Fresno State opens spring camp with questions. For this QB, coordinator’s not one of them

Eric Barriere had quite the season in 2021. The former Eastern Washington quarterback passed for more than 5,000 yards with 46 touchdowns.

At the end of a year that was not without its challenges, he took home the Walter Payton Award as the top offensive player in the NCAA football championship subdivision.

Along the way, Barriere got better acquainted with Pat McCann, who is now in his first months as Fresno State’s offensive coordinator, but back then had received an in-season promotion to run the Eagles’ high-octane offense.

What he remembers most of McCann, who had been the receivers coach and passing game coordinator, was the smile on his face after Eastern Washington had overcome a slow start in his first game calling plays to win a matchup of top 10 teams at UC Davis.

McCann had worked at UC Davis, one of his previous coaching stops. There was a little something extra there given that, and everything that went into the week. “I can still remember the look on his face, just the smile on him, with his backpack on,” Barriere said. “Stuff like that, you don’t forget.”

So, there’s that.

And, there’s this: “He’s not afraid,” Barriere said. “I think he brings a different type of swagger, a different fire that a lot of coaches that I personally don’t think bring.

“He’s a competitor and his will to win, I think people will see that just in his plays and how he calls his plays.”

Coach Jeff Tedford, who has been in those film rooms and in that press box or sideline with a play sheet unfolded in front of him and a veteran defensive coordinator on the opposite sideline, chuckled at a suggestion of a fearlessness in the Bulldogs’ new offensive coordinator.

“Fearless, but not reckless, right?,” he joked.

That is one of the questions for the Bulldogs, who opened spring practices Monday with a lot of production to replace on the offensive side of the football at quarterback, at running back and receiver.

But there’s no denying Tedford and his track record and ability to hit home run hires with Kalen DeBoer, Ryan Grubb and Kirby Moore all moving up to Power Five conference jobs.

DeBoer left for Indiana as offensive coordinator, came back to coach the Bulldogs and now is at Washington; Grubb is the Huskies’ offensive coordinator; and Moore after one season running the Fresno State offense was hired at Missouri.

McCann next in successful line of succession

“Through all of our meetings last year, he was very instrumental in all our game plans,” Tedford said. “He has a really good feel. I don’t know what kind of play caller he’s going to be. We’ll find out in the spring about that.

“But I know he has a very sharp mind and obviously knows our offense very well, knows what we’ve been successful with. Plus, there’s some additions. Anytime you have a new coach take over, you know what we do, plus you can take from where you’ve been before that had success, and you can implement some of that as well.

“It brings a few new spins to what we’re doing.”

But take a hint from Barriere when it comes to McCann.

“He carries a confidence, a confidence in his players, a confidence in his plays,” said Barriere, who is with the USFL Michigan Panthers and preparing for a season that starts in April.

That comes, Barriere said, from preparation, from knowing players and knowing the playbook and the plays installed in the game plan on any given week.

There is a lot to be learned over the Bulldogs’ 15 spring practices for McCann and the Bulldogs to get to that point. But Fresno State — despite losing quarterback Jake Haener, running back Jordan Mims and wideouts Jalen Moreno-Cropper, Nikko Remigio and Zane Pope — is not starting from zero this spring.

“If you were to ask me what I took from Eastern Washington, it’s an attitude and a mentality drive thing,” McCann said. “At Eastern Washington, we had an attitude and a mentality that we’re going to be good on offense.

Bulldogs will have competitive spring

“It’s like that here. It exists in the same way here. There’s a standard here that we’re being held to. That’s one of the biggest things in teaching the new guys and the young guys, ‘Hey, we weren’t good on offense just because.’ There’s a standard of performance here. From an effort level, from an attention to detail standpoint. All of those things, all of those factors that go into it, it all adds into a standard of Bulldog football and Fresno State offense that has become an expectation.”

The quarterback position is an open competition, with Central Florida transfer Mikey Keene in there with returners Logan Fife, Jaylen Henderson and Joshua Wood. The wideout room is young, but redshirt freshman Jalen Moss and junior college transfer Josiah Freeman stood out last season on the practice field.

What will it look like in the fall?

It’s far too early to tell, or know whether Fresno State can average 30-plus points for a fifth year in a row and under a fourth offensive coordinator. But the steps to get there are well worn, very familiar, and the personnel is there for the Bulldogs to make another run at a Mountain West title after becoming the first team in FBS history to finish with a 10-4 record after starting a season 1-4.

“You have to do what you need to do to get your best players the ball,” McCann said. “That just happened to be throwing the football at Eastern Washington a lot of times. It’s not that we were necessarily Air Raid, throwing the ball all over the place. Conceptually, we were very similar to what we are here. We were probably a little more up-tempo, so we ran more plays in a game. That’s probably the biggest difference, and I think it’s probably less about being up tempo and just the play-to-play operation, operating a little faster.

“We’re not some fast-break team that just goes up tempo all the time. I don’t think that’s necessarily championship-winning football. But I think that play to play, the ability to run a good play fast is a good thing. You line up and let good players play.”