Bulldogs lose all chips and are now at smaller poker table
Cheap Seats by Zack Walton
Pat Hill and the Fresno State football team were at the final table again
this weekend.
All their chips were in the pot and everything was on the line. A win
against Louisiana Tech on Saturday would continue the Bulldogs chances
of busting into the Bowl Championship Series mix. While a loss would drop
Fresno State from the national spotlight into the low-stakes poker world.
For anyone who has been following the uproar that has been Fresno State
football this season, poker analogies have been the norm for Hill. The
coach regularly draws comparisons between the Bulldogs’ run at a
BCS game and the World Series of Poker.
But with a 28-21 loss to the Bulldogs from Louisiana Tech, the Fresno
State Bulldogs are now playing poker at the same table as the dogs from
the famous painting.
Gone is all hope of crashing the BCS and playing on New Year’s Day.
Gone is the shot at an undefeated season. Gone is another opportunity
for Fresno State to thrust itself from a Cinderella mid-major program
into a big-time program.
And we’ve seen this before.
In the magical season of 2001, the Bulldogs made it even further into
the year before the dreams of shaking up the structure for the country’s
biggest bowl games came crashing down.
In that season, Fresno State started 6-0 and rose all the way to a No.
8 national ranking before dashing its hopes with a loss to Boise State.
Then in the following week, the Bulldogs stumbled again, losing to Hawaii.
This year’s Bulldogs have allowed history to repeat itself with
the loss to La Tech, but they can ill afford to drop another game to a
Western Athletic Conference foe this season.
The Bulldogs loss to La Tech was not the surprise; the surprise was how
Fresno State lost.
Fresno State came running out of the locker room into a dogfight—literally.
In pregame warm-ups, the two Bulldogs squads exchanged words and punches,
as the teams scuffled in the middle of the field.
The pregame fight must have fired up Fresno State players, because the
Bulldogs came out with a vengeance, dominating La Tech for 25 minutes.
With five minutes to go in the first half, Fresno State led 13-0 and had
outgained La Tech 231-52 in total yards.
But Fresno State failed to put away La Tech, scoring only one touchdown
in the first four trips to the red zone and having one of its three field
goal attempts blocked. That’s where the momentum changed.
Before the half, La Tech running back Ryan Moats was able to get into
the end zone to cut the Fresno State lead to 13-7. And just as Fresno
State was able to come out strong in the first quarter, La Tech came out
in with a statement in the second half: Don’t overlook us.
Moats ran wild in the second half, ending the game with 236 yards and
four rushing touchdowns on 34 carries.
Fresno State was unable to keep the same intensity it bolted out of the
locker room with at the start of the game. The same things happened in
the Bulldogs’ last game against Portland State.
In the Sept. 18 game, Fresno State jumped out to an early 17-0 lead before
allowing the Division I-AA team to come back before the Bulldogs registered
the 27-17 victory.
The 2004 Bulldogs have allowed one opportunity to slip through their grasp
this season and cannot allow another. The early aspirations of a BCS bowl
game, although exciting to envision, were far-fetched. But a WAC title
is still not out of reach.
Fresno State must now feel a sense of urgency to recuperate and re-evaluate
its goals, and look toward a WAC championship and another bowl berth.
With the loss to La Tech, disappointment may have flooded the program
and its supportive fans, but all is not lost. Avenging losses to WAC rivals
Boise State and Hawaii and capturing a conference title would be a great
way to recapture a successful season.
-This columnist can be reached at [email protected]
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