Thoughts on Fresno State

RigAggie · Post by **RigAggie** » October 11th, 2011, 8:39 am

I watched the replay of the Boise State vs. Fresno State on ESPN3 last night and after viewing the game here are some of my thoughts on the upcoming opponent:

1. Fresno's Special Teams is very good. They are led by Devon Wylie who is a lot like Kerwynn Williams, he is a threat to score on every return. He brought a punt back for a TD against Boise St. which was their only score of the game. He is also a good pass catcher. I think they also lead the WAC in punts blocked, and really come after the punter. Hopefully we will not need the services of our punter as we should find success on offense.

2. Their Defense is much better than Wyoming. They are led by Logan Harrell who is s Stud on the D-line and he made several big plays vs. Boise. They are not great at defending the run and I think that is where the Aggies can have some success. Boise ran it around the end and up the middle quite a few times. They also had some play action that worked well.

3. They have good but not great receivers, Jalen Saunders and Josh Harper are their best receivers, but they had several dropped passes against Boise. I think Lawson and Sanders can contain them.

4. They have a very good running back in Robbie Rouse. He ran for 143 yards against a very good Boise St. Defense. But they seemed to ignore him once they got to the end zone. I don't think we'll have too big a problem containing him hopefully with Wagner patrolling the line of scrimmage. But he is a small powerful back who likes to initiate contact.

5. Derek Carr is a good quarterback. Luckily he isn't as good as his brother David. He will try and force passes, as he has thrown 5 interceptions this year. I think if we put pressure on him like Boise was able to do that we will disrupt his passing. He needs time in the pocket to deliver.

Final Thoughts: Our offense is actually very similar to Boise's in that we run a lot of different plays, bring in several different players to disrupt the defense, and we run a lot of mis-direction. After fininshing the game, I thought that this game is winnable, but we have to bring our "Wyoming" offensive playbook and use it! It will be a very tough game as it is Fresno's homecoming and they are sick of losing at home.(They have lost the last two games at home, Ole Miss and Boise St.)

Here's to a great win on Saturday!!!

aggie16 · Post by **aggie16** » October 11th, 2011, 10:26 am

Great post Rig. This will be a very challenging game, in a hostile Homecoming environment. We will need to fire on all cylinders to win.

JasonJensen · Post by **JasonJensen** » October 11th, 2011, 10:32 am

Awesome post! Thanks for the analysis.

AGGZILLA · Post by **AGGZILLA** » October 11th, 2011, 10:37 am

So I take it we're going to put Nevin on Jalen Saunders??? From what I've seen out of Saunders so far this season, especially the Ole Miss game, the guy is a gamebreaker.

ViAggie · Post by **ViAggie** » October 11th, 2011, 10:38 am

the misdirection and off-tackle running really was the key to our success on the ground against Wyoming. I think if we can carry that forward this year we'll continue with that success, especially with #6 in the backfield.

QuackAttackAggie · Post by **QuackAttackAggie** » October 11th, 2011, 10:49 am

ViAggie wrote:the misdirection and off-tackle running really was the key to our success on the ground against Wyoming. I think if we can carry that forward this year we'll continue with that success, especially with #6 in the backfield.

according to the fresno board, we rely on between the tackles running and that is our entire offense.

ViAggie · Post by **ViAggie** » October 11th, 2011, 10:59 am

QuackAttackAggie wrote:
ViAggie wrote:the misdirection and off-tackle running really was the key to our success on the ground against Wyoming. I think if we can carry that forward this year we'll continue with that success, especially with #6 in the backfield.

according to the fresno board, we rely on between the tackles running and that is our entire offense.

It has been our bread and butter up to this point, but we did have success vs. Wyoming running off-tackle quite a bit. I think we mix it up we're ok. Just doing that delay up the gut with Turbo won't do for every play.

QuackAttackAggie · Post by **QuackAttackAggie** » October 11th, 2011, 11:45 am

i think read option is what sets up our offense. we run a lot of play action off of it, it lets the rbs use their speed, plays into a speed option, etc.

UtahStizzle · Post by **UtahStizzle** » October 11th, 2011, 12:16 pm

Their D being better than Wyoming's means nothing. We could have scored 80-90 points against the Pokes if we tried to.

Fresno's D is pretty week. They gave up 38 to an Ole Miss team that laid 13 on BYU.
57 to Boise.
42 to Nebraska - Who Wyoming only gave up 38 to.
Even 22 to their FCS opponent.

If we go hurry-up offense, mix it up with our run and pass, we'll score every 2 out of 3 trips.

Yossarian · Post by **Yossarian** » October 11th, 2011, 12:44 pm

Saunders, Rouse and Wylie all have big play potential. USU has defended the run well to this point. I suspect the Aggies will be able to contain Rouse - he will be a point of emphasis. They will make Carr beat the through the air. I haven't been impressed with Carr the 2 games I have seen. He is not very accurate. I would guess that USU will blitz more than normal in passing situations to force Carr into quick throws.

Harrell (77) is a handful at D Tackle, but I think he takes a lot of plays off (doesn't give 100 percent effort). FSU has some speed at linebacker, but nothing USU hasn't seen befor with Auburn, BYU, and CSU. I think Keeton will be able to pick apart FSUs secondary through the air if they turn him loose. He should have decent pocket protection as FSUs D line is a one-man show.

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