Fresno State football: 'Dogs get physical, tackle well in victory
Tackling in secondary improves significantly in opening victory
Abilene Christian offense averaged just 3.3 yards per play
Fresno State yielded only one explosive play of 20 yards or more
Fresno State’s Alan Wright, left, DeShawn Potts, center, and Tyquwan Glass, right, stand over Abilene Christian wide receiver Jonathan Epps late in the second half Thursday. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com
It’s tough to grab hold of anything substantive here because, frankly, Abilene Christian is an FCS program and Fresno State didn’t do much of anything it was not expected to in a 34-13 season-opening victory Thursday. Even with some of the things the Bulldogs did well, there were hidden issues.
But if there is one thing to take away from that victory, it’s that Fresno State’s tackling has improved significantly – especially for a team that missed a ton of tackles last season in giving up a staggering number of explosive plays of 20 or more yards.
“Shoot, the first three games last year we missed 51 tackles, and those yards add up exponentially,” defensive coordinator Nick Toth said.
Abilene Christian was playing up a division, so maybe those yards after catch number can be discounted to some degree. The Bulldogs had the better athletes on the field – they should be more physical. But Fresno State last season was much better than Southern Utah, another team from the championship subdivision, and it didn’t seem to matter much. The Roadrunners in that game had some substantial pass plays, including a 77-yard touchdown and another play of 61 yards. They averaged 5.86 yards per play overall, exceeding the 5.84 they averaged through the season playing a Big Sky Conference schedule and, FCS or not, wasn’t the fewest allowed by the Bulldogs last season.
THE PHYSICALITY IS WHERE IT NEEDS TO BE. HOPEFULLY, IT GAVE OUR GUYS SOME CONFIDENCE. IT DEFINITELY GAVE OUR COACHING STAFF MUCH MORE CONFIDENCE COMPARED TO A YEAR AGO AT THIS TIME.
Fresno State coach Tim DeRuyter
Abilene Christian had just one play of 20 or more yards and averaged 3.3 yards per play, the fifth-best game by Fresno State since 2007, a span of 93 games:
▪ 2.94 ypp: 24-10 victory at San Jose State in 2008.
▪ 3.21 ypp: 28-14 victory over Cincinnati in 2010.
▪ 3.28 ypp: 42-14 victory over Wyoming in 2012.
▪ 3.29 ypp: 61-14 victory at Idaho in 2013.
▪ 3.32 ypp: 34-13 victory over Abilene Christian in 2015.
The Bulldogs did a much better job downing the football, particularly in the secondary, where the corners and safeties made forceful contact.
“We’d seen it in practice. I think we have some pretty good players on offense and we’ve done a really nice job of limiting them when we had our scrimmages,” coach Tim DeRuyter said.
“I think we’ve made great strides. I don’t know that you can make too much of your first game, good or bad, but I was really pleased that a lot of the things we saw in practice manifested out there. We still have a ways to go – we had some mental busts out there. But the effort is where it needs to be. The physicality is where it needs to be.
“Hopefully, it gave our guys some confidence. It definitely gave our coaching staff much more confidence compared to a year ago at this time. We were very physical. We got many guys to the point of attack. That’s what you have to do on defense.”
The going obviously gets much tougher from here. The Bulldogs play at Mississippi a week from Saturday, then host Utah on Sept. 19 before opening Mountain West Conference play at San Jose State on Sept. 26. Downing the ball against the better skill players they will see the next few weeks will be much more difficult, especially when playing in space.
But if the Bulldogs can replicate that effort, they can continue to rebound from a 2014 season in which they ranked 111th of 128 teams in the bowl subdivision in total defense.
“It’s big,” cornerback Charles Washington said. “Yards after catch is something that we struggled with, so if the first person in can make the tackle, it will do us a lot of good.
“That’s what we knew we had to do. It was a big factor in the offenses gaining a lot of yards on us last year. Just down the ball. They’re going to get balls on us, but just down the ball once it does happen.”
A better view
Toth, who has been on the sideline for games the past three seasons, worked this one from the coaches’ box in the press box with outside linebackers coach Jordan Peterson managing the sideline.
It is a game-day alignment that the coaching staff could keep.
“His original plan was to maybe come down at halftime, but he felt comfortable up there, and things were managed on the field well so he decided to stay,” DeRuyter said.
“I thought it worked well. With Jordan coaching the outside backers and our outsides and insides meeting together, he has a good perspective knowing the back end, working with Nick on the linebacker positions and (defensive line coach Pete Germano) is always dealing with the front. The communication was good, and Ricky (Manning) and (Overton Spence) did a nice job with signaling.”
Tempo teaser
The Bulldogs didn’t put too much on Zack Greenlee early in the game, and the third-year sophomore quarterback produced a 63-yard touchdown drive and a three-and-out on his first two shots at the Wildcats.
On the third, Fresno State pushed the tempo, getting to the line quickly and getting the ball snapped, and Greenlee got the Bulldogs back into the end zone. It is something he did well throughout fall camp, and when they tapped the accelerator in the game, the whole thing didn’t go out of whack, the execution play to play hitting at a good level, which obviously is a positive.
But after that drive, the Bulldogs were inconsistent with their tempo. Offensive coordinator Dave Schramm said there were series when they wanted to push it but instead let the Wildcats get lined up.
“There are a few things to clean up,” he said.
The Bulldogs’ passing efficiency rating was 109.39. Last season with Brian Burrell, Brandon Connette, Greenlee and Greg Watson throwing passes, it was 113.71.
And the average per pass play was only 4.8 yards, less than the 5.9 in 2014, when Fresno State was ranked last in the Mountain West and tied for 116th of 128 in the nation.
Fresno State won despite completing only 22 of 45 passes (48.9 percent). It was the fifth time since 2008 that the Bulldogs have not hit 50 percent of their passes in a victory:
▪ 2015: Abilene Christian, 22 of 45 (48.9 percent), won 34-13.
▪ 2012: at Nevada, 17 of 35 (48.6 percent), won 52-36.
▪ 2009: Louisiana Tech, 17 of 42 (40.5 percent), won 30-28.
▪ 2008: at Rutgers, 11 of 24 (45.8 percent), won 24-7.
▪ 2008: at San Jose State, 5 of 18 (27.8 percent), won 24-10.
Bailey factor
Freshman outside linebacker James Bailey was credited with one solo tackle, one pass breakup and one quarterback hurry, which doesn’t indicate the impact he had on the game.
And can have in the future.
Bailey also played as the Bulldogs’ nickel back, which also opens up a lot of possibilities.
“It really helps us,” Toth said. “It lets me do a lot of other things with (Tobenna) Okeke, Brandon Hughes and (Ejiro Ederaine) and even Justin Green a little bit when he gets more into it. It’s just a different mix of stuff that we have going on. Then you take James out and you put Alan Wright in at nickel back and that’s a different look, because it’s a different body; it’s a different coverage skill set.
“It’s a unique deal. But we’re still working it. There are still some bugs in there, some things that as we’re playing more of this type of personnel grouping we’re finding as we go through. But it was good. I felt like we dictated tempo. I felt in all of our personnel groupings we dictated tempo.”
Quick hits
▪ Fresno State averaged 10.2 yards on five third-down rushing plays, converting three on third-and-short (1 to 3 yards), one on third-and-medium (4 to 6) and one on third-and-long (7-plus).
▪ Running back Marteze Waller gained 154 yards on 22 plays for the ninth 100-yard game of his career.
▪ Redshirt freshman Jamire Jordan and community college transfer Josiah Blandin scored on their first career catches – Jordan on a 25-yard pass from Greenlee and Blandin on a 32-yard strike from Greenlee.
▪ Will linebacker Jeff Camilli and outside linebacker Ederaine also had firsts – their first interceptions. They came in career game No. 22 for Camilli and No. 31 for Ederaine.
▪ Fresno State used 54 players. Twenty-three played for the first time, including linebacker George Helmuth (Clovis North), running back Dejonte O’Neal (Bullard), tight end Kyle Riddering (Clovis North) and nose guard Ryan Steele (Kingsburg).
▪ Abilene Christian converted 5 of 17 third-down plays (29.4%), averaging only 2.8 yards on those plays. Seven rushing plays netted minus-1 yard, and 10 passes gained 49 yards.
▪ Greenlee hit 3 of 8 third-down passes, each completion resulting in a first down. Virgil hit 3 of 6, two of the completions going for a first down.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Zack Greenlee: Third-year sophomore, in second career start, passed for three TDs.
Marteze Waller: Senior running back had two long runs, then took over game in third quarter en route to ninth career 100-yard game.
Chad Olsen: Sophomore tight end had two TD catches – Nos. 5 and 6 of his career – on his only receptions of the game.
PLAY OF THE GAME
First quarter, 1:58 to play: Fresno State and Abilene Christian were tied 7-7, but a quick strike by Greenlee changed that. He found Josiah Blandin in the end zone for 32 yards, as the Bulldogs went up by seven and never looked back. The 13-play drive covered 53 yards in 3:02.
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