A third season under head coach Jeff Tedford seemed promising for the Fresno State football team. However, it would be nowhere near as good as his first two seasons.
The Bulldogs ended their 2019 season with an overall record of 4-8 and a conference record of 2-6.
In July of this year, the Bulldogs, along with Boise State, were favorites to win the West and Mountain division, respectively. Both were also preseason favorites to get to the Mountain West (MW) Championship.
The expectations were high for the Bulldogs, whose only real question was whether quarterback Jorge Reyna could fill the role of starting quarterback. Former quarterback Marcus McMaryion had become the team’s main weapon on offense, and that helped him win two bowl games and the MW Championship in his senior season.
The first two games of the season were going to be crucial for Reyna. His first game as a starter was against the USC Trojans at the Coliseum. The Bulldogs lost the game, but in my eyes, Reyna had done enough to keep the starting job after the game.
Reyna looked good, poised and in control of the game. However, in the end, it was an interception thrown in the endzone that ended the game. The next game for Reyna, he faced a tough Minnesota team and much like the previous game, the Bulldogs lost again thanks to an interception in the endzone.
In those two games, the defense looked good for the Bulldogs, keeping them in the game thanks to the leadership of linebacker Mykal Walker and cornerback Juju Hughes in the secondary.
Next, the Bulldogs faced Sacramento State and New Mexico State. The ‘Dogs won both games in convincing fashion, giving them a 2-2 record. Hope for another great season was growing at Fresno State with many hoping to see the Bulldogs go undefeated for the rest of the season.
However, the Bulldogs had a rude awakening against Air Force, who defeated the Bulldogs 43-24 at the Academy. The Bulldogs played tough, keeping up with the Falcons in the first half of the game. However, the second half was different with the ‘Dogs not getting any points on offense.
Injuries didn’t help Tedford. He was forced to move linemen after several injuries and then made some moves in the backfield, making Josh Hokit a running back.
The Bulldogs returned home to face the UNLV Rebels and got their third win of the season, again renewing hopes of a championship run. The next game was homecoming, where the Bulldogs faced the Colorado State Rams in a match that, on paper, should have been an easy win for the Bulldogs but ended up being another loss.
After traveling to Hawaii and defeating the Warriors, the Bulldogs held their destiny and the future of the season in their hands. The next game at home was against the Utah Aggies — again a winnable game on paper — but the Aggies defeated the Bulldogs.
The team seemed to be in a roller coaster of a season with good wins and losses that seemed could have easily gone the other way.
With a win against San Diego State, the Bulldogs would have been a shoo-in for the championship game. The Aztecs defeated the Bulldogs by 10 points, forcing the Bulldogs to win the next three games just to have a chance at postseason play.
This put a lot of pressure on a team that was unable to rise to the occasion and in the end, lost its last four games by 10 points or less.
The last game of the season against the San Jose State Spartans was in many ways a microcosm of the entire Bulldog season. Fresno State played outstanding football in a rainy windy night for the first two quarters of the game but then, things started getting complicated. The defense kept up, and the offense did not.
Reyna had a thumb injury in the second half, which forced Tedford to bring in backup quarterback Ben Wooldrige. The Bulldogs lost the game in the end by one point, 17-16, and much like the Air Force game, the ‘Dogs did not score a single point in the second half.
In the end, a 4-8 season is not what anyone expected from the Bulldogs. Reyna proved to have talent but not enough to carry a team on his shoulders. Tedford showed that he is human and is not immune to the human ability to err.
In my opinion, there should have been a change in quarterback in the last two games of the season, if only just to prove that Tedford was right in keeping Reyna as the starter. Most of the Bulldogs losses were by margins of 10 points or less, which means that they were never far from winning. If one or two plays would have gone the Bulldogs, way we might be talking about a totally different season.
Next season, the Bulldogs will most likely have the mid-season transfer quarterback Jake Haener, who might just be the weapon needed to take the Bulldogs back to the championship game.