Fresno State Bulldogs will have some roster surprises as they prepare for season-opener

Fresno State wrapped up fall camp on Saturday night with a mock game and scrimmage, which included live series with the team’s No. 1 offense and quarterback Jake Haener.

The Bulldogs will go into a game prep mode on Monday, working toward a Sept. 1 opener against FCS Cal Poly, and Coach Jeff Tedford said three true freshman defensive linemen are likely to be in the practice rotation and not on the scout team. Defensive tackles Gavriel Lightfoot and Jacob Holmes and defensive end Jahzon Jacks were taking reps through the week at times with the No. 1 or No. 2 defense and did Saturday, as well.

Those are difficult positions for any freshman to make an impact — the game’s speed can be an issue, and strength can be an issue. But all three of the freshmen have handled everything thrown at them.

“All of them are going to be there to provide some depth for us,” Tedford said. “Now, how much they play, I don’t really know. But it’s important to keep them alive. You don’t want to put them over on the scouts. They’re going to be in the rotation, but how often we use them, I have no idea.”

Depth was an issue for the Bulldogs last season, when tackle Kevin Atkins played 713 snaps, second-most on the team to safety Evan Williams.

Fifth-year seniors Leonard Payne and Matt Lawson have worked most with the No. 1 defense, but the Bulldogs have the two freshmen in Lightfoot and Holmes, and fourth-year junior Devo Bridges has worked inside and outside at end. Junior college transfer Johnny Hudson Jr. is out with an injury but also could work back into that mix.

Sixth-year senior David Perales and fifth-year senior Isaiah Johnson are lining up at the ends, with Jacks and Bridges, Stanford transfer Andres Fox and redshirt junior Charles Remlinger.

Jake Haener gets five series

Tedford and offensive coordinator Kirby Moore did not get Haener and several other key players reps in the first camp scrimmage. But on Saturday, the preseason Mountain West Conference offensive player of the year ran five series and some situational series and had touchdown throws to tight end Tre Watson and wideout Nikko Remigio.

Haener on the end of camp: “We’re getting ready for Cal Poly. It’s something I think we’ve all been looking forward to, basically just getting out of the camp grind. I think guys did a really good job of staying focused the past 20 days and really just going a day at a time and I think now we can really shift our focus and get rolling on our next opponent.

“I definitely think we’ve improved, just the overall team, the relationship piece. We’ve become a lot closer. The summer helped that. And then just refining our skills on offense and defense, understanding what the coaches want from us, how they want us to run their schemes. I think we’ve done a really good job of understanding it, going install by install and then executing it in practice.”

Unusual consequence for practice scrap

The Bulldogs made it through the past two weeks of camp without any major scraps between defensive and offensive players, but Tedford had taken care of that after the first few days of practice.

There were a couple early, but after Perales and guard Tyrone Sampson got into it, Tedford had them stroll around the practice field while holding hands. Lovers Lane, he called it.

The Bulldogs coach had done that before, during his first stint at his alma mater. But he never had two players out there for as long as Perales and Sampson had to circle the practice field, hand in hand. They walked and walked and walked for two practice periods, more than 10 minutes.

Tedford wasn’t trying to reinforce any message.

“I forgot that they were doing it,” he said, laughing. “I had my attention somewhere else, and it took Mose (Vavao) to come over and say, ‘Hey, how long do they have to do that?’ They walked for a long time …

“But we had some fun with it. We showed it on the video and that type of thing. We know we can’t lose our discipline like that. If they do it in practice, they’re going to do it in a game, and we can’t afford that.”

So, what did a sixth-year senior from Merced and a fifth-year senior from Detroit talk about after a practice scrap and walking it off, hand in hand?

Sampson has been out due to an illness for the past few days. But after that practice, he said it was awkward at first but that they had no choice other than to make the best of it.

“We talked about being leaders,” he said. “We can’t be doing that. We have to lead by example and show the younger guys because we are two of the older guys on the team.”

Who will back up Jordan Mims?

With the Bulldogs heading into game prep, third-year sophomore Malik Sherrod appears to have a lead in one of the more heated competitions in camp to back up lead running back Jordan Mims.

Sherrod last season rushed the football 11 times for 40 yards, but he has the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and, at 5-foot-8 and 180 pounds, has improved as a pass protector.

“For a smaller guy, he’s very aggressive and has good fundamentals,” Tedford said.

That was, though, a point of emphasis over the summer, and the Bulldogs have had a number of smaller backs who were very good at picking up blitzing linebackers and safeties, including Robbie Rouse and Ronnie Rivers.

“Being a smaller back, sometimes when we get looked at, that’s a part that people think is left out,” Sherrod said. “I really try to focus on being the best I can at pass pro. You have to be willing to do it, and you have to want to do it, and I try to go as hard as I can.

“A guy comes into your gap, and that’s your guy. You have to want to stop him right there and say, ‘You’re not getting any farther than this.’ It’s a constant fight. I just try to win every time. You might not win every time, but you have to come with that mindset.”