Fresno State football notes: Bulldogs looking for right fit for Michael Lazarus

Fresno State inside linebacker Michael Lazarus will not play in the season opener against Abilene Christian - he was suspended last week due to a violation team rules and athletic department policy.

But after he missed more than two weeks in fall camp due to a strained groin and out of the depth chart this week, where do the Bulldogs go with Lazarus upon his return?

The depth inside is well set with senior Kyrie Wilson and freshman Nela Otukolo at the Mike, and junior Jeff Camilli and third-year sophomore Robert Stanley at the Will, with redshirt freshman walk-on George Helmuth a strong fifth inside backer. Lazarus played in seven games last season as a true freshman, and given long-range depth questions at the inside linebacker positions with only six scholarship players in the group including two seniors, he could take a redshirt.

The Bulldogs aren’t ready to go there yet, though.

“After we play this game, on Friday, I’ll attack it,” defensive coordinator Nick Toth said. “It’s on me. As long as he’s willing to keep going and attacking it, it’s on me to find a way to get him evaluated any way we can. We’ll figure out ways to do it.”

Lazarus this week is running with the scout team, replicating the looks that Abilene Christian will show. The process will start there, for Lazarus and Toth.

“There is no doubt the ability is there,” Toth said. “I have no doubt in Mike’s ability. It’s just how does he fit in right now? When you get hurt for that long, unfortunately sometimes the window passes you by. I don’t know that it has totally passed him by, but in the short term there isn’t a lot of opportunity. That doesn’t mean there’s not an opportunity for him in the near future. Right now he just has to keep getting consistent and be on the field every day.

“We have a longer week next week (before playing at Mississippi), we pick up a day to maybe do that better, too. As funny as it sounds, we watch all the practice video and then I go through and I watch all the scout team video of him. I’m watching him on the scout field running around. Although he isn’t always playing our defense over there, I can get an idea whether or not I think he’s a viable deal.”

Working on third down and red-zone execution

Fresno State, like all college football programs coming out of fall camp, had the opportunity to set up its practice schedule any way it wanted before that first game of the season.

The Bulldogs chose to have two Wednesday practices and two Thursday practices, Wednesday being the day during a normal practice week that they work on their third-down play sheet and Thursday being the day that they work on red-zone calls.

Both are areas targeted for improvement, this year from last.

Fresno State last season ranked 11th of 12 in the Mountain West Conference and 107th of 128 in the nation in red zone scoring percentage at 74.6%, a number made more glaring by the fact that they had more red zone trips than all but two teams in the conference.

On third down, the Bulldogs were eighth in the conference and 92nd in the nation, converting 37.4% of those plays into first downs, and they ranked second in third-down plays per game at 17.4.

The emphasis, coach Tim DeRuyter said, is on execution.

“I think was emblematic of our entire season,” he said. “We just weren’t clean enough all the time and on third down and in red zone in particular those things can rear their ugly head and getting three instead of seven ends up being 6-8 instead of having a winning season.

“I don’t know that it’s anything schematically. When we’d go through the film with guys, they’d understand exactly what the issues were. We just have to execute better down there.”

The Bulldogs, who worked on red zone on Monday and will again on Tuesday, had some hits and some misses on the practice field. But the weaponry is much sharper than a year ago with running back Marteze Waller a more explosive rusher and better catching the ball out of the backfield (he had 27 receptions last season, one in the red zone), tight end Chad Olsen in his second year in the offense, some long targets outside in KeeSean Johnson, Josiah Blandin and L.J. Reed and some quick targets inside in Jamire Jordan and Keyan Williams.

“There are some things we have to clean up,” offensive coordinator Dave Schramm said. “It’s a lot of things. It’s an all-encompassing deal. We have to take care of the ball. We have to execute. We have to have a little more variety in what we’re doing. It’s not so much this scheme or that scheme, it’s a matter of just executing what we’re doing better.

“The whole thing once you get down in there is don’t take negative plays, because now you’re taking points off the board. When you’re one-on-one, you have to get the right matchup. You have to break a tackle. All of those things. But we have to do a better job, too, of understanding we’re in scoring position already, so let’s not do something crazy to get us out.”

Bullard grad Dejonte O’Neal earning his reps

The Bulldogs are working against offensive and defensive scout teams replicating Abilene Christian, right down to the jersey numbers the players wear.

Dejonte O’Neal, the diminutive freshman running back from Bullard High (he is listed at 5-foot-7 and 166 pounds) still is wearing the No. 38 he has since the start of fall camp and getting reps here and there with the No. 2 offense.

That doesn’t mean O’Neal will see any playing time this season, but he has a nice burst and cutting ability and does open some eyes whenever he gets a chance.

“The kid has earned the reps that he has gotten,” DeRuyter said. “At the running back position, guys get banged up, and he has always been there ready to go and when he’s in there he flashes. He comes with a great attitude every day. Right now we’re probably going to redshirt him, but he’s a guy who might be a training table and a year in the weight room away from having a chance to really compete for a job.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2015 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Fresno State football notes: Bulldogs looking for right fit for Michael Lazarus."