{"id":34563,"date":"2014-07-28T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T19:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=34563"},"modified":"2014-07-26T12:41:11","modified_gmt":"2014-07-26T17:41:11","slug":"2014-fresno-state-bulldogs-team-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2014-fresno-state-bulldogs-team-preview-34563\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 Fresno State Bulldogs Team Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresno State Bulldogs
\nHead Coach:\u00a0 Tim DeRuyter
\n2013-14 Record:\u00a0 11-2, 7-1 Mountain West Conference
\n2013-14 Bowl Result:\u00a0 45-20 loss to USC at Las Vegas Bowl
\nOdds to Win National Championship:\u00a0 Field +2142<\/strong><\/p>\n

Returning Starters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Offense:\u00a0 5, Defense:\u00a0 8<\/p>\n

Offense<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Fresno State Bulldogs have a challenging schedule to start the 2014 campaign<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fresno State enters a new era of football this fall, which can\u2019t be ignored when making your college football picks, considering third year head coach Tim DeRuyter will not have Derek Carr under center.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs didn\u2019t establish a starting quarterback in spring football and likely will not name a starter until the second week of fall camp.\u00a0 Brian Burrell, a junior, enters atop the depth chart to be the starting signal-caller.<\/p>\n

Three of the five starters on the offensive line return, with right guard Cody Wichmann being one of the nation\u2019s most experienced players,\u00a0 He has played the third-most snaps of any FBS linemen entering 2014.<\/p>\n

The team does not lose any production at running back, with Josh Quezada and Marteze Waller, who combined for 1,453 yards and 13 touchdowns, while also contributing 74 receptions.<\/p>\n

Josh Harper is one of the more explosive players in the Mountain West, as he\u2019s caught 22 touchdowns in 27 career games.<\/p>\n

Defense<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that senior Karl Mickelsen is the leader on this side of the ball, as he amassed the most tackles for a player last season since 2009.<\/p>\n

Fresno State also returns both of its outside linebackers, with explosive playmaker Ejiro Ederaine being the main player for college football handicappers to focus on, as he had 16.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks.<\/p>\n

Derron Smith is also a special player, as he\u2019s the nation\u2019s active leader in career interceptions, and is considered the top senior safety prospect in the country.<\/p>\n

Schedule<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bulldogs may have the toughest opening stretch in college football, as they play a pair of road games against Pac-12 Conference opponents (USC and Utah)\u2014followed by hosting the Nebraska Cornhuskers.<\/p>\n

DeRuyter is hoping to win at least one of those contests, as the conference schedule is manageable, especially with two bye weeks in the final two months.<\/p>\n

Outlook<\/strong><\/p>\n

The loss of Carr will cause the team to lose games it won a year ago, as close games down the stretch are often determined by quarterback play, but the defense is capable of making big plays to make this happen against inferior competition.<\/p>\n

Under DeRuyter, the program has compiled a stellar 13-0 SU record at Bulldog Stadium.<\/p>\n

Make sure to become a long term subscriber for the best college football picks anywhere for the upcoming 2014-15 NCAA football season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fresno State Bulldogs Head Coach:\u00a0 Tim DeRuyter 2013-14 Record:\u00a0 11-2, 7-1 Mountain West Conference 2013-14 Bowl Result:\u00a0 45-20 loss to USC at Las Vegas Bowl Odds to Win National Championship:\u00a0 Field +2142 Returning Starters Offense:\u00a0 5, Defense:\u00a0 8 Offense Fresno State enters a new era of football this fall, which can\u2019t be ignored when making […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":29369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[7601,7603,8350,229,508,7880],"class_list":["post-34563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-bulldog-stadium","tag-derek-carr","tag-derron-smith","tag-fresno-state-bulldogs","tag-mountain-west-conference","tag-tim-deruyter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34564,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34563\/revisions\/34564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}