Aggies ready for Fresno Challenge
game against the Fresno State Bulldogs means.
Vegas, on the other hand, thinks blowout will sum it up as the Aggies are 33 point underdogs.
“We’ve got a great challenge in front of us,” Guy said. “We’ve got to play four quarters to compete with [Fresno].”
It will be tough because the Ags will have to play a complete game and do it on the road, Guy said. The Ags haven’t put together a good road game all season having played what Guy called a decent first half at Utah and a good third quarter at Idaho.
The desire to play shouldn’t be lacking though as Guy said he doesn’t think the players should lose focus since so many players are from California and have a little more emotion for this game.
“We have a lot of kids from California so this should be an easy one for them to focus on,” Guy said.
“This is a position a lot of those kids wanted to be in. They would have wanted to be recruited to be in the WAC conference, especially the seniors. This is their last chance to face a Fresno State team they have watched on TV for the last four or five years.”
As for Fresno’s team, Guy said they do a great job on special teams and are the best rushing team the Ags have faced since the Utah game.
The Bulldogs have averaged 163 yards and two touchdowns rushing a game in their four contests this season.
Fresno State is outscoring its opponents 48-7 in the first quarter. Their passing stats aren’t as good as they could be as last week’s game was played in a downpour limiting their passing opportunities.
Even in the rain, Guy said they managed to score 35 points on New Mexico State which shows what Fresno can do with their run game.
“Fresno just wants to line up and run the football at you,” Guy said. “You can’t expect to be given anything from the Fresno State team. They do everything very good and they’re talented on top of that.”
Besides stopping the run, which will be a challenge for the young linebacker corps, the Ags will need to run the ball better.
Not only will they have to run better but tailback Ryan Bohm will be questionable for Saturday with injuries which started in the Idaho game and were further aggravated against San Jose State.
If the Ags are successful running the ball it will further open things up for wide receivers Kevin Robinson and Tony Pennyman, who account for 80 percent of Utah State’s touchdowns.
“We’ve got to get some things to loosen it up for [them] a little bit, which means running the football,” Guy said. “Making first downs will loosen up things for the guys on the back end.”
Whatever happens Saturday, the game will be a pretty good picture of how close or far away the Aggies are from being at the top of the WAC. The Bulldogs have the best overall record in the conference at 3-1 and are undefeated in conference play thanks to their win against New Mexico State last week.
“This will be a true test to see how we compare with the very best in the WAC,” Guy said. “These guys have been at the top of the WAC since the beginning.”
-krn@cc.usu.edu