow, Malik Sherrod and Utah transfer Jordan Wilmore.
The Bulldogs were in helmets and shorts on Saturday in their first spring practice, but Mims had a big run. Wilmore also has made an impression since joining the program.
“He has been a blast to have here,” DeBoer said. “He has really fit right in, a lot like what you’ve seen with Jake and some of the top-tier guys that have come in over the years.
“He has just come in and worked and really gained a lot of respect. I love to see that unit – it’s probably one of the most competitive positions we have on our team. But they’ve really grown together.”
Rivers was injured in the Bulldogs’ fifth game a year ago, did not play in the second half of a loss at Nevada and had only one carry in a loss at New Mexico to end the season. But in the first four games he carried the ball on 81.7% of the rushing plays by a running back.
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 4:24 PM.