Excitement was prevalent during Thursday’s practice for the Bulldogs, as there are only fourteen days left until the Aug. 29 season opener against Rutgers.
“I can’t wait…I’m glad we got two weeks to get ready, but it’s been a long time since last December,” Fresno State coach Tim DeRuyter said.
Friday night, the Bulldogs will host their second scrimmage (7 p.m. at Bulldog Stadium), which will be open to the public. Other than the base offense and defense in the team’s repertoire, the second and third stringers will get plenty of reps.
“It will be an opportunity for [them] to show where they deserve to be. For the development of this team, that’s what we need right now,” DeRuyter said. “We’ll probably try to get between 80 and 100 reps for everybody.”
The kicking game will also be a main focus in tomorrow’s scrimmage, as Colin McGuire is proving himself. Towards the end of today’s practice, the freshman kicker from Austin, Texas made a 47-yard field goal, which energized the team.
“We put him in a little stressful situation to see if he can have one with a little pressure and he got it done,” DeRuyter said. “I think anytime you put guys, especially freshmen, in those kind of situations, get them comfortable being in it, it’s good for us.”
“There’s a reason we signed him, we’ve got a lot of confidence in him.”
Backup quarterback Brian Burrell’s improvement continues to rise, helping him pull away with the lead for the backup quarterback spot.
“Brian is continuing to get better, he needs to. He’s getting the majority of the reps right now. Until something happens to change that, he’ll probably still get the two’s reps and then Myles [Carr] and Zack [Greenlee] will split the three’s reps,” DeRuyter said.
“He’s getting better everyday. When he goes against our defense, we throw a lot of stuff at him, so he’s starting to process things quicker. When we start to slow things down and get more of a game plan in and our entire season package in. I think he’ll just get that much more efficient.”
Isaiah Burse, who suffered a lower leg injury on Monday, sat out today’s practice to rehabilitate.