The time for celebrating school spirit has come to Fresno State with the Homecoming game happening this Saturday at Bulldog Stadium.
The Bulldogs will face the Colorado State Rams Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on what will be the teams’ fourth meeting as Mountain West rivals.
The ‘Dogs have one win and two losses when facing the Rams, with the Bulldogs’ last win coming in the 2012 season. The last time the Rams were at Bulldog Stadium was in 2015, when the Rams took home a win on the Bulldogs’ senior night.
This season, Colorado State has an overall record of 2-5, snapping a four-loss streak last Saturday when it defeated the New Mexico Lobos.
Fresno State is favored to win the game, especially after a convincing defeat against the UNLV Rebels with a score of 56-27 last Friday night. With an overall record of 3-3, the Bulldogs are looking for their fourth win of the season and their second win in conference play.
Quarterback Jorge Reyna said that after a tough start to the season, the team is looking to carry on with its recent success on the field.
“This is not the record that we wanted. But the adversity helped glued us together, and we are starting to hit on all cylinders,” Reyna said.
The Bulldogs lost their first two games of the season before defeating Sacramento State at home. These beginning losses for the ‘Dogs during the football season came against tough opponents in the Pacific-12 and Big Ten conferences.
However, their most recent loss was their worst performance of the season — a 43-24 defeat at the hands of Air Force Academy.
Linebacker Justin Rice said that the team is picking up at the right time and that it still has much to play for.
“Everything [is] still in front of us. We can still win a bowl game. We can still get to the Mountain West championship. We just have to keep building, and we are headed in the right direction,” Rice said.
The Bulldogs are looking forward to Homecoming, a game which brings a lot of alumni and fans to the stadium. The ‘Dogs are aware that this is an important date for Fresno State to showcase its skills and talents.
“It’s always nice to have a lot of fans supporting us, getting loud on third down and the team really appreciates the Red Wave, whenever they are out there,” running back Ronnie Rivers said. “We’re preparing hard and working hard to go out there and give it our best shot.”
Linebacker Mykal Walker said that the student section and the Red Wave are very important to the game day atmosphere.
“Any time the stadium is full, we play better. Everyone plays better when there is energy in the crowd,” Walker said. “We need to get [the fans] back in [the stadium]. That’s our challenge to them, to come out, come support us and have it loud.”
Fresno State will host an Alumni Tailgate that will also be open to staff and faculty before the game starts. The Associated Students, Inc. will also have a tailgate specifically for students that bring a campus ID.
Reyna said that the team appreciates the support of the fans, especially when the student section gets filled up and goes crazy during popular games the ‘Dogs play.
“When we score, we like to see the student section get crazy. We thrived off of that. It’s another part of our identity,” Reyna said. “Let’s get this [stadium] packed … we feed off that [energy] and we come in all cylinders and start firing.”