Sidelines
WHY not us, coach Pat Hill likes to ask. Well, why not? Now that they have jammed up my Pigskin Picks for two weeks, now that they're ranked No. 11 in the country (and some nut has them at No. 1), now that they have taken out teams from the Big 12, the Pac-10 and the Big Ten, now that they're the talk of college football, why not Fresno State? Fresno State good for
WAC, bad for pickers"I called him last week and told him we played Wisconsin the second to last game (last year), I said, 'I think you guys can beat 'em,'" June Jones said.
That's great, Coach. Next time why don't you let me in on it? I'm getting killed on these Pigskin Picks! I'm getting buried! I have the same record as the guy who's picking his nose!
"Because of the matchups," Jones said. "It's funny how matchups are. Certain teams don't play certain teams well and some of the things that Fresno does on offense, I knew, from having played them in a one-back system, that Wisconsin would struggle stopping them. The same thing, the zone blitzes --they had trouble here with our zone blitzes. Fresno State gon' blitz you every play."
Exactly. They will attack you and not look back. Matchups, yeah, yeah, yeah. Coachspeak. Fresno State is winning because they're a bunch of psychotics. That No. 98 (Alan Harper -- can you wait to see him go up against Vince Manuwai?) could be one of the top three tackles in the country. He's everywhere. And the rest of the defenders, as a message poster to Hawaii Sports Network wrote, "Hit like they don't give a damn if they're even alive the next day." That captures the attitude perfectly.
That's why they're winning. That's why they can eliminate Sports Illustrated's No. 1 pick. That's why they can go into Wisconsin and win.
"We're not just talking about being big time," Bernard Berrian, who returned the second half's opening kickoff for a touchdown at Wisconsin, told the Fresno Bee. "We are big time."
They are.
AND PEOPLE around the country, including your favorite Pigskin Pickers, are seeing it.
Well, maybe, on second thought, the WAC isn't so bad after all.
Maybe it really does stand for "Where Actions Count," and not "We All Couldn't get out in time."
Maybe -- if with its newfound success, Fresno State doesn't bail out of the conference in October (it's a joke, but would you really be surprised?) -- the WAC could actually have a team that has something to say in January.
Why not? Why not them?
But now is the time to strike. This is the run. These are the days. No one big-time will ever schedule Fresno State again.
"Right now our conference is getting strong," Jones said. "And if we can hold our own in this conference with Fresno State doing what they're doing, it gives us some credibility."
For the WAC, these are some much needed days of thunder.
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com