The post-Derek Carr era was officially under way Saturday in Southern California when the Bulldogs took on the No. 15-ranked USC Trojans, and it did not look pretty.
The Fresno State football team stepped into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Saturday afternoon with hopes of earning a Week 1 win over USC, the team that beat them in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl in December. However, the ‘Dogs fell well short in a 52-13 defeat.
“I’m disappointed, but I’m not discouraged,” head coach Tim DeRuyter said. “I saw some good things out there. Clearly we were not ready to play against a team like that, but we will get better, and we look forward to getting our guys better.”
DeRuyter’s squad struggled throughout the game, as it failed to find consistency on both sides of the ball.
Lack of rhythm on offense, which featured both Brian Burrell and Brandon Connette at quarterback, caused the Bulldogs to fall behind early. Even when they found some rhythm, they weren’t able to maintain it.
Burrell started the game and played until Connette replaced him in the second quarter. On his first drive, Connette drove the Bulldogs down the field for their first score, a 1-yard touchdown run by junior running back Marteze Waller.
The ‘Dogs offense remained consistent, scoring another touchdown on the following drive but a missed point-after attempt by kicker Colin McGuire made the score 13 instead of 14.
From then on, Fresno State was not able to generate any more points the rest of the afternoon leaving the Trojans to pull away.
Senior free safety Derron Smith and the defensive unit also had a tough time getting stops as the Trojans were able to come away with points on a majority of their drives utilizing first-year head coach Steve Sarkisian’s up-tempo offense run by redshirt junior quarterback Cody Kesseler.
The Trojans generated 24 unanswered points to open the game, putting the ‘Dogs in a hole early on.
“Obviously it hurts, but at the same time, I know that is not the type of defense that we are,” Smith said, “We just got to come back, watch the film and get better.”
Waller led the ground game for the Bulldogs, carrying the ball 17 times for 97 yards and scoring both of Fresno State’s touchdowns.
“There were some guys that played well I thought,” DeRuyter said. “[Waller] ran the ball really, really well, and I thought at times we protected well, but clearly we weren’t ready to play against one of the top teams in the country.”
Javorius Allen, who accounted for a game-high 133 rushing yards and one touchdown on 22 carries, led Southern California’s ground attack.
Kessler completed 25 of 37 attempts for 394 yards and four touchdowns. The Bakersfield native also had a 1-yard rushing touchdown in the game’s opening drive.
For Fresno State, Burrell and Connette combined for 130 passing yards and 64 rushing yards.
“USC has a really good defense, and all the credit needs to go to them,” Connette said. “They played really well and have a lot of good athletes, but we should have moved the ball a lot better. We shot ourselves in the foot on multiple drives.”
The Bulldogs will hit the road again this week seeking their first win when they take on Utah, another Pac-12 opponent.