It was a hard week for Fresno State Athletics, particularly at the hands of the school’s biggest rival Boise State who defeated the Bulldogs in soccer, women’s volleyball and football this weekend. The Equestrian team also lost to both TCU and Baylor.
Here’s five takeaways from this past week in Bulldog sports:
The good: the ‘Dogs made it close
Not everyone wants to hear it but Fresno State played well on Saturday in its 38-31 loss to #23 Boise State and somehow, enough to feel good about it. Was it perfect? No, far from it to be honest. But they played well enough to put themselves in position at the end of the game.
Moral victories may seem insignificant and unimportant, especially against a rival whom you previously beat three times in a row, but if Saturday’s loss told me anything, it told me Fresno State belonged on the same football field as one of the 25 best teams in all of college football. There’s something to be said about that.
Like I said before, they weren’t perfect. The Bulldogs have been a pretty good team overall on defense against the run but they haven’t been invincible. We saw it two weeks ago against Rice and again on Saturday against the Broncos. The Bulldogs had no answer at the line of scrimmage. Offensively, the run game was nonexistent without Rayshon “Speedy” Luke (concussion) and the injuries on the offensive line aren’t going away.
With that said, there were plenty of positives as well. Quarterback Jayden Mandal had another good game and is now up to 1,329 total yards and 10 touchdowns over the last five games with no interceptions.
Mandal and the offense also scored touchdowns on all three of its red zone opportunities on Saturday. They also scored its first two first quarter touchdowns of the year.
The crowd was…good?
Saturday’s game left me with some mixed feelings about the fans overall. Maybe that’s unfair, after all, the Red Wave showed up in record numbers including a stadium high 43,086 to sing ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ and cheer on the Bulldogs on against Boise State.
In fact, the crowd was very lively and making an impact for the first 2 ½ quarters. It was as loud as it had been since probably 2023, the last time Boise was in Fresno and that impact was felt on the sidelines.
“The fans did a tremendous job. They were loud when we needed them to be loud. They were quiet when we needed them to be quiet, and our players were feeding off the energy of the Red Wave,” Head Coach Matt Entz said on Monday morning.
There are two issues with that though: 1) why did so much of the crowd start to leave halfway through the third quarter in the middle of a close game and 2) why can’t they keep this energy for every game?
The former of these questions could be answered for many fans as it relates to time. With plenty of families with small children, a 7:30 kickoff is too late for fans to stay for four quarters. I’m not sure an 8 p.m. kickoff to end October will help the Bulldogs much for its next home game.
The second question is the one I have more trouble with. The crowd really was making an impact, not only on third down but they were loud on first and second down too. They made things tricky at times for Boise State on offense in the first half. I was impressed. I was also frustrated because there’s no reason it can’t be like that every game.
The Red Wave has shown the potential to be the best college atmosphere on the west coast, outside of maybe Oregon, but they’re far too inconsistent.
Bottom line: there’s only six Saturday home games a year, I think fans should be able to get up, be loud and stay loud for four quarters six nights a year.
Emerging star: Zeke Avit
Entering the year, there were plenty of questions on offense outside of the running backs room and top wide receiver Josiah Freeman.
Well one of those questions, who would be the number two receiver has definitely been answered halfway through the year, it’s Ezekiel Avit.
The Maryland transfer is in his second year with the Bulldogs and through six games has already set career highs in receiving yards (330) and touchdowns (4).
Avit has shown an uptick in 1-on-1 opportunities on the outside and he’s taken advantage. His ability to catch the ball and then make defenders miss makes him a critical piece of this offense and will be a very important factor in Fresno State’s hopes of climbing back atop the conference standings.
“He’s been an integral part all year,” Entz said after the game on Saturday.
The bad: Fresno State women’s soccer
I would like to preface this by saying, I think Director of Athletics Garrett Klassy has done an incredible job since coming to Fresno State. The outside-the-box thinking ideas and the countless hours of time and energy devoted to connecting with the community has not gone unnoticed.
He’s also hit on almost every single head coaching hire since taking over, all but one in my opinion.
Gabe Bolton was hired on Christmas Eve last year and came to the Bulldogs after a pretty successful career at Stanislaus State that saw him win 223 games and reach the NCAA Tournament four times in 21 seasons with the Warriors.
That success has not translated in his first year at Fresno State. The Bulldogs are 1-12-2 (0-4 in PAC-12) through 15 games and it’s not even close. They have been outscored 48-7 by its opponents in 2026 and the only win was against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
Time will tell if things will change but after watching the last couple of games I can confidently say it won’t happen under the current coaching staff.
Fresno State looks unprepared and tactically at a disadvantage every game. They aren’t generating opportunities for themselves and it shows: dead last in the conference with only 127 shots taken this season, that’s less half as much as Utah State (273).
2026 is a lost year but the ‘Dogs have some talented young players like freshman Mariona Sene Corominas and juniors Tatiana Saunders and Hayden Crotty-Romero that they should want to keep and build off of for next season. If they have any hopes of keeping them, Klassy should have a list of coaching candidates ready to interview this winter.
The ugly: fighting outside stadium
There were multiple large fights after the game on Saturday just outside of Valley Children’s Stadium (near Bulldog Locker and Bulldog Boulevard) that made their way to social media.
It’s not a good look and frankly, it overshadows what is an overall great fan base. Game days at Fresno State have such a great environment and create a space for the Valley community to come together in unison to support the Bulldogs.
Incidents like we saw on Saturday not only affect the people involved in the altercation. They affect the families who no longer feel comfortable taking their kids to a game out of fear of their kids witnessing or worse, getting caught in the middle of a fight.
Column written by Al Scott. Photos courtesy of Ryan Sepulveda and Evan Hernandez (FSM).