Fresno State DE Arron Mosby was never close to 100% in 2020. New season, new energy

They’re three games in and already Fresno State senior Arron Mosby has made a long list of high-impact plays at defensive end, his new home after moving closer and closer again to the line of scrimmage, playing outside linebacker for two years and safety for two years before that.

He has been in on 13 total tackles to lead the Bulldogs’ position group including 4.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, 2.0 sacks and one play that really stands out in an opening rout of UConn where he had a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble return for a 31-yard touchdown.

But there was another play, at Oregon, that illustrates how well Mosby has taken to the position, and how much he is taking advantage of a second senior season after playing through an injury in 2020 that few knew about.

It’s the fourth-and-1 in the third quarter. The Ducks have the football at the Fresno State 14-yard line. A field goal gives Oregon a two-score lead right there, but it instead goes bully mode. Mosby, lined up to the field, sliced into the backfield at the snap and engaged the Ducks’ tight end, working his way across the formation and into a collision with running back C.J. Verdell.

Tackle Kevin Atkins got there and end David Perales got there. Husky Justin Houston came flying in and safety Evan Williams came flying up and into the play. But Mosby made the tackle on the play while the tight end was still a nuisance on his left shoulder, taking Verdell down after he had slipped briefly for a 1-yard loss.

That play stands out. The easy assumption is that Mosby will thrive as a pass rusher with his speed off the edge, but there is much more there.

“I really noticed it in the second scrimmage, that’s when I really noticed it this fall, and It was against the run,” coach Kalen DeBoer said.

“The pass stuff with his speed and his first step, it’s going to happen. But it’s the other stuff that we need from guys to be a complete player and he has really come along. The mindset is to be physical, not just this fast guy off the edge, and that’s really cool to see.”

For Bulldogs’ Mosby COVID opened, and closed, a window

Mosby had those tools a year ago, but they were far from sharp. In August, COVID had forced the Mountain West to postpone its 2020 football season and explore playing fall sports in the spring, maybe January or February. It was a window of opportunity. Mosby, who has been one of the Bulldogs’ most intriguing pieces from the second he stepped on campus following a standout career at Sanger High, needed surgery to repair a groin injury and taking a six- to -eight-week period without strenuous activity and rehab and counting backward they figured it best to go ahead and get it done.

There would be plenty of time to be ready for football in the spring; three months at least, and maybe longer.

He had the surgery on Sept. 7, and if there were a spring season Mosby likely is doing then what he is doing now. But a few weeks after the procedure the conference announced that it would instead go ahead with a fall football season with games to start on Oct. 24; eight games in all.

Mosby worked his way back and played in the six games Fresno State was able to get in during a pandemic-abbreviated season that included the cancellation of rivalry games against San Jose State and San Diego State, but physically he never was at his best.

He was a little heavy and not moving nearly as well as he could – as a safety in 2018 he had returned an interception 95 yards for a touchdown in a victory over San Jose State.

“I’d say I was feeling probably 90% the last game, New Mexico,” he said.

That was in December.

Mosby still was in on a season-high eight tackles in that game, finishing the year with 21 including 3.0 tackles for loss.

“It’s a tribute to him,” DeBoer said. “Again, last year was a struggle for him, just the timing of things. It was not his fault, it really had to do with the timing of when they decided to move the season from the spring to the fall. He had just had his surgery. The recovery from that took a lot of time.

Mosby brings much more than speed off the edge

“That’s what’s cool, really, to see the story of him and how he is in the film room, sitting in there in a D-line room and how he is just so knowledgeable. All that experience he had playing the other positions correlates. He knows what the coverages are that are going on behind him and he understands how it all fits together and the freedom he has on certain looks to slant inside or come off the edge. He’s a really smart guy because of his experiences over time here and he’s taking advantage of it.”

In the spring those pieces still were coming together. But they fit well in the Bulldogs’ 4-2-5, that defensive line a strength of a unit that has allowed just 246.3 yards and 13.7 points per game.

“I would say I’m all right now,” Mosby said, with a laugh. “Obviously I could be better. You can always be better at anything, but I’m doing pretty good.”

“Arron is a powerful guy,” defensive line coach Eric Schmidt said. “He looks exactly like I think they should look. Really, if you want to talk about a 4-3 D-end or a 3-4 outside ’backer, he’s between 245 and 250 pounds on any given day and an athletic guy, no question.

“Moving his feet is I think anybody’s strongest attribute on the defensive line and he’s definitely an agile guy that can get after guys and get on top of their toes in a hurry. He takes away time and space when he’s out there and that’s a huge part of it.”

That positional versatility will be an important piece after the season, as Mosby prepares for a shot at the next level. But, ranked sixth in the nation in tackles for loss, he can do a lot with nine more college football games this season, starting on Saturday against No. 13 UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

“I’m proud of all our guys, but there’s maybe very few that I’m more proud of than what Arron has done,” DeBoer said. “Just his mindset and how he has attacked the move of position. It was something we wanted to do last fall, just the complexity of having enough guys at linebacker and then of course an injury that we kept to ourselves and Arron kept to himself. He didn’t make any excuses, but he wasn’t even close to 100% a year ago.

“But he put a full year of training in and just really has worked hard to become technically great at playing the D-end position. You could see it. Those strip sacks that he has had, it’s a millisecond of decision and execution that takes place there. It just comes through reps, it comes through wanting to be really good at it, and he has done that.”