Everything you need to know about Jeff Tedford’s Fresno State football recruiting class

Fresno State added 23 players in its 2022 football recruiting class. Here is some of what coach Jeff Tedford had to say in his signing day news conference about the Bulldogs’ recruits, the process and the program …

On the class of 2022

“Always the goal when you go out to recruit is to make sure you can find not just great football players, but great people. We try to find kids who fit our program, for the Bulldog brand and we feel like we did that. The recruiting calendar makes things a little bit challenging because the dead period was all the way up to Jan. 14 and then you’re trying to get in homes and do that type of thing, but we feel really good about them.”

On Edison High grad Velltray Jefferson

“You watch him on film, he’s a phenomenal football player. It is kind of hard with a guy that is skilled and athletic and as talented as he is, on where you’re going to play him because he was a great linebacker in high school. He’s playing tight end here for us. He’s a great-looking young man. Today was our first day on the field with him watching him run and condition. He’s very impressive. He wants to be here. He’s excited. He has been out of football for a year or two now, so I think he’s very motivated to be here. I’ve been so far really impressed with him and it’s going to be a big spring. I think he has the body type to be a guy who can really help us early, because he’s a big, physical guy. When we’re looking at how people are going to play, if they’re going to play early, it’s really about mental, physical and emotional maturity. Can they absorb? Can they learn the things that we’re doing at this level? Physically, are they put together well enough to withstand the competition and the level of impact, the things that go on, which he is. And then emotionally, if something doesn’t happen right, they get beat on something here or there, you want to make sure you’re not crushing someone’s confidence. But I think Velltray brings the maturity in all three of those levels and should be able to contribute for us pretty quick.”

On quarterback Joshua Wood

“Joshua Wood, from Washington, he’s a winner. He didn’t lose a game in high school. They went 14-0 (15-0 including an interstate bowl), state champions last year. He really brings a great skill set of not just being able to throw the football, but is very athletic and can do a lot with his legs. Tremendous person, great kid, great team leader, great family. It was really a pleasure to get to know him and we’re very excited about him coming into the fold. But I think any time you can get a dual athlete like that with this day and age of how offense is played with RPO game and the quarterback run game is really important and he brings a great skill set to our program.”

On recruiting this class, as opposed to 2017

(Tedford his second stint as Bulldogs coach after 2017-19.) “I think when you’re recruiting off a 1-win team, which we did in ‘17, obviously it makes your job a little easier knowing the program has won 10 games three of the last five years and one of those years was a COVID year, so it wasn’t even a full year. I think over the last five years the product of Fresno State and the identity of Fresno State has been very positive and that always helps in recruiting.”

On recruiting junior college players versus the transfer portal

“It’s interesting, because over the last two years, and I think the portal is so new, it was a learning process for me, for sure. But going through the portal and then spinning back to junior college, I do feel like there were some real quality junior college players that were out there, because a lot of people I think maybe have got caught up on the portal. I think the pool of players after early signing day and going into this, and then it also depends on what your needs are, too, do you have a broad need of numbers, and we did, there was a bigger pool because of junior college players. I think some were overlooked quite honestly, and then obviously some portal players that you go after really solely based on need.”

On long snapper Nick D’Ambra

“With (Jacob) Westberry graduating, that’s a need there for sure. We always joke that we don’t hold the bus for anyone when it’s time to go to a game except for the long snapper. That’s a really critical get for us.”

On scheme and spring football

“To be real honest with you, we don’t know what we have here right now. That’s what spring football is going to be about. That’s what I had a team meeting about this morning. This is an evaluation period for all of us, right, for them to see how they’re going to fit into the schematics that we’re going to run, in all phases of our game, offense, defense and special teams. As we move to that and we see where those skill players are … take a kid like Arron Mosby for instance. Man, if Arron Mosby had another year ,how great would that be? He went from safety to linebacker to defensive end. How many of these kids, because they’re young, how can they grow into that? We’re still learning all this. The first day of school was last week. The first workout was last Monday. We’re still learning our kids, what their growth potential is, who can grow into those type of positions and be like an Arron Mosby. Who goes from safety to linebacker? Who goes from corner to safety? There’s a lot of mix and match things that go on, so this spring will be really important to evaluate who our guys are here, and then plug everybody else in.”

The impact of Name, Image and Likeness

“It’s part of it to make sure we understand that our head is not buried in the sand, that Name, Image and Likeness is in the landscape of college football and that we will engage in it. But that wasn’t a difference maker or a point of difference that either brought someone here or didn’t bring someone here. Yes, you need to make sure they understand that we will be pursuing NIL and at what levels, that’s another thing that’s really new. I think everybody is still figuring that out. But, yes, we will be involved in that. We have in our athletics department as a whole, we’re going to be educated around Name, Image and Likeness. Some of our kids are already engaged in that, but we’ll continue to move forward with it.”

On the Bulldogs’ staff, full of former Fresno State players and coaches

“It just worked out. The stars aligned perfectly. But what’s so great about this staff and about all the former Fresno State people, coaches, they have a tremendous amount of respect for this program. They have a burning desire to make this program successful. They take a lot of pride in it. And, so, it’s been great. We all have known each other for so long, so there’s hasn’t been a lot of, ‘Hey, we have to get to know you, we have to get to know you.’ There’s a lot of history there. There’s good fun. There’s good laughter, because of a lot of good memories. But there’s a lot of expertise on this staff. They really care truly, deeply about this program.”

On the Bulldogs’ junior college recruits and transfers

“Johnny Hudson on the defensive line I think is a kid who brings a lot to the table here, that should be a guy that can compete right away. Anthony LaFrance is another junior college offensive lineman. Daniel Taumalolo, he’s another one. When we recruit junior college players, really the intent is for them to come in and compete right away. We have some graduate transfers, guys like Nikko Remigio, who transferred from Cal, who is a very exciting player, will be kind of an all-purpose guy for us as far as not just receiver, but somebody that can do stuff from the backfield. Raymond Scott, a linebacker transfer from USC, who we’re very excited about. Cameron Lockridge is a corner who came from the University of Hawai’i … I think we have a good balance of young kids and some older kids, whether they be junior college transfers or graduate transfers or they were in the portal.”

This story was originally published February 2, 2022 at 2:51 PM.