The Fresno Bee's Matt James stopped by and gave a great interview on this Bulldog football team and a few thoughts on the College World Series and the Bulldogs' run to the National Championship.
Todd Kaufmann: Take me back to the National Championship game in Omaha between Fresno State and Georgia, for Fresno State fans that are no longer in Fresno, talk about the kind of buzz and anticipation there was all around the city. What was that like?
Matt James: I was in Omaha for the entire College World Series, 15 days I believe, so I really didn’t get to experience the height of the buzz. The beat reporter and I were even delayed in an airport (I think it was Denver, but I spend a lot of time in airports, so it’s hard to say) while the parade and the celebration was going on back in Fresno. The team apparently didn’t have to ride coach home. I know the excitement was pretty fierce, though. People who’d never been within a three-wood of Beiden Field (Fresno State’s home stadium) were emailing me every day. People who couldn’t have named two infielders and a pitcher a month earlier were nearly code blue on every pitch. Our stories from Omaha would be seven or eight of the top 10 most-read stores at Fresnobee.com every day. I was getting texts from friends all over the country. A couple of my old buddies from Wisconsin considered driving down for the final series then decided maybe getting fired wasn’t worth road tripping to see a team they’d never spent on 2 seconds thinking about in their entire lives. It was wild.
People tell me Fresno bars and restaurants were packed for every game. We also heard that after they won the title, so many people were celebrating on Shaw Avenue that police had to put up barricades and close it down. That turned out not to be true, but the fact that it was even believable – that they’d shut down a major four-lane street with a median – said something. College baseball is obviously a second-tier sport when it comes to attention and money, but the College World Series does mean something. This wasn’t rowing or a wrestling or softball. This was leading off “SportsCenter.” At the time, this was the story in American sports.
Todd Kaufmann: I think Pat Hill's "Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime" mantra that he brought to Fresno State has really allowed the Bulldogs and Fresno State as a university to be put back on the map. Do you agree or do you think fans have tired of it?
Matt James: I think it’s helped. Fresno State football is a product and Coach Hill is marketing the product. He’s given the program a label. How many college football programs have mantras that people across the country actually know? Now a lot of BCS programs don’t need labels, they have many more decades of tradition than the Bulldogs. But there are also a lot of BCS programs that wish they could get on national TV as often as Fresno State does. That’s been the idea, and it’s worked well. It’s a pretty simple formula: Play big-time opponents. Get on TV. Recruit good athletes by saying, “Hey, we play big games on TV.” The good athletes keep you competitive, which keeps you on TV. It’s a cycle that’s worked pretty well. I think people get tired of Hill sometimes because he can be such a glass half-empty kind of personality. There’s always something to complain about. I like Hill a lot, but he can absolutely wear you down with his whoa-is-me, nobody-appreciates-what-we’re-doing-here talk. At first I thought it was insecurity, needing to be reassured a lot, but I think he just thrives on having obstacles to overcome, being the underdog. Maybe that’s why he works so well at a mid-major school. Sometimes, though, I think he just invents things to overcome. His practice field grass isn’t as green as USC’s. Fresno State only has two different warm-up jerseys instead of three. I’m exaggerating, but only slightly. As for the mantra, though, I never hear anyone say they’re tired of it. Being tough will always be cool. I just wish the Fresno State coaching staff wouldn’t go quite so far with it, like repeatedly kicking to Terrence Austin, UCLA’s best returner, last weekend, just to prove they weren’t scared. OK, you’re tough. We get it. But the guy set the school record in return yardage and almost beat you by himself. Not sure it was worth it.
Todd Kaufmann: Talk about Ryan Mathews, how good of a running back is he and has he really gone unnoticed nationally?
Matt James: I really think Ryan Mathews will break every rushing record there is at Fresno State, besides maybe the single-game record that Dwayne Wright set against Louisiana Tech a couple years ago. Mathews legs and hips are just so strong. I’m not a scientist and definitely don’t stay at many Holiday Inn Expresses, but to me, it looks like he doesn’t slow down as much as other backs when he makes cuts. He can run exceptionally fast for short bursts with his body at odd angles, if that makes sense. And no one brings him down at the point of attack any more. He always takes two or three extra steps forward, no matter who is on his back. He was already a pretty amazing back, but he got a lot stronger in the offseason, part which is just being 19 instead of 18. You just don’t see many guys come out and perform the way he did as a true freshman at running back. At least not at a BCS level. It’s such a pounding on the body, and you could see that last year when he got hurt a few times. Lonyae Miller is a good college back, but you can see exactly how much difference there is in the talent level. If the hole opens up in front of him, Miller definitely has the burst to get through and make a big play, but if it isn’t there, he runs into a lot of his own linemen’s backs. Mathews’ mind and body is making that instantaneous analysis and decision and he’s almost always finding the hole, and not having to stall around forever to do it. He’s cutting to the anticipation of a hole that he sees developing. As he did on a play toward the end of the UCLA game, he’s cutting one way, to move the linebackers so he can cut to the opening they’re going to leave. And the play I’m thinking of, the grass gave out from under him and he slipped during the second cut. It’s as if physics and the earth wouldn’t allow what his body is capable of. I realize I’m gushing on a man-crush level right now, but he’s the 17th-leading rusher in the country and sharing carries with two other backs. He’s on pace to rush for 1,500 yards if Fresno State makes a bowl, and I really think with the WAC schedule ahead, it will be a couple hundred more than that. And he’s Barry Sanders, quiet, humble, hands the ball to the refs. How can you not like a guy like that?
As for national attention, I actually saw a preseason list on one of the ESPN shows that named the best non-BCS football players and he wasn’t even mentioned. That kind of blew me away, but it just goes to show you how tough it is to get noticed at a mid-major. Even David Carr wasn’t really being talked about nationally until he had that absurd senior year. It’s a bit of a no-win because you have to put up massive numbers to get noticed at a mid-major, but the more gaudy the statistics, the more I think people assume you’re playing inferior competition. Mathews was out for a few games last year, didn’t play the bowl game and didn’t quite make 1,000 yards, so you can see how he’d have slipped by relatively unnoticed. When agents are begging him to come out early for the draft, it probably won’t matter how under-recognized he was early in his sophomore season. Believe me, he’s OK with as little media attention as possible.
Todd Kaufmann: After holding Wisconsin to just 13 points, 3 of which came in the 2nd half, the defense has really struggled giving up 85 points over the last 2 games. Where is the major weakness in the Bulldog defense?
Matt James: Partly, we’ve realized a lot about Fresno State’s first opponent, Rutgers, now that the Scarlet Knights are losing to service academy schools and their quarterback is taking swings at teammates on national TV. And if you’ll remember, Rutgers actually put up quite a few yards on Fresno State, but the Bulldogs held at the goal line a couple times. Wisconsin just isn’t the kind of offense that’s going to put up a lot of points, as good as its running back is. The passing game just isn’t consistent enough to be a threat. The other part is losing both defensive tackles, Jon Monga and Cornell Banks. Monga is still out. Banks came back against UCLA. It’s hard to stick redshirt freshmen in at defensive tackle and expect them not to give up some yards. That’s the main weakness, along with some linebackers who are young and new to the position and still learning. They’re really biting on play-action passes. Overall, it’s just a young defense that should get better.
Todd Kaufmann: Looking at Fresno State's schedule the rest of the way, where do you see them finishing the season and could they possibly go into the season finale with Boise State with just 1 loss?
Matt James: I really think Fresno State will be 10-1 going into Boise State, and have a backdoor shot at a BCS game. Some people will roll their eyes at that because Hill and the ’Dogs have never gone through a WAC season without at least two losses, which is a stat that’s hard to believe. They always lose a game or two they shouldn’t. San Jose State is decent, New Mexico State can put up points, Nevada is good, the Utah State game is up at a high altitude. OK, I’m reaching there, but it’s not going to be easy. WAC teams get up for Fresno State the way the Bulldogs get up for BCS teams. There’s definite animosity there because the program so openly aspires to more than conference goals.
And if they do go to Boise State 11-1, the Bulldogs will still be a 14-point underdog. Boise State hasn’t lost at home since a 2005 bowl game against Boston College. Before that, it was probably some time during the Millard Fillmore administration. Does that team ever have an off-year? Seriously, it’s insane. Someone just told me that the Broncos have the best record of any team in Division I the last decade and I haven’t even bothered to check it. There’s no doubt. And the crazy part is it wasn’t even a D-I program until the mid-90s. I don’t know how they do it. Oh yeah, with all those really talented players they get from California.
You know what it is? It’s downtown Boise. Boise has a cool, clean downtown with fun nightlife and Fresno’s downtown looks like something out of a futuristic action movie where alien robots have taken over the earth and humans scamper between boarded-up buildings at dusk. But I’ve been known to exaggerate. Really, it’s probably easy to recruit to an offense that creative. That’s the Boise State label, its mantra, so to speak, and after that Fiesta Bowl, they probably don’t need to advertise.
Todd Kaufmann: You hear a lot of national sports writers talking about how these big time conferences don't want to schedule teams like Fresno State or Boise State. Do you know what schools they've talked to and been turned down?
Matt James: Hill would love to get a series going with a Pac-10 school in California; UCLA or USC or Cal or even Stanford. He’s told me he calls USC and UCLA about future dates and they aren’t interested. You’d think he’d be able to get something going with Cal because Jeff Tedford and he have so much history, but there just isn’t the interest there. Now that the NCAA is allowing an extra game against a I-AA team (I’m still refusing to call I-AA teams whatever the NCAA is calling them now), then why would you want to play another tough opponent beyond your conference games? Especially against a team like Fresno State that’s going to come in with a bunch of tough-as-tires farm boys and hammer the ball at you for three straight hours. It’s just a brutal style to play and if you’re UCLA right now, you’ll spend two weeks getting your team healthy again.
Fresno State has changed its philosophy slightly now that Thomas Boeh is the athletic director. The Bulldogs could get plenty of games when they would just go anywhere for a one-time cash game, which is how they ended up at Ohio State, Tennessee, Oklahoma and LSU. But now they want return home games so they can sell tickets, too. Usually that’s a two-for-one deal, and the other school ends up buying out of the trip to Fresno. I believe that’s what Texas Tech did. Kansas State bought out of a game with the Bulldogs in Manhattan, Kan., this season, which still blows me away. Coaches are trying to save their jobs and losing to a WAC school doesn’t help. I think people were genuinely surprised Wisconsin actually played the game in Fresno this year, although if you’ll remember, there was a huge cash offer to move the game to Lambeau Field. And it took Fresno State turning it down to make that game happen.
To a small extent I think the Fresno State coaching staff exaggerates the everyone-is-chicken-but-us thing, but the evidence is there. For once, though, I’d like to hear an opposing coach admit it. That will be my goal for the rest of this season.
Todd Kaufmann: Tom Brandstater, being his final year as a Bulldog, who do you see being behind center when the team opens their 2009 season or do you expect there to be a heck of a battle between a couple of guys for that spot?
Matt James: I really think Ebahn Feathers will be the starting quarterback as a redshirt freshman. No one has said that, probably no one knows yet, but he’s too much of a talent not to get out there. As Hill told me during one practice, “He could win us a lot of games, and he could also lose us a lot of games.” He means right now, as a raw, inexperienced freshman. I could be mis-reading this, but clearly he’s already thinking about what Feathers is capable of, and what he needs to work on. Put it this way, Hill and I have never had a conversation about back-ups Ryan Colburn or Matt Faulkner, who are supposedly No. 2 and No. 3 on the depth chart. Their arms just aren’t as strong Brandstater and Feathers.
This is new territory for Hill, bringing in a quarterback who can run as well, if not better, than he can throw. You don’t change a philosophy unless it’s for a unique talent. And Feathers is here to be a quarterback. He’s not switching to any other position. He takes snaps every day. He goes on all the road trips. I don’t remember Colburn going on all the road trips during his redshirt season. Actually, he wasn’t even on the sideline for home games. That just makes me think Hill is trying to get Feathers ready for next year, let him experience the road, opponents’ fans, what it’s like to play in the Rose Bowl on national television. It’s all part of the process. If he can start to get comfortable, become more accurate on the kind of passes he never had to throw in high school, know the playbook front to back, he will be fun to watch. They’ll have to add an entire chapter to the playbook just to utilize his speed.
Todd Kaufmann: When Ryan Mathews first came on the scene as a Bulldog running back, did anyone know what he was going to be capable of and did you imagine he was going to put up the numbers he has in just his sophomore year at Fresno State?
Matt James: I never saw Mathews play in high school because he was at Bakersfield West, and I just don’t get to see Bakersfield teams unless it’s in the Valley championships. But we knew he was good. He was the Fresno Bee’s player of the year. His statistics were something out of a video game. And when I heard how much effort the Fresno State coaching staff put into making sure he was an academic qualifier, I knew he must be some kind of player. The staff is stretched too thin to put in that much effort toward one player, especially a guy who could bail on them at the last minute for one of the Pac-10 schools, but they did. And sure enough, that’s what happened. It didn’t look like he was going to have the grades, so everyone stopped recruiting but Fresno State. Then he had a good senior year, qualified, and Pete Carroll reappears from USC. Luckily, Carroll wanted him to be a safety and Mathews wasn’t interested. That’s not some project Carroll was going to try. If you have any doubt what kind of athlete Mathews is, he was an all-state defensive player as a junior. His senior year, they took him off defense so he wouldn’t get hurt. I think Mathews would be starting on the USC defense right now if had any interest in defense or hadn’t been true to his commitment to the Bulldogs.
As soon as I saw Mathews in his first game, I was telling people he would be the starter soon and might go for 1,200 yards as a true freshman. His quickness is startling to the eye. His body didn’t ultimately hold up the entire year, but it seemed pretty obvious, like predicting John Goodman will be good at lounging.
Todd Kaufmann: You look at Hawaii, no June Jones, no Colt Brennan, but they're still Hawaii even though they come in with a 1-3 record. Give me your keys to this game and how does Fresno State put Hawaii away early.
Matt James: First off, the Bulldogs need to play-action pass earlier. That’s my opinion, and I’m the first to admit I’m not some great football mind. I’m some dude who can occasionally put a coherent sentence together with proper punctuation. But it seems like they’ve been keeping it pretty simple until the second half. Partly, it’s that they’ve been dropping passes and making bad throws and not opening holes for running backs – that’s pretty much the Triple Crown of inept offense right there – but there has also been a lot of running up the middle on first and second down and throwing on third-and-7 to a double-teamed Bear Pascoe.
Then in the second half there’s suddenly an end-around and a reverse and a long play-action pass and a well-timed screen and you think, “Where was all that in the first quarter when I was looking for a frying pan to hit myself in the face?”
Hawaii is a rival, but it really shouldn’t be much of a game. The Warriors just don’t have the skill players they’ve had the last few years. I really think Fresno State could blitz even more than they do, utilize the speed of those young linebackers and force some turnovers early. That would certainly help in putting the game away early.
Todd Kaufmann: I know you're a journalist, I know you have to be impartial for the most part, but how big of a fan were you a few months ago during Fresno State's run through the College World Series?
Matt James: You know, it’s weird. This job changes you. I’m not the sports fan I was growing up, not the nutty fanatic. Even the passion for my teams – the Royals, the Cubs, the University of Kansas – has faded a little bit. It’s not a sport anymore, it’s an event that I am being paid to describe. Like an election speech or a school board meeting. I was at a Cubs-Cardinals game at Wrigley Field this year on vacation, and it took me a while to be comfortable clapping. I rarely go to a sporting event as a fan. I kept looking around to see if anyone was watching, which makes no sense.
It’s silly, when you think about it, to care so much about football, to spend so much money watching men push each other around a grass field. I’d like to think I’m just growing as I get older, adding other interests, going to the library and the symphony a little more, but it’s also getting to see behind the curtain. You have to watch Cole Popovich tear yet another tendon or ligament and start another comeback rehabilitation, not knowing how well he’ll walk as a 40-year-old man. You get to see lurking agents in the parking lots after games and drunk men screaming expletives at 19-year-old college students. Remember that scene in “Good Will Hunting,” where the guys go to that youth baseball game and cheer like crazy? I do that once in a while, just stop at some random kids’ game and enjoy the purity of it all. (Except the air. There’s nothing pure about Fresno air.)
All that said, I still love sports, the history, what it’s meant to societal change through the years. I love that Jackie Robinson’s number is untouchable. On Wednesday, I broke multiple traffic laws trying to get home to watch the start of the baseball playoffs. And then I pulled into the garage and just sat there in my car listening to Vin Scully describe the first pitch of the Cubs vs. the Dodgers, knowing it had been 100 years since my team won the World Series. Don’t tell me it gets better than that.
I want Fresno State to win. You could say I’m a Bulldogs fan. I have Fresno State sweatshirts and t-shirts that I wear around the house and 40 years from now, I’m sure I’ll still be rooting for them. I still cheer for teams I’ve covered in the past, Alabama football and the Green Bay Packers. It’s almost impossible to spend so much time around a team, to get to know the players on a personal level, and not root for them. That Fresno State College World Series team will always be one of my favorites. I was a little kid the entire time.
Final note, this is probably one of the most enjoyable interviews to go back and read, not only because of Matt's answers, but his genuine love for what he does as well as the sports he covers. Big thanks to Matt James of the Fresno Bee for taking the time to put that together and I'd love to have him back again during the season.
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