Fresno State notes: ’Dogs picked 2nd in division; RB Oglesby likely out for season

Fresno State was picked to finish second in the West Division of the Mountain West in a media poll released on Tuesday at the start of the conference media days.

San Diego State received 27 first-place votes to the Bulldogs’ three and was at the top of the division. Nevada was third followed by San Jose State, Hawaii and UNLV. Boise State received 28 first-place votes to lead the Mountain Division and was followed by Utah State with two first-place votes, Colorado State, Air Force, Wyoming and New Mexico.

“I think it’s going to be a really wide-open race,” coach Tim DeRuyter said. “I always appreciate when people give our program respect. Being picked second, I think is a reflection of what we’ve done the past couple of years, but we didn’t finish last year very well and we have a new group this year that has a little fire in their bellies to change things.”

The Bulldogs and Aztecs play Oct. 3 in San Diego.

Fresno State also had two players voted to the preseason all-conference team — senior running back Marteze Waller and senior left tackle Alex Fifita.

“Happy for those guys,” DeRuyter said. “I think it’s well deserved. I think Marteze is one of the best backs in our conference and I think Alex is poised to have a really good senior year. He has played well for us for three years and he’s ready to have his best year this year.”

Colorado State wide out Rashard Higgins was selected as the preseason offensive player of the year, Utah State linebacker Kyler Fackrell the defensive player of the year and San Diego State punter Donny Hageman the preseason special teams player of the year.

Top RB recruit likely to sit in 2015

Freshman running back Bryson Oglesby, one of the top recruits in the Bulldogs’ 2015 recruiting class, will likely sit out the season as a partial academic qualifier.

Fresno State will file an initial eligibility waiver with the NCAA on behalf of Oglesby, which if approved will allow him to receive a scholarship. Under a rule that was updated last year, if a student-athlete has a projected college grade-point average within a specific range, the student-athlete can receive a partial waiver and if a minimum of 12 credits with a GPA of 2.5 or higher is completed in the first semester he can earn practice time in the spring.

“He had some ground to make up and he has made great progress, but didn’t get over the top,” DeRuyter said Tuesday.

“It’s actually not a bad idea for most of your guys — to be able to practice and not play. So if the waiver is granted, he’ll ideally be an academic redshirt.”

Oglesby, who earned All-District 23-6A honors as a senior at Fort Ben Austin High in Sugar Land, Texas, had been expected to make an impact this season in a position group that lacks depth behind Waller.

Senior Malique Micenheimer returns, and redshirt freshman Chris Moliga was moved to running back from outside linebacker in the spring. The Bulldogs this summer also added running back Dustin Garrison, a graduate transfer from West Virginia, who could move up the depth chart once practice begins Aug. 6. Last season, Garrison played in 11 games for the Mountaineers, rushing for 92 yards on 20 plays.

“We believe (Oglesby) could have been a guy that could have competed for a position this year, but getting Garrison, a guy who has played in the Big 12, is really going to take a load off of Marteze and really add to our depth,” DeRuyter said.

“The problem with that position is, I know Marteze could carry the ball 30 times a game and I’m sure he’d like to, but every time you have that carry there’s an opportunity for injury — and he’s such a valuable part of our team that you hate to put him at that much risk. Having another guy that, one, has done it before at a high level and understands what it takes to secure a football and be able to catch the ball out of the backfield or pick up a linebacker blitzing, having Garrison in is really going to help us there. That’s why we decided to go ahead and sign him as a one-for-one guy, because we have an immediate need.”

Stipend for Bulldogs comes with counseling

Fresno State student-athletes will be receiving a cost of attendance stipend this academic year — and for the football players the extra $3,500 spread over eight scholarship checks will come with financial counseling.

“I was going to bring in a tattoo guy because, ‘Hey, you’ve got all this extra money to burn, guys,’ ” joked DeRuyter, before adding:

“No, we’re going to obviously talk to them about it because, again, I think most of the guys are going to be smart enough that they’ll use it to buy food or whatever. If you don’t have that conversation, we might have a lot more tattoos on our team.”

Senior right tackle Justin Northern already knows where the extra money will be spent: “I’m an offensive lineman, so I’m going to spend all my money on food.”

After 14 straight years, no Boise State

With two divisions and the unbalanced schedule in the Mountain West Conference, Fresno State will not play Boise State this season, ending a 14-year run that was at times not kind to the Bulldogs. Boise State won 13 of the 15 games in that stretch, including the conference championship game last season.

“It’s weird not seeing Boise State on the schedule,” cornerback Charles Washington said. “That’s one game for sure, whether it’s a conference game or a championship game, I look forward to playing Boise State because I know they’ll give us a run for our money just like we’ll give them a run for their money.”

Will Washington miss them?

“We’ll see them,” he said. “For sure, we’ll see them. I’ll miss playing them in the regular season, but I know for sure we’ll see them in the postseason.”

QB competition differs from 2014

DeRuyter reiterated that all four quarterbacks will get a chance to compete for the starting job in fall camp, and the addition of transfer Ford Childress is not comparable to that of Duke graduate transfer Brandon Connette a year ago.

“Any time you bring competition in, I think it makes those other guys wake up every day saying, ‘I better go compete.’ Quite frankly, a year ago we didn’t have that. We didn’t have enough competition at that position. I like how our guys did compete this spring. We had three guys that competed (third-year sophomore Zack Greenlee, redshirt freshman Kilton Anderson and freshman Chason Virgil).

“We didn’t go looking for Ford to bring him in because we felt like we needed to where a year ago, where a year ago we brought Brandon in knowing we had to bring some more competition in. I’ve known his family for a number of years and they reached out to us, and (outside linebackers coach Jordan Peterson) has a good relationship with his high school coach. So it just worked out to where it was a good fit for both of us and we’re going to give him an opportunity.”

Also ...

▪ Of the 105 Bulldogs players set to report for fall camp, 70 are freshmen or sophomores. Washington, Northern and senior Mike linebacker Kyrie Wilson have the most starts on the team with 27, career and consecutive. Left tackle Fifita has started 25 career games and outside linebacker Ejiro Ederaine has 24.

▪ DeRuyter on not playing Boise State in the regular season: “I like playing them. I know our fan base likes playing them. When you’re playing against the best teams in your conference, it makes you work a little harder — not that we’re not going to work hard not playing them. But ... it’s a different feeling. This is the first time we haven’t played, so as we go through and we don’t get to play them I might get the withdrawal shakes.”

▪ There has been a lot of talk recently about potential expansion in the Big 12, which could impact the Mountain West. “That’s something that’s part of life,” Commissioner Craig Thompson said. “We’ve had 15 members in our 16-year history and for seven or eight years we had the same eight members. We added TCU. That’s something that we can’t lose sleep over and talking to our board of directors there are issues with what it would cost to play in other leagues. You know, the neighborhood is different. A $35 million operating budget the Mountain West puts you near the top and in other leagues it would probably put you near the bottom if not last.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2015 at 8:09 AM with the headline "Fresno State notes: ’Dogs picked 2nd in division; RB Oglesby likely out for season."