Welcome to another season of Behind Enemy Lines! In this series, we get an inside look at the Michigan football team's upcoming opponent from a reporter who covers that…
Alejandro Zuniga
Welcome to another season of Behind Enemy Lines! In this series, we get an inside look at the Michigan football team's upcoming opponent from a reporter who covers that program.
In this week's episode, Jackson Moore ofBarkBoard, the 247Sports site that isa great source for all things Fresno State, gives us the latest on the Mountain West team as it hopes to pull off a Big Ten upset for the second year in a row. The conversation begins with a big-picture look at the Bulldogs, which lost head coach Jeff Tedford to a health-related resignation in July, before diving into the specific offensive and defensive keys to Saturday night's game at the Big House.
Listen to Behind Enemy Lines in the embedded player below or wherever you get your podcasts.Keep reading for an abridged transcript.
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Michigan vs. Fresno State preview: Behind Enemy Lines
Alejandro Zúñiga: Take us through what this off season has been like and big picture what the expectations are for a program that A) is undergoing coaching turnover, but B) has the backbone, the foundation to maybe make some more national noisewith an expanded CFP.
Jackson Moore:It's been an unusual off season for sure with the whole Jeff Tedford situation. It's also strange because he's done this once already — after the 2019 season.
For the bowl game, he was unavailable. And so it's kind of been a roller coaster for Fresno State fans a little bit.When he's been healthy, the teams have been fantastic. He came in 2017 and inherited a one-win team and went 10-4, then 12-2 witha conference championship. Came back for a second stint, had another conference championship year in 2022. Nine wins last year wasn't too bad. The team was 8-1 and ranked until he got what appeared to be physically ill probably the last few games before he stepped away. So it seems like the team has kind of ridden with his health.
This off season it looked like he was going to be able to go. He went through the whole spring, looked okay and July 15 or so — two weeks before camp — boom, he says he's going to step away. So it's a weird combination of abrupt, unexpected news, but also we've been here before. The team was just through this exact same situation in the bowl game.
Tim Skipper also filled in for Coach Tedford for the bowl and the Bulldogs had a fantastic bowl appearance. Everyone kind of thought the team had just taken a nosedive and were going to limp out of the season with another loss against a pretty good New Mexico State team who had just beaten Auburn a few weeks before, and Skipper and Co.just totally throttled that New Mexico State team in the bowl game.
It's kind of funny going into that bowl game a lot of fans are thinking: 'What in the world is this program going to do if Tedford doesn't come back from this leave?' And after the bowl game everyone's kind of assumed, 'Hey Skipper's the guy!'
Skipper played for Pat Hill, he was an all-conference linebacker. He's got a lot of that same kind of Pat Hill mantra — the anybody, anywhere kind of stuff. A little bit of Tedford who was a little more finesse and analytical and technical. So it's kind of a meeting of two worlds here since he's been with both of those two legendary Fresno State coaches.
I think when it comes to this game specifically, it's got that Pat Hill 'anybody, anywhere, anytime' feel for Fresno State because the Bulldogs signed a lot of deals with USC and UCLA where they would just go and play those teams on the road every couple years. The Purdue game last year was a big win. The first year Tedford showed up in 2017 the team went to Alabama and Washington and no one expected anything out of those games. So it just feels like that Pat Hill run right now where they were going to LSU and Tennessee and Oklahoma— every year there was a big one. And this feels like the first time where there's another one of those.
Maybe the Bulldogs have an outside shot of pulling something off. I think there's going to be4-5,000 Fresno State fans that make this trip which is a big deal for a Mountain West school out here in California. I think everyone's got their fingers crossed that they're going to surprise some people in Michigan.
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Fresno State offensive preview vs. Michigan
AZ:Let'sstartwith the offense, because it's going to provide a legitimate test for a defense that claims to be the best in the country and that was the best in the country a year ago. Led by a veteran quarterback a returning starter in Mikey Keene,formerly at UCF. He transferred a couple years ago. Last year as Fresno State's starting quarterback, he threw for about 3,000 yards passing, 24 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. Fresno State likes to spread the ball around a lot — he threw 35 pass attempts per game, he's mobile enough, not necessarily your run first threat but mobile enough to run some RPO stuff. And quite honestly after what Michigan faced last year where it just felt like Michigan never faced a returning starter at quarterback in Big Ten play, this is a returning starter and potentially the best or among the best quarterbacks in the Mountain West Conference who's back healthy after some injuries last year. What should we know about Mikey Keene?
JM: He's beenin some of these big stages before. He had an unexpected role at UCF before he got to Fresno State.He had to fill in multiple times as a starter there as a true freshman and then redshirt freshman or sophom*ore. He played two years, won their bowl game for him against Florida his first year, so he's been in those stages and then he comes to Fresno State and wins the starting job in a six-man competition last year.
I think probably the biggest thing about Keene in this offense right now is that last year at this time new quarterback, new running back, new receivers coming off a conference championship. It just felt like a clean slate. That offense really exceeded all expectations last year and now pretty much everyone's back for year two. That's I think the biggest thing is seeing if there's a jump from Keene,a jump from his weapons around him.
Keene specifically: Not a huge arm, not the fastest guy but just kind of scrappy, kind of poised. He can make some tough throws. Not slow but not necessarily all that mobile either. Probably the biggest deal with this Michigan game is that theO-line in front of him is not very good and Michigan's D-line is about as good as it gets.
This is not unfamiliar territory for Keene to be running around. In fact, I was stunned in his first start last year against Purdue he made all these amazing throws with defenders coming right at him and hittinghim it seemed like every play. The difference was in November, seemed like he was about tired of that. He was getting out of the pocket and throwing things away when on those same type of situations he was making highlights at Purdue. So I am curious to see how long he is going to stay in the pocket. He took a couple of rough shots in the back half of last season. I could see a couple of Michigan athletes being able to — he's not the biggest guy at quarterback, I could see a big hit in this game being a problem as well.
Baseline, he was the Mountain West preseason quarterback of the year. He's one of the best Group of Five quarterbacks, but not perfect by any means and has some vulnerabilities especially in a matchup like this one.
AZ:You mentioned offensive line concerns, and I know there are some injury question marks there. At the same time, Mose Vavao, who is moving to center, was elite last year.What's the latest?
JM:Mose Vavaois one of the few guarantees you feel like in the line. He even started during the 2020 year and now he's back for his fifth season as a starter. He's been a mainstay andone of the better linemen. You had him and you had Jacob Spomer at left tackle. Spomer got injured November last year. He gets hurt, Mikey Keene gets hurt and8-1 turns into8-4 real fast.
Spomer has not healed all the way. I think it's a a real long shot that he's going to be available in this game. I'm not expecting to see him, and the drop off at that left tackle position is pretty far. That's what the reality looks like for Fresno State going not only for this game but the season in general. Last year the O-line was kind of a weak point even when healthy and more so after Spomer's injury.
You've got returning starters back at right tackle and left guard who were decent—not standout players, but not big liabilities either. And there is another hole at right guard where Vavaois no longer playing since he moved to center. Looks like they're going to have Campbell McHarg there who was a walk-on addition. He transferred from Oregon State; he was a walk-on there two years ago.
Pat Hill was known back in the day for having bigO lines and sent a lot of guys to the NFL. It feels like Fresno State more recently has been successful on offense in spite its offensive line. This is another one of those teams most likely. Again a lot of weapons back on offense. Malik Sherrod is a very dynamic running back. They brought in a couple of FCS All-American receiver transfers to fill the gaps at slot and some guys back on the outside, so I expect them to scheme around the struggles on theO line especially in this game.
AZ:You mentionedMalik Sherrod, a 5-8 running back who was productive last year. Fresno State brings back its three lead backs, plus WR Jalen Mosswho caught 55 passes last year as a freshman, 700-plus yards and six touchdowns. WR Mac Dalena,they don't love using him as a slot guy even though he's a smaller, speedier type of player. Who among those skill guys should Michigan fans keep an eye on on Saturday night?
JM:I expect the Bulldogs have spread it around quite a bit. That's how they approached last year. They really loved using their slot receivers and those two guys have moved on. Erik Brooks was like a 5-7, 5-8 walk-on who just kept at it over six years and turned into a major weapon the last couple of seasons and he's in the CFL now. Jaelen Gill was an Ohio State guy, went to Boston Collegeand Fresno and he's with the Chargers right now. They used those two a lot.
Feels like they pretty much filled the gaps right away after spring ball by getting Chedon James out of Idaho State. He was a 1,000-yardguy, 100-catch guy, led the FCSin catches. And Raylen Sharpe from Missouri State, an FCS All-American. So I expect those to be two big components of the offense even though they're brand new names for the Bulldogs.
Jalen Moss, MacDalena as well on the outside. Moss is a pretty nice receiver. Feels like the kind of guy that comes through Fresno State every three or four years and ends up in the NFL.Dalenaprobably more of a scrappier guy, real fast but as you mentioned not big, but plays on the outside a lot. They do have a big guy Josiah Freeman as well—6-3, tall, rangy. They'll find a way to get that guy on the field too quite a bit. They usually have three receivers on the field. All five of those guys are going to play a lot.
Fresno State defensive preview vs. Michigan
AZ:Let's switch our attention now to the defense for Fresno State. Last year they ranked 58th in total defense — that's 34th nationally inpass defense, 97th in rush defense. They allowed 166 yards per game rushing. Reading up on PFF, they note that the Bulldogs said goodbye to their four most valuable defenders from last season according to their metrics.
But they've added a few big names, perhaps none bigger than former five-star — at one time I think the number one overall recruit in the 2021 class— in former USC edge Korey Foreman. He's a guy who only played 26 snaps last year over with the Trojans, hasn't made the impact you'd expect for a guy of his caliber.
This defense loses a lot loses — some six or so starters, including some of their top producers on the defensive side of the ball. Are there reasons for optimism on that side or what are you looking at there?
JM:Thiswas an offseason where normally Fresno State would go into the year and have quite a few question marks. But it feels like they not only have answered most of those questions but even have some depth behind those guys right now.
Cornerback for example Carlton Johnson was a lockdown guy for the Bulldogs; he's with the Seahawks now. They gotCam Lockridge, who was supposed to be the duo with him last year; he gets hurt, redshirts, comes back. Now hefillsright back in for Carlton Johnson's spot. So you feel really good. He was a multiple all-conference defensive back, came from Hawaii to Fresno State, so he's a real old guy at cornerback at this stage.
At linebacker LeVelle Bailey with the Denver Broncos just had a 94 yard pick-six over the weekend. He did a lot of that kind of stuff for Fresno State but now they've got another USC transfer Tuasivi Nomura in his spot. He was named a team captain so he's suddenly become the same face that Bailey was for this defense.
Nickelback is the one where you kind of throw your hands up in the air and don't really know if Fresno State's gonna have an answer for that one. Morice Norris went with the Detroit Lions and not a clear picture of what's going to happen there. But you look at cornerback: probably got about three guys who can play; safety, three or four who can play; a nice three man rotation at linebacker.
And then the D line. If Korey Foreman is the five-star guy that they're hoping for, he'll be an upgrade for the guy that he's replacing at end. It's kind of a coin flip. One practice apparently Jeff Tedford said he looked like Lawrence Taylor. He had two picks and three sacks in one day. I know there's other practices where I don't think he does a whole lot at all. So there's a big coin flip there.
And then they also lose one starting D tackle. That's a potential trouble spot. Kavika Baumgartner is a junior college guy, second year who looks like he's going to start. Was kind of a role player last year. Really that one D tackle spot and the one nickel spot are where you wonder if there could be a drop off. Everything else feels pretty decent.
The defense was special at the end of 2022, and I don't think they ever quite got that back in 2023. They were good but they weren't over the top great, so it'll be interesting to see where they fit in there this year. Their defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle was a NFL DC with the Miami Dolphins and has a lot of NFL experience. It just felt like he was schooling a lot of Mountain West opponents in 2022 and they were just kind of decent last year.
Alot of pieces back. It's year three in this system. It feels like they should be ready to roll in this one.
There's not an offensive line equivalent for Fresno State on defense where you just say they're going to get thrashed by Michigan. I think the D line is probably going to be undersized against Michigan's O line but not enough to where they're getting rolled over every play like the O line might be on the other side of the game.
Fresno State vs. Michigan: Keys to the game
AZ:If you ask the oddsmakers, the favorite is pretty clear. As of this recording the spread is 21.5 points — Michigan is favored on Saturday night kickoff at the Big House. What will you be watching for as you make the trip to Ann Arbor?
JM: Fromthe Fresno State perspective, it's can the O line give the Bulldogs a chance on offense and can the defense maybe scheme to stop the run enough to challenge Michigan through the air. I don't know Michigan like I know Fresno State, but it seems like if Alex Orji is at quarterback, maybe test him through the air. See if the him and those new receivers can be as effective as what I assume the running game can be. If they can do those two things I think they can make this game a bit interesting.
It's hard for me to see it get too far past 21 points. I think it would have to be a really bad day for Fresno State to get destroyed to that degree. I also think maybe 14 is a range where they make this game interesting but probably don't quite scare an upset. Of course, Fresno State's gonna hope they they get closer than that, but I think this game's going to be competitive. Coach Skipper, much like Pat Hill, they're going into this game they want to come out feeling respected and feel like the opposition knew they got everything they got from this program. If that means a 10 or 14 point loss that they can feel good about, I think Fresno State will leave the stadium fairly happy with that.
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Follow Jackson Moore onTwitterand readBarkBoardfor in-depth coverage of the Bulldogs.
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