Fresno State at Wyoming: Know the Foe

Oct. 15—Robert Kuwada, who covers Fresno State for The Fresno Bee, weighs in on what Wyoming can expect this weekend against the Bulldogs.

One of the first things that stands out about Fresno State is its success against ranked Pac-12 opponents, playing Oregon to within a touchdown and beating UCLA on the road.

What was your biggest takeaway from these performances?

To be honest, I thought both of those teams were grossly overrated. But my take on Fresno State is what it has been all year — it's a lot better than people think. It was picked fourth in the West Division, remember. When looking at 2020, the impact COVID had on that program is often left out of the equation. Fresno State had the personnel to be very good, but it had no spring, it had no summer and was the last team in the conference to get its players back on campus. On top of that, it had a new coach, a new defensive scheme and very little time to put it together. They started to get things going a little bit and then went to Utah State and COVID hit. Fresno State had to cancel two games and it still was dealing with COVID issues when it came back for its last two and lost at Nevada and to New Mexico with a severely depleted roster. That's a long way of saying Fresno State is a pretty talented team.

Senior quarterback Jake Haener has been a difference-maker for the No. 3 passing offense in the country, but he's also been dealing with injuries throughout the season.

What's his outlook from a health standpoint heading into Saturday?

Haener has taken a lot of shots already this season, but the bye obviously helped heal him up some. He will be as close to 100% as he has been since the third game of the season.

The Bulldogs matched their lowest point total of the season in a 27-24 loss two weeks ago at Hawaii.

What did the Rainbow Warriors present defensively that gave Fresno State trouble?

Hawaii gave Haener and the Bulldogs the most trouble when it was dropping eight into coverage. Haener got a little impatient, tried to force a couple of balls. Three of those interceptions were in the red zone. Obviously, those were crushers. Wyoming hasn't played anyone all that adept at throwing the football, but one thing I found interesting about the Cowboys is they have been able to sit on an opponent's leading receiver. The catch percentage is only 46%, something like that.

Hawaii was able to do that with Jalen Cropper — 13 targets, five receptions. Going into that game Cropper had caught 78% of his targets. Wyoming I'm sure will try to do that, too, but it will have a lot more to worry about with the other Fresno State wideouts than it did against Montana State or Northern Illinois.

It's a very deep group with Josh Kelly, Keric Wheatfall, Zane Pope, Erik Brooks and Ty Jones.

Fresno State ranks among the top defenses in the Mountain West, and along with Wyoming, is one of three teams in the conference giving up less than five yards per play.

Who are some of the guys that the Cowboys need to watch out for?

I'd start with defensive end Arron Mosby, who has 9 tackles for loss. Tackle Kevin Atkins has 7 TFLs, which is a lot for an interior guy. Safety Evan Williams is a really heady player. The linebackers, Tyson Maeva and Levelle Bailey, are solid. If you just look at the numbers from the Hawaii game you think, the Rainbow Warriors had 232 rushing yards? But that's what a few bad fits will do. Hawaii got most of those yards on eight plays and on the other 36 averaged two yards. That'll be a fun matchup to watch, because the Cowboys don't go backward very often.

What's your prediction for Saturday?

I think it will be a good game and I'm sure Sean Chambers is looking forward to playing against the Bulldogs being from Kerman, which is only about 15 miles to the west. I do think Fresno State will win the game, though. From a firepower standpoint, I think it has a significant edge. I know Wyoming is leading the Mountain West in passing defense, but I'd be surprised if anyone it has played comes close to what Fresno State will put on the field.

I'd expect Wyoming to run the ball a lot, see if it can keep moving the sticks and shorten the game, so not very high scoring. I'd say it will be similar, but closer than the last time they played back in 2018, maybe 27-14, something like that.

Josh Criswell covers the University of Wyoming for WyoSports. He can be reached at jcriswell@wyosports.net or 307-755-3325. Follow him on Twitter at @criswell_sports.