The Fresno State football team (0-3) will face a program this weekend in a similar situation.
Both the Bulldogs and the Southern Utah Thunderbirds, a Football Championship Subdivision opponent, are seeking their first victories of the year.
After being manhandled by USC, Utah and Nebraska, a win here would be huge. It would provide the Bulldogs with hope and momentum heading into conference play, which begins next week.
“They’re a team hungry for a win, and they’re going to come in here expecting to win,” Fresno State head coach Tim DeRuyter said. “They’re not afraid of taking on tough opponents.
“We’re not really worried so much about who we’re playing this week, we just have to play better. I think our guys are focused, and we’ve had good practices.”
DeRuyter says the ‘Dogs need to tidy some things and play their best on Saturday.
“We’re looking forward to having a bunch of kids in the stands and hopefully show them what Bulldog football is all about,” he said.
Fresno State will be the second Mountain West opponent the Thunderbirds have
faced this season. They lost 28-19 to Nevada in Week 1.
The past two games haven’t been as close for Southern Utah. It lost by 20 last week to South Dakota State on Saturday and fell 41-14 to Southeastern Louisiana the week prior.
The Thunderbirds average 13 points a game, while the Bulldogs average 19.6
The squads are also alike in that each hasn’t established a quarterback.
Question marks at quarterback
Aaron Cantu and Ammon Olsen have split time as signal caller for Southern Utah. Cantu however, has put up more consistent and larger numbers, totaling 440 yards and two touchdowns while completing 63.6 percent of his passes.
As for Fresno State, both passers will continue to share reps until one pulls apart from the other. As a result of the inconsistency at the position, offensive identity is something that the Bulldogs continue to lack.
Offense must produce
Senior Greg Watson, one of the leading receivers on the team, said everybody getting on the same page and doing their assignments are the first steps in getting the offense to produce.
“Nothing is missing,” Watson said. “One play all 11 of us are rocking and doing things right. And then the next play 10 of us are doing the right thing and one person is doing something wrong. So we just have to be more consistent as an offense and work together as a team.”
Watson said he believes that the ‘Dogs need to “step up,” noting that DeRuyter has never lost three games in a row as head coach of the Bulldogs.
“You can’t say it’s the system, because we’ve been very successful these last two years using it,” Watson said. “It’s just that we need to take it upon ourselves as players and execute better.”
Bulldog upperclassmen like wide out Greg Watson haven’t experienced as tough of a stretch as they did in the first three games this season. Watson said as a result of the beatings, the team has a bad taste in its mouth and hopes to change that and get back in the win column come Saturday.
“This is not what we expected,” Watson said. “As a team we worked hard all summer in training camp. Because of that we expected to win, but it didn’t fall our way.
“But we’re not down in spirit, we all know that we still have our goals set out in front of us and we have to focus on Southern Utah and go 1-0 this week.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Bulldog Stadium.