With just four games remaining in the regular season, the Fresno State football team must win out if it wishes to have a shot at a third consecutive Mountain West crown.
Two recent conference losses to UNLV and Boise State have placed the Bulldogs in survival mode going into the month of November. In order to accomplish this, the Bulldogs will need help from all their units.
Offense
The holes in the offense are still evident through eight games. Quarterback play from Brian Burrell has been enough to win at times (Southern Utah, New Mexico and SDSU). But other than that, it lacks consistency and the firepower from last year. The unit has still failed to generate a first-quarter touchdown in all but one game.
The passing game provides big plays at times especially with Josh Harper on the receiving end. But other than Harper, the Bulldogs have failed to find another consistent receiving threat. Harper’s 51 catches for 694 receiving yards and four touchdowns are good enough to rank him No. 1 on the team. The next wideout in line has merely a third of Harper’s statistics (214).
Struggles in the passing game have made Fresno State turn to its run game for offensive stability. The Bulldogs have found a consistent run game this year behind running back Marteze Waller. Despite splitting carries with senior Josh Quezada, Waller leads the team in rushing with 825 yards and seven touchdowns. The junior has already surpassed his 2013 rushing statistics of 661 yards in eight games this season. His average of 103.1 rushing yards per game also ranks him fourth in the Mountain West Conference.
Waller’s breakout performance last week against Boise State has the Bulldogs feeling good moving forward.
“Waller is a warrior,” Fresno State head coach Tim DeRuyter said. “He runs his tail off and he is not going to go down with the first guy tackling him. That guy is a different maker for us.”
Defense
After struggling early in the season and giving up over 50 points to each of the Power Five opponents, the defense settled down for the next three matchups and allowed just 17.6 points per game which all resulted in wins. The defense forced turnovers in each of those games at critical points of the game to help to either come from behind or seal the wins.
Those explosive plays by the defense, however, have been rare in the last two matchups.
Special teams
The Bulldogs kicking game has received a spark lately from freshman walk-on Kody Kroening. After struggling to find identity early in the year, the first-year special teamer found some consistency last week against Boise State, as he nailed both of his field goal attempts — including a season-long 44-yarder.
“I was extremely proud of our kicker Kody,” DeRuyter said. “After being down against UNLV he gutted it out against Boise State [last week].”
Four games remain in the Bulldogs’ (3-5, 2-2 MW) regular season schedule with them hosting three of the next four beginning with Wyoming (3-4, 1-2 MW) next Saturday at Bulldog Stadium.
With the Bulldogs standing in third the West Division standings behind San Diego State and San Jose State their best hope is to start and keep a winning streak.
“We’re still not out of this thing,” DeRuyter said. “We just have to worry about going 1-0 this next coming game.”