NCAA Football: Fresno State vs. Colorado

Know your enemy: Breaking down USU football’s 2016 opponents (part II)

Week 7: Fresno State

— 76 tackles last season for returning linebacker Jeff Camilli

— 4 starting quarterbacks used in 2015-16 season

— 121st ranked offense in the NCAA

Just more than a year and a half ago, Fresno State was competing in its second consecutive Mountain West championship game. Now the Bulldogs are fighting tooth and claw to avoid finishing at the bottom of the conference. The offense caved in 2015, finishing dead last in the MW in yards gained. The defense was similarly moribund, allowing nearly 450 yards per game and a repugnant 38.1 points. Though an overused sports cliche, reliance on heart, grit and determination have been self-identifying qualities of Bulldog football for more than a decade. Those characteristics were conspicuously absent in 2015. Can head coach Tim DeRuyter, now going into his fifth season at FS, bring back the energy that defined the football team for so many years?

If granted one wish for the 2016 season, DeRuyter would likely ask for stability at the quarterback position. Highly-touted recruit Chason Virgil broke his collarbone in his first start last season, leaving the Bulldogs without any consistency under center. Simply knowing who the signal caller will be week to week could make an enormous difference. Virgil will have an impressive group of receivers to throw to, led by sophomore Jamire Jordan who had more than 500 yards and five touchdowns receiving last year. 

Senior cornerback Tyquwan Glass is a playmaker on the outside, snagging four interceptions and recording 62 tackles along the way. Paired with Washington State transfer Daquawn Brown, the Bulldogs could have an above-average cornerback unit. To say the rest of the unit has question marks, however, is putting it lightly. Senior and leading-tackler Jeff Camilli brings some consistency, but the rest of the front-seven is dependent on a number of unproven players. Two 300-plus pound junior college recruits at nose tackle will be relied on to provide some resistance up front.


 

Week 8: San Diego State

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— 1.57 turnover margin in 2015, leading all NCAA schools

— 118.1 average rushing yards per game for senior running back

— 29.1 average kickoff return yardage, ranking second in all NCAA schools

The San Diego State Aztecs are primed to repeat as the Mountain West champions again this season. Last year’s squad matched the school record with 11 wins and claimed the first outright conference title since the Reagan administration. The season started slowly, though, as the Aztecs dropped three of their four non-conference games, including a humiliating 34-27 home loss to South Alabama. The Aztecs turned it around in MW play with an undefeated record and tacked on a dominant 42-7 bowl win over Cincinnati for good measure. Heading into 2016, the team returns more than half of its starters including running back Donnel Pumphrey and cornerback Damontae Kazee who were named the offensive and defensive players of the year a season ago.

Pumphrey is the beginning and the end of the Aztec offense. He turned down the opportunity to jump to the NFL because he has his sights set on a different goal — beating Marshall Faulk’s school record for career rushing yards where he is just 317 yards short. He led the team in receptions in 2015 with 28 catches. Sophomore quarterback Christian Chapman showed promise last season, leading the team to victories in the final three games of the season after an injury to the starter. However, he doesn’t have a lot to work with on the outside compared to Pumphrey.

Kazee also considered a move to the professional league, even going so far as to declare for the draft, but decided to return to school to finish his degree. He was a turnover machine last year, forcing two fumbles and snagging eight interceptions. Senior outside linebacker Calvin Munson is also returning after leading the team in tackles (98) and sacks (9.5). The Aztecs will be hard-pressed to repeat the defensive dominance of last season — the team allowed 17 or fewer points in nine of the last 10 games — but bring back all of the tools to put together another special season.


 

Week 9: Wyoming

Oct 17, 2015; Laramie, WY, USA; Wyoming Cowboys running back Brian Hill (8) against Nevada at War Memorial Stadium. The Cowboys beat the Wolf Pack 28-21. Mandatory Credit: Troy Babbitt-UW Media-Athletics

— 19 points a game on average, ranking 11th in the Mountain West

— 9 offensive starters returning

— 5.8 average yards per carry for returning RB Brian Hill last season

Like a four-hour drive across the middle of Wyoming, the Cowboys’ performance in 2015 was not a pretty sight. Head coach Craig Bohl, now in his third season at the helm, has been handed a difficult task. Fans of the university hope he can replicate a measure of the success he had in his previous stop, where he turned North Dakota State into a powerful team. He posted a 104-32 record in 11 years there, with only one losing season, and won the FCS National Championship his final three seasons (the team went on to win two after he left as well, giving them five consecutive national titles). Laramie, where the campus is located, is a notoriously difficult location to recruit to, but the same can be said about Fargo, North Dakota and Bohl found a way to make that work. The Cowboys are young, but have some talent. Could they take another step this season?

The Mountain West has an incredibly deep pool of quality running backs and junior Brian Hill might be the best of the bunch. He set a single-season school record with 1,631 yards, putting him eighth in the nation at 135.9 yards per game. The team hopes to lessen the burden on Hill going forward, but he will be the focal point of the offense. Sophomore quarterback Josh Allen will return to the starting position after a broken collarbone forced him to miss all but a handful of plays a year ago. Seniors Tanner Gentry and Jake Maulhardt are talented receivers on the outside.

Sophomore safety Andrew Wingard is the primary player to know defensively after earning second-team all-conference honors as a freshman. He was credited with 122 tackles a season ago and led the conference with 6.9 solo tackles per game. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, strong defenses don’t usually have safeties picking up large numbers of tackles. Incremental improvement is the key for Wyoming in 2016.


 

Week 10: New Mexico

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— 244.9 average yards on passing defense, ranking last in the Mountain West

— 252.2 average yards on rushing offense, ranking 9th in the nation

— 10 defensive starters returning for the 2016-17 season

New Mexico passed a major milestone in its climb back to respectability in 2015, finishing the year with a winning record for the first time since 2007. Bob Davie has done an impressive job in his four years as the head coach, winning more games in his first season (four) than the team had won in the previous three years combined (three). The highlight of the season was back-to-back wins in the first two weeks of November against Utah State and Boise State that temporarily pushed the Lobos into the conversation for the Mountain Division championship. A loss the following week to Colorado State ended that hope, but the Lobos laid a foundation for future success. They now need to build on that success.

While the Lobos’ option-rushing offense always places the team near the top of the nation in rushing yards, it wasn’t as potent last year as it has been. The primary culprit was a lack of consistency in the ground game. New Mexico was second in the nation with 22 runs of 30 or more yards, but also saw an increase in the number of runs for short gains. Senior Teriyon Gipson is the primary ball-carrier, but it’s the two quarterbacks who receive most of the focus. Junior Lamar Jordan is the running quarterback, finishing third on the 2015 team with 807 yards on the ground. Senior Austin Apodaca is considered the better passer and will use that skillset more this season. 

On the other side of the ball, NMU returns nine starters to a defense that saw vast improvement a season ago. Davie favors a unique 3-3-5 defense and has an experience-laden crew to run it — 10 of the 11 projected starters are seniors. Linebacker Dakota Cox is the engine in the middle of the defense.


 

Week 11: Nevada

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— 12.7 average yards on punt returns, ranking 2nd in Mountain West

— .718 all-time home record

— 105 total tackles for sophomore defensive back, Asauni Rufus

If recent history is any indication, the Nevada Wolfpack are in line for another mundane 7-6 season. Nevada has finished with the same slightly-above-average record in four of the last five years. The team did have the distinction, however, of playing in the first bowl game since 1994 not shown on national television — a 28-23 victory over fellow-Mountain West opponent Colorado State. The offense will likely improve with nine returning starters, but the defense could stumble with only one player in the front seven coming back.

After being fully invested in pistol offense for the past several years, the Wolfpack could see a slight change going forward. New offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey from FCS Montana State is bringing aspects of spread offense he ran there (Cramsey heralds from the Chip Kelly coaching tree). Nevada will still run a lot of pistol, but hope the change in approach will breathe new excitement into the offense. Senior quarterback Tyler Stewart will look to build on his more than 2,000 yards passing and 15 touchdowns from last year. He has two experienced receivers in Hasaan Henderson and Jerico Richardson. Junior running back James Butler rushed for 1,300 yards and 10 touchdowns while starting just one game in 2015. 

Defensively, Nevada has a lot more questions than answers. Sophomore safety Asauni Rufus has a chance to make an all-conference team this season. Fellow-sophomore Dameon Baber led the team with six interceptions last year, and combines with Rufus to make a formidable tandem in the back end of the defense. The projected starters at linebacker only have three combined starts, however, and Salesa Faraimo is the only senior among the top eight players on the defensive line. The front seven will need to mature quickly to compete for the division title.


 

Week 12: BYU

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— 296.5 average passing yards per game

— 128.3 average rushing yards per game

— 2 games won on last minute touchdown passes

While most of the focus in recent weeks has been on the possibility of the Cougars wearing Big-12 patches on their jerseys in coming years, the team has a number of unanswered questions on the field this season. First-year head coach Kalani Sitake returns to his alma mater, looking to build on the success the team has had over the past decade. Improvements on the field might not show in the win column, however, as BYU has the most difficult non-Power 5 schedule in the nation.

Super-senior Taysom Hill surprisingly chose to return this season, forcing Sitake into a difficult situation at his quarterback position: give the starting position to the Hill, who has shown the ability to play at a high level against elite competition, or to sophomore Tanner Mangum, a rising star who led the Cougars to nine wins in his freshman season? Sitake has chosen to start Hill despite the looming threat of recurring injuries. Both quarterbacks benefit from the return of senior running back Jamaal Williams, who is just more than 900 yards short of breaking the school’s career rushing record. The loss of jump-ball receiver Mitch Mathews might hurt the offense, which struggled with consistency at times and will be breaking in new starters at both receiver positions and at tight end.

The Cougars are transitioning to a 4-3 defense in 2016, testing the depth of a defensive line that has been recruited solely for a three-man alignment the past few years. Senior Travis Tuiloma is the lone returning starter on that line. Senior Harvey Langi is the anchor in the middle of the linebacking corps. The defensive backfield is the most experienced unit with three returning starters, including both safeties. Senior safety Kai Nacua was the playmaker last season with six interceptions, including a game-sealing interception return for a touchdown that proved to be the final gut punch in the come-from-behind victory over Boise State.