Fresno State Football: 2024 Preview, Best Players, Top Transfers, Season Prediction, Win Total

Fresno State College Football Preview 2024

This college coaching thing is a rough business.

Former head coach Jeff Tedford was fantastic, but he's now stepping down due to health concerns.

He wasn’t feeling right in 2019 and had to step away due to reported heart issues. The program did just fine with Kalen DeBoer coming in for two seasons before Tedford returned.

Now the Tim Skipper era begins.

There was a health concern late last season, Skipper stepped in for the bowl win, and now the hope is that everything stays as normal - Fresno State won the bowl under Skipper over New Mexico State 37-10.

Take out that 2019 campaign, and Tedford’s Bulldog teams have gone 41-14 with four bowl wins, two Mountain West Championships, and a conference title loss. Now is the chance to take one of those double-digit winning seasons to another level.

As good as Tedford was for the program, there's no slowing down.

The world will be all over Boise State as the easy favorite to win the Mountain West and be in the mix for the College Football Playoff, but this Fresno State team has the talent, experience, and the coaching to make a push, too.

Last year’s team won nine games despite a rough late-season stretch and a few overall struggles. This time around, the offense has more experience, the lines are great, and the defense is loaded with veterans and depth.

Throw in a schedule with no Boise State to deal with—but with road games at Michigan, UNLV, UCLA, and Air Force that could make or break the season in different ways—and Fresno State might be the answer to the question of which outlier team could sneak into this new expanded CFP thing.

But more than anything else, forgetting the football side … stay healthy, Coach.

Fresno State Football Preview 2024: Offense

- The offense that was among the best in the nation on third downs and had plenty of moments of explosion returns loaded with veterans. Amazingly enough, when the offense scored, good things happened.

Fresno State scored 27 points or more nine times - it went 9-0. When it scored fewer than 27 it went 0-4. To take this even further, Fresno State has won its last 17 games when getting to 27 points. It can do that again on a regular basis, but …

- The ground game has to be better. This isn’t exactly a pure passing attack, but it was overbalanced toward the air side.

The offensive front has its share of stars. Mose Vavao, a big blaster who mostly played guard last season, is now poised to be an all-star at center. The combination of Toreon Penlight and Kingsley Ugwu will be great at left tackle, Braylen Nelson is a huge right tackle, and overall, this should be one of the Mountain West’s better lines.

The backs are good enough to be used more. Malik Sheerer averaged 5.6 yards per carry with 966 yards and nine scores. He’s the scatback, Elijah Gilliam is more of a power runner who finished second with 397 yards and five touchdowns, and there’s good depth behind them. But …

- Again, the passing game butters the team’s bread. Mikey Keene came over from UCF and turned into an instant factor, completing 67% of his passes for almost 3,000 yards and 24 touchdowns with ten picks.

The offense had problems when he struggled, he’s not all that big, and he’s not a runner, but everything clicked when he got the passing game going. More on that in a moment in the Key to the Season section.

The receiving corps needs a few new parts to rise up. Leading target Erik Brooks is gone, but Jalen Moss caught 55 passes in his freshman season for 706 yards and six scores. He’s a No. 1 target, Josiah Freeman is a dangerous deep threat on the outside, and Mac Dalena caught 47 passes on the inside.

Top tight end Tre Watson is gone, but the style helps make the players - Jake Boust should be a factor.

Fresno State Football Preview 2024: Defense

- The Fresno State defense was’t anything special. It was decent at generating pressure, forced a slew of mistakes, and it pitched a few gems throughout last season.

There should be more big things happening this season. Adding USC former super-recruit Korey Foreman on the other side of top pass rusher Devo Bridges should give opposing backfields problems.

They’ll be fine outside, the inside is strong round Jacob Holmes - he led the team with five sacks - and there’s enough depth to form a good rotation against the run.

- It helps to get a few nice tacklers back in the linebacking corps. Malachi Langley is a baller of a tackler with a team-leading 84 stops last season, and now it’s up to Tuasivi Nomura to be a top hitter taking over for Lavelle Bailey in the middle.

- The secondary has several nice playmakers. There might not be a true star in the bunch, but there’s lots to like among the returning parts. Al’zillion Hamilton is a baller who broke up eight passes and picked off two others. He’s set at one corner, and JUCO transfer Jakari Embry and Julian Neal are fine combining on the other side.

Dean Clark makes a whole lot of plays - he finished second on the team with 83 stops - and Camryn Bracha should be a solid all-around option with more work at free safety.

Key To The Fresno State Football Season

Get QB Mikey Keene going each week.
The Bulldogs went 9-1 when the passing attack threw for more than 233 yards, and that one loss came against Wyoming when Keene got banged up and threw for 218. The next week they won when Logan Fife stepped in against Utah State and threw for 291 yards, but that goes to the style of this O.

When Keene was on, Fresno State won.

Fresno State Key Player

Josiah Freeman, WR Jr.
The Bulldogs will be fine at wide receiver - the offense spreads the ball around and Mikey Keene knows what he’s doing. It would be nice, though, to get even more of a deep element to freak out secondaries.

The 6-3 Freeman will work even more on the outside after caching 19 passes for 249 yards and a score. If he opens things up a bit more, Jalen Moss and Mac Dalena will go off.

Fresno State Football Top Transfer, Biggest Transfer Loss

Top Transfer In: Korey Foreman, EDGE Jr. Can the former superstar USC recruit rise up and be a dominant pass rusher for the Bulldogs? He wasn’t able to rise up for the Trojans with just 25 tackles and 2.5 sacks, but he’ll get his shot on the outside of the Fresno State line.

Top Transfer Out: Tre Watson, TE Sr.
He looks and plays the part. The 6-5, 245-pound veteran didn’t do much deep last season, but he caught 38 passes for 378 yards with four scores as a reliable midrange target. Now he’ll be a key part of the Washington attack.

Fresno State Key Game

at UNLV, Sept. 28
No Mountain West game is ever really a given - Fresno State isn’t above dropping any conference game on its schedule - but for the most part, this is mostly a two game season.

Okay, maybe Colorado State should be part of that, too, but at Air Force and at UNLV are the two that should be the biggest deal on the Bulldog slate.

Win in Vegas in late September, and a trip to the Mountain West Championship is right there for the taking even with a few tough games left.

10 Best Fresno State Football Players

1. Mose Vavao, C/OG Sr.
2. Devo Bridges, DE Sr.
3. Mikey Keene, QB Jr.
4. Malik Sherrod, RB Sr.
5. Jacob Holmes, DT Jr.
6. Jalen Moss, WR Soph.
7. Korey Foreman, EDGE Sr.
8. Cam Lockridge, CB Sr.
9. Gavriel Lightfoot, DT Jr.
10. Dylan Lynch, PK Jr.

Fresno State 2023 Fun Stats

- Penalties: Opponents 81 for 688 yards, Fresno State 58 for 522 yards

- Fumbles: Opponents 11 (lost 6), Fresno State 6 (lost 2)

- 1st Quarter Scoring: Fresno State 104, Opponents 64

Fresno State Football 2024 Win Total Prediction: What to Expect This Season

Just about everyone will crown Boise State as the Mountain West’s top team and possible Group of Five entry into the College Football Playoff, but even with the coaching change, Fresno State should be right there, too.

It’ll lose to Michigan to start the season, push UCLA at the end, and in between it should rip through the schedule if the team plays up to its talent level each week.

It’s a horrible, horrible move by the Mountain West not to have Boise State and Fresno State during the regular season, but the Bulldogs will take the deal.

It doesn’t have to play the new San Diego State AztecFast attack, and misses the Wyoming D, along with whatever Utah State will be now. It also misses Oregon State in the Mountain West’s Netflix and chill deal with the ex-Pac-12ers, and gets a home date against Washington State.

At UNLV and at Air Force are the concerns, at New Mexico and at Nevada shouldn’t be a huge problem, and in the end, Fresno State will get to the Mountain West title game.

Set The Fresno State Win Total At … 8

Likely Wins: New Mexico State, Sacramento State,

50/50 Games: at Air Force, Colorado State, Hawaii, at Nevada, at New Mexico, San Jose State, at UCLA, at UNLV, Washington State

Likely Losses: at Michigan

2024 Fresno State Football Schedule

Aug 31 at Michigan
Sept 7 Sacramento State
Sept 14 New Mexico State
Sept 21 at New Mexico
Sept 28 at UNLV
Oct 5 OPEN DATE
Oct 12 Washington State
Oct 19 at Nevada
Oct 26 San Jose State
Nov 2 Hawaii
Nov 9 at Air Force
Nov 16 OPEN DATE
Nov 23 Colorado State
Nov 30 at UCLA

Missing: Boise State, San Diego State, Utah State, Wyoming, (Oregon State)