Fresno State Senior Day signals an end, and a beginning, for Bulldogs’ dynamic backfield duo
They came in together, linked from the start. Ronnie Rivers and Jordan Mims would be the Bulldogs’ one-two punch in the backfield for three or four years, both possessing the football equivalent of a strong jab and cross and the ability to deliver a punishing knockout blow. That was the plan.
They could run inside or outside, on 1st-and-10 or on 3rd-and-short. They could catch the football out of the backfield and they could block, pick up the pass protections and then win those one-on-one skirmishes with blitzing linebackers or safeties off the edge or up the middle.
When coach Jeff Tedford was hired to resuscitate the Bulldogs’ program in 2017, they were among the first recruits to be offered scholarships, former running backs coach Jamie Christian said.
Well, sort of. Rivers, the son of former Bulldogs’ standout Ron Rivers, who played for Fresno State when Tedford was the offensive coordinator, wasn’t quite sure what he heard when he got the call.
“I was very nervous talking to him,” Rivers said. “My dad has talked about him a lot. But being a kid and being nervous and not really paying attention but paying attention to what he said, I was just a little confused on his wording. I didn’t really know if he actually gave me an offer. I had to call him back and confirm it.”
But he committed, shortly after receiving the Bulldogs’ scholarship offer.
Mims, he was in from the start as well. He grew up in East Palo Alto, the hometown of former Bulldogs’ stars Davante Adams and KeeSean Johnson.
Mims also knew the Tedford resume from his time at Cal, and the success he had there producing 1,000-yard backs and pros including J.J. Arrington, Marshawn Lynch, Justin Forsett and Jahvid Best.
“Fresno State stood out the best,” he said.
An awkward beginning for Bulldogs’ backs
When they arrived at Fresno State the summer after signing, they roomed together in the dorms, tossed together by the coaching staff in what turned out to be an odd coupling, at least off the football field.
“It was very, very awkward,” Mims said with a laugh. “We would just not speak. The only time we would talk, I would ask, ‘Do you want to turn the lights off?’ And he would be like, ‘Yeah. Do you?’
“It was that awkward. He’ll tell you the same thing, though.”
“It was just awkward. I don’t even know how to explain it,” Rivers said. “We were young and new and trying to fit in and coming in trying to win a spot. That’s all natural, but you have to put those feelings to the side and have a team mindset and do whatever it takes to help the team win.”
That first season, as freshmen, the Bulldogs did win. Fresno State went 10-4 and won the Hawaii Bowl, one year after going 1-11. Mims led the team in rushing with 627 yards and six touchdowns and Rivers had 480 yards and five scores as part of a three-man backfield that included Josh Hokit, who is now on the 49ers’ practice squad.
There was competition. Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said he would have been bummed if there were not. But it drove both, and they helped each other.
“There was probably some tension in the air, but we ended up getting past that and helped each other out,” Rivers said. “We studied with each other a lot, studied the playbook together and competed with each other. We had that healthy competition that every room needs.”
But that ride as a backfield duo will end soon. Saturday is Senior Day and Rivers, the Bulldogs’ all-time leader in touchdowns scored with 49 and third on the career rushing list with 3,281 yards, is one of 17 to be honored before the Bulldogs’ Mountain West Conference game against New Mexico.
Senior Day signals an end, and a beginning
Defensive end Arron Mosby also was in that class, and offensive linemen Nick Abbs, Alex Akingbulu and Matt Smith, defensive linemen Kevin Atkins, Ryan Boehm and Kwami Jones, linebacker Tyson Maeva, defensive backs DaRon Bland, Jason Diaz, Kenny Gagnon and Deonte Perry, tight end Juan Rodriguez, long snapper Jacob Westberry and wideout Keric Wheatfall also will likely play their final games at Bulldog Stadium.
Mims, who sat out 2019 due to injury, has another season of eligibility and is going to take it, to add to the legacy of that first Tedford class that helped turn around a program that had hit on hard times.
He, too, is likely to finish his Fresno State career in the school’s Top 10 for career rushing yards; with 1,708 yards and a full season as the Bulldogs’ lead back to go he easily could pass Bryson Sumlin, who is 10th with 2,398 yards. And, Rivers is looking forward to it. “I told him, the show is yours next year,” he said. “Go out there and have a great season and really step up and be the guy. He’s ready for it, 100%. I expect big things from him.”
But 10 or 20 years from now, for some it still will be hard to separate them as a duo and what they meant to Fresno State football. Mostly, because of who they are on their own and what they went through together.
It was not all football, and fun.
Rivers suffered a lisfranc fracture, a severe foot injury, late in spring practice in 2018. He ended up having surgery and missing the first three games that season. Mims suffered a serious ankle injury at the end of the 2018 season, had surgery, developed an infection and had to have surgery on the ankle again. He missed all of 2019, working his way back, and still wasn’t back to 100% a year ago when playing in six games.
“It’s a special relationship they have because of everything they’ve been through together,” coach Kalen DeBoer said. “You know they’re doing the best they can to be the best they can be and whoever has been out there on the football field has just flat out got the job done for us.
“But they’ve always been supportive of each other, and ready to go. If one was out with an injury, they were just as happy for the other guy when success came their way. I think it comes down to the pride they have individually, but also the love they have for this program and wanting to see each other succeed and the team succeed.”
Rivers went out in the first quarter of the Bulldogs’ victory over Nevada last month, missing the remainder of that game and the next. Mims, finally back to full health, racked up 134 rushing yards and one touchdown against the Wolf Pack and then 186 yards and two TDs the following week in a victory over San Diego State.
As teammates, Bulldogs’ duo ‘The Gold standard’
Rivers injured an elbow as a freshman in 2017, missing two games. In those two games, Mims rushed for 112 yards in a victory at San Diego State and 68 yards with two touchdowns the following week against UNLV.
Mims went down late in 2018, missing the final two games, the Mountain West Conference championship victory at Boise State and the Las Vegas Bowl victory over Arizona State. Rivers scored the title-clinching touchdown in overtime against the Broncos, then rolled up 212 yards and two touchdowns against the Sun Devils.
The Bulldogs run a one-back offense, there are two of them, and there never was a lack of competition to learn the playbook, to pick up the pass protections fastest, to do the most reps in the weight room, to get on the football field. But they handled all of that as teammates. “It’s been a long journey, but a lot of growth for both of us,” Mims said. “We’ve learned a lot. Now, that’s my bro.”
“It’s rare,” Grubb said. “You coach however many years to see two guys like that and they stay together on the same team and produce the way they’ve produced, that’s pretty rare. I don’t think people will really understand that, until they’re both gone. But that’s really special. The manner they’ve done it, not just with class but in a team way and understanding this is what it is, there are so many guys that could have dealt with things a different way and been a problem in the locker room. That’s never even remotely been an issue.
“You talk about the Gold standard and what a great teammate looks like and you don’t have to look any further than those two guys.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 5:00 AM.