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🏈 Dogs vs Minnesota
🏟 Bulldog Stadium (Kickoff @ 7:30 p.m.)
📺 CBS Sports Network
📻 ESPN 940 AM
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It’s all about the learning experiences: After the 31-23 loss to USC and in his Monday press conference, Tedford talked about the importance of the players learning from their mistakes and moving forward.
Ultimately, with whatever negatives were present, Tedford saw the team’s character show through.
“We're not pressing the panic button by any means, because there were some good things that happened in the game,” Tedford said.
Tedford’s message to the team this week: “We can't be on a roller coaster and do anything different this week because of who we're playing or what happened last week, or anything like that. It's just stay consistent, have a standard, have an expectation, hold each other accountable, work hard, make sure we know our opponent.”
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The key for quarterback Jorge Reyna: Take a step back and try to not do too much.
Quarterbacks coach Danny Langsdorf said Reyna has responded well to the loss and he already sees an improvement in the quarterback from last week.
Although Reyna is a dual-threat, Langsdorf is teaching him to throw the ball away at times and to not overthink the play.
But the biggest thing for Reyna is simply getting game experience. Langsdorf said he’ll start to make a big jump because now he has a game under his belt.
Wide receivers looking to build on strong start: While no single receiver stood out against USC and stole the show, the group collectively showed its potential, finishing the game with 198 yards and two touchdowns.
Wide receivers coach Kirby Moore said the group is focusing on route running and perimeter blocking in practice this week, some of the smaller details that he’d like to see an improvement on from last week.
“You can go over a number – look A, look B, look C, and then you get look D in the game,” Moore said. “And you’ve talked about it, but maybe you haven’t walked through it or ran through it. So we’ve still got to be able to adjust to how the defense plays us.”
Defense preparing for the Minnesota Movers: The Golden Gophers’ offensive linemen are all at least 6’5” and 300 pounds, with the right tackle Daniel Faalele coming in at 6’9” and 400 pounds.
Fresno State linebacker Mykal Walker said he’s never played against a group this big before, but he’s excited for the challenge.
“We have a lot of guys on this team I believe will be at the next level, so I think we’re up for the challenge,” Walker said. “We like to play those guys. For the guys that can go to the next level, it’s going to be a good first taste.”
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Minnesota is more than just the O-line: Watch out for defensive end Carter Coughlin. He had 16 sacks last season as well as 26.5 tackles for a loss.
In the secondary, cornerback Antoine Winfield Jr. had the game-sealing interception against the Bulldogs last year. The corner shares his name with his father, former NFL star cornerback Antoine Winfield.
The Bulldogs will face a different QB than last year. Tanner Morgan filled in for the injured Zack Annexstad midway through the season. Last week against FCS school South Dakota State, Morgan was inconsistent and failed to get the offense rolling against a lesser opponent.
The best player on the offense is wide receiver Tyler Johnson. Although he failed to produce against South Dakota State, he’s coming off a 1,169 yard season with 12 touchdowns.
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Fresno State adds a quarterback for the future: Jake Haener transferred from Washington and practiced with the Bulldogs for the first time Wednesday.
He enters as a redshirt sophomore, and after he sits out this season due to NCAA transfer rules, Haener will have two years of eligibility left. He was a three star recruit coming out of high school and will join the mix of quarterbacks competing to take the spot next season post-Reyna.
“The fact that we were able to pick him up is a really good thing for us,” Langsdorf said. “I think they’ll be excited to have him and get him up to speed and go from there.”
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