With TV schedule release, a small pothole develops on Bulldogs’ road to back-to-back titles
The degree of difficulty for Fresno State in a rather tame 2023 football schedule went up a bit on Wednesday, with the Mountain West Conference releasing its slate of national television broadcasts for the season.
The Bulldogs, who went 10-4 a year ago in winning a second conference championship in four seasons under coach Jeff Tedford, will play 10 games on Fox Sports networks or the CBS Sports Network.
The season opener at Purdue on Sept. 2 will be broadcast by the Big Ten Network and the Sept. 9 home opener against FCS Eastern Washington was not picked up and likely will be sold for a local broadcast.
But one conference contest was moved to a Friday for TV - a game at Utah State will now be played on Oct. 13, a Friday. It is not a huge pothole, but that is the second of back-to-back road games for the Bulldogs, who play at Wyoming on Oct. 7 and will have travel, a short week and more travel to deal with.
The Bulldogs’ schedule, with TV and times where set:
Sept. 2 - at Purdue, 9 a.m., BTN
Sept. 9 - Eastern Washington, TBD
Sept. 16 - at Arizona State, 7:30 p.m., FS1
Sept. 23 - Kent State, 7:30 p.m., CBSSN
Sept. 30 - Nevada, TBD, Fox networks
Oct. 7 - at Wyoming, TBD, Fox networks
Oct. 13 - at Utah State, 5 p.m., CBSSN
Oct. 28 - UNLV, TBD, Fox networks
Nov. 4 - Boise State, 7 p.m., CBSSN
Nov. 11 - at San Jose State, 7:30 p.m., CBSSN
Nov. 18 - New Mexico, TBD, Fox networks
Nov. 25 - at San Diego State, TBD, Fox networks
Fresno State still has a well-placed bye after the trip to Utah State and will play its final five games in California including the matchup against Boise State at Valley Children’s Stadium.
That game against the Broncos will be the second of back-to-back home games for Fresno State, which is a break for the Bulldogs. The past five times they have played Boise State in the regular season they have been on the road the previous week and in 2022, 2018 and 2014 the Broncos were not only the second of back-to-back road games on the schedule but the third road game in four weeks..
The Bulldogs also this season do not play Air Force, which is coming off a 10-3 season and expected to be a contender in the conference race.
With the Mountain West dumping divisional play this season, the teams with the highest conference winning percentages will play for the conference championship on Dec. 2 on FOX. The conference will have 47 games on national telecasts with three on CBS, 27 on the CBS Sports Network and 17 on FOX Sports networks.
Roster additions
The Bulldogs’ inexperienced corps of receivers had an inconsistent spring, and Tedford and staff have bolstered the group with three additions.
Fresno State has added wideouts Mikel Barkley (5-11, 170) as a transfer from Toledo, Jaceon Doss (6-1, 175) from Cerritos College and Jaelen Gill (5-11, 185) from Boston College. The Bulldogs also have added to the roster defensive linemen Kavika Baumgartner (6-2, 280) from the College of San Mateo and Kemari Munier-Bailey (6-3, 230) from Idaho and offensive lineman Kingsley Ugwu (6-4, 295) from Kansas State.
Fresno State lost quarterback Jake Haener as well as wideouts Jalen Moreno-Cropper, Nikko Remigio and Zane Pope from its Mountain West championship team. The Bulldogs had one receiver with more than 15 career catches on the field through their 15 spring practices - senior Erik Brooks.
“A lot of work to do,” Tedford said, at that time. “They’re talented, but they haven’t been under the lights yet. The only two that have been on the field are (Mac) Dalena and Brooks. Everybody else is new. They show signs of having ability, but it’s going to take a lot more reps until we play to the level that we’re used to playing at that position.”