Fresno State’s Jake Haener is the talk of the nation. How did the Bulldogs get so lucky?

There was some unusual traffic late Saturday night on the message board of the Washington fan site, Dawgman. The Huskies had played an afternoon game and dispatched Arkansas State with ease; really not much to discuss there, even with a first win of the season.

But around 9 p.m.,10 p.m., rather than dying down, it picked up.

It was because Fresno State quarterback Jake Haener, who started his college career at Washington, was in the process of slicing up No. 13 UCLA at the Rose Bowl, completing 73.6% of his passes for 455 yards with six explosive plays of 20 or more yards and two touchdowns including the game-winner with 14 seconds to go.

“At one point we probably had a half dozen threads going,” said Chris Fetters, editor of the site. “We usually consolidate some of those to clear the clutter out a little bit, but at some point you’re like, just let them go. They’re having their fun, they’re enjoying it, and Jake’s performance certainly was worthy of that kind of attention.”

Some of the headers: “Haener has the heart of a champion, wow”; “Haener is insane …”; “Jake freaking Haener.”

Haener and the Bulldogs lit up social media, as well, and continued to pique curiosity on Monday, not just in the Valley, but across the nation. Fresno State sold 3,000 tickets for its Mountain West Conference opener on Friday against UNLV in the first day and a half after beating UCLA. The athletics department was flooded by interview requests from national media outlets, and blocked out 2½ hours to put Haener on the phone and Zoom calls.

One question: How is Haener physically?

He took some shots in the victory over the Bruins, was sacked three times and hit on several other plays. When leading the winning drive in the final minutes of that 40-37 victory he was limping around the field. He banged up a hip, and after the game had a bag of ice strapped to his left leg.

That toughness, leading the Bulldogs in that fourth quarter, stood out.

Bulldogs coach on banged-up QB: ‘I think he’ll be fine’

“I think that’s who Jake is and I think that for sure there’s an expectation in the quarterback room of how we’re supposed to present ourselves on the field, even in the toughest situations,” offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said. “Jake, embodies that. I always give him a hard time afterward and even this morning when he was up in my office, I know his mom is in the media, so I said, ‘You need to slow down on the theatrics.’

“You’re all right. It wasn’t that bad. You got up. Coach (Pat) Hill even mentioned, he saw him run over and chest bump guys after he limped off the field. You’re going to be OK. But, taking nothing away from him, he lives for that. He loves taking, in even kind of a sick way, take a shot and get up and show them, ‘I’ve got way more in the tank.’”

“I think he’ll be fine,” coach Kalen DeBoer said. “I think he’ll be ready to go and our training staff will do a great job. It was a physical football game for a lot of people. Jake, the thing about him, he just keeps getting up, but there were a lot of other guys that kept getting up all game, too.”

The Bulldogs and their quarterback, off to a 3-1 start and ranked No. 22 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 25 in the Coaches Poll, are gaining traction across the country.

Haener’s story is compelling. There is the transfer to Fresno State in 2019 after the Huskies opted to start Jacob Eason, who that season ranked seventh in the Pac-12 in passing before entering the NFL Draft.

Haener’s mother, Julie, is the anchor on the evening news at KTVU in the Bay Area.

His parents met at a Fresno State football game, even though neither attended the university; his father Ryan is a Bullard High grad who attended UC Santa Barbara and his mother was working at KJEO-TV, now CBS47.

Haener has thrown 11 touchdown passes in just four games at Bulldog Stadium, but none quite as big or daring as what his dad did.

“I was standing there talking to some friends and felt like someone was looking over in my direction and I looked over and I saw this cute blonde and we kind of made eye contact back and forth for several minutes,” Ryan Haener told The Bee last year. “I asked a girlfriend at the time who was with me, ‘Who is that?’ They said, ‘That’s Julie Hogan. That’s the new news lady, News 47.’ I said, ‘Well, I think I’ll ask her out,’ and she started laughing at me. She said, ‘There’s no way, you’ll never ask her out …’”

Haener, the backstory

On the football field in 2020, Haener, despite having no spring practice and no summer workouts due to COVID-19 restrictions, put together the best six starts to a career at Fresno State going back to 2000.

It was better than David Carr, better than Derek Carr, better than Paul Pinegar or Marcus McMaryion.

“He has a really high bar he sets and I know I just keep inching that bar up and keep pressing him on (his) preparation,” Grubb said, before the Bulldogs’ final game last season.

“I know he doesn’t want to be good, he wants to be great. He wants to be one of the guys that’s slinging the ball around here at Bulldog Stadium that people remember for a while.”

Haener has only picked up speed through the first four games this season.

The Bulldogs quarterback, who still has another season of eligibility, is leading the Mountain West Conference and fourth in the nation in passing, averaging 366.0 yards per game. He is ranked first and seventh in completion percentage, first and seventh in passing efficiency rating, first and ninth in yards per attempt.

He has thrown 58 passes that resulted in a first down, more than every other team in the nation including all five that also have played four games.

He has five pass plays of 50 or more yards, most in the nation.

He has produced at a high level against ranked opponents, averaging 376.5 yards in a 31-24 loss at No. 11 Oregon and the victory at No. 13 UCLA.

Bulldogs QB top passer in nation

He is tied for 16th in the nation in passing attempts per game, but in the Top 10 in completion percentage (seventh, 74.6), yards per attempt (ninth, 10.2), touchdown passes (fourth, 10), passing efficiency rating (seventh. 180.54) and yards per game (fourth, 366.0).

And, UNLV will come to Bulldog Stadium on Friday with the worst passing defense in the Mountain West. The Rebels have allowed opponents to complete 73.5% of their pass attempts for 286.0 yards per game and 8.8 yards per attempt. They also have allowed eight passing touchdowns, tied with Hawaii for last in the conference.

DeBoer was the Bulldogs offensive coordinator in 2017 when Fresno State won a big game at San Diego State only to return home the following week and play ugly in a loss to a UNLV team that had a converted linebacker playing quarterback and would go on to finish 5-7 on the season.

He wants the Bulldogs and Haener to embrace the attention, but also to remain on the course set.

“In the day and age of social media, it’s certainly a challenge. It’s a challenge for everybody,” DeBoer said. “The alerts pop up on your phone, right, and when there’s 80 of them popping up every half a day you can’t help but take a look for a second. With the guys, Jake in particular, probably drawing a lot of attention, it’s just something he’s going to really do a good job of balancing. He deserves all the recognition and It’s exciting for him. It’s exciting for us to have that come to him as well as our football team.

“But what got us there was being super-disciplined and putting extra work in. No one sees him coming into meeting rooms at 9:30 at night, or still in there at 9:30, 10 o’clock at night, like he has been. Those are things that we just have to challenge our team to continue to make sure they’re doing, putting in the time away from our normal meeting times and practices. That hard work is what got us to that point so we have to continue to do that.”

This story was originally published September 20, 2021 at 6:48 PM.