Fresno State Athletics
Bowl Bound Dogs Prepare for Pokes
12/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 14, 2009
2009 New Mexico Bowl
Fresno State (8-4, 6-2 WAC) vs Wyoming (6-6, 4-4 Mountain West)
Kickoff: 2:31 p.m. MT
Site: University Stadium (39,224); Albuquerque, N.M.
Radio: KMJ (AM 580); Bulldog Live (Noon) Countdown to Kickoff (1:30 p.m.)
Play-by-Play: Paul Loeffler; Analyst: Jordan Christensen; Sideline: Ralph Wood
ESPN Deportes (1600 AM) in Spanish
Play-by-Play: Erwin Higueros; Analysts: Raul Rios and Jesse Beltran
Television: ESPN
Play-by-Play: Terry Gannon; Analyst: David Norrie
Dogs Earn 22nd Bowl Appearance, Play in New Mexico Bowl
The Bulldogs enter the New Mexico Bowl with a two-game winning streak and have won seven of their last eight games ... Fresno State is making its ninth bowl appearance this decade and 10th in the last 11 seasons under head coach Pat Hill. The Dogs have won four of their last six bowl games ... The Dogs are 11-10 in their bowl games while the Pokes are 5-6 in 11 bowl appearances ... this marks the second straight year Fresno State has opened the college bowl season by playing in the New Mexico Bowl. It's also the third straight year the Dogs have played in Mountain Time Zone bowl game. This is the earliest Fresno State has played in a bowl game since Dec. 18, 1999, the Las Vegas Bowl against Utah ... The Bulldogs own an all-time record of 12-5 in the state, winning in Las Cruces earlier this season ... this marks the third time in school history the Dogs are making a return visit to the same bowl game. They played in four California Bowl games at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno and the first four Silicon Valley Football Classic games (2000- 03) ... this is the seventh meeting between Wyoming and Fresno State and the series is tied 3-3. The teams traded home wins as fellow WAC members (1992-97). The Bulldogs won the last meeting, 24-7, in 1997 at Bulldog Stadium ... Wyoming is making its first bowl appearance since 2004 ... there are eight California natives on the Wyoming roster ... head coach Pat Hill is coming off his 100th career victory and has agreed to a contract extension at the school. The details of the agreement will be released after the first of the year ... sophomore defensive end Kenny Borg suffered a knee injury against Illinois and will miss the game. Borg started all 12 regular season games ... Fresno State is making its 68th national television appearance this decade.
Mathews Dominates NCAA in Rushing, Record Books Assault On
Bulldog running back Ryan Mathews continues to prove he's the nation's most exciting and explosive running back. For 10 straight weeks he's led the nation in rushing at 151.3 yards per game. He leads No. 2 Toby Gerhart of Stanford (144.7) by nearly 7 yards per game and nearly 1.2 more yards per carry. He has two of the NCAA's top 15 rushing performances this season. He's powering a Fresno State ground game that ranks seventh in the NCAA in rushing yards. He moved into second place on the Bulldog career rushing yardage list (see page three for updated list) and is the single-season rushing record holder with 1,664 yards. The most impressive part is that he's done it against good competition. His career-high 234 rushing yards against No. 5 Boise State was amazing considering he alone has accounted for 16% of the entire rushing yards the Broncos have allowed this season (1,507) through 12 games. He set a school-record streak of consecutive 100-yard games with nine. He's put up these numbers despite not many fourth quarter carries. In his last seven games combined, he's only had 29 carries in the final quarter, and didn't play in the fourth in either the Hawaii, New Mexico State or Nevada games. He had two carries in the fourth against San Jose State. He's the only back in the nation with 100-yard rushing performances against No. 4 Cincinnati, No. 6 Boise State and No. 14 Wisconsin. He's combined for 484 yards against those three teams, and averaged 6.4 yards per carry.
Harris a Campbell Award Finalist
Senior safety Moses Harris was one of 16 finalists for the National Football Foundation's William V. Campbell Award, also known as the "Academic Heisman". As a finalist, Harris has been awarded an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship which will allow him to finish his MBA in the Craig School of Business. Harris was honored at the NFF Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet in New York City on Dec. 8 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Florida quarterback Tim Tebow won the award.
Season To Date..
- Fresno State had two players named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America teams, junior guard Andrew Jackson was a first-team selection and senior punter Robert Malone was second team. Jackson, one of five juniors to make the squad, is the first Bulldog ever to be named first team Academic All-America and the first from the Western Athletic Conference since the 2002 season. Penn State was the only school in the nation with more Academic All-Americans than Fresno State.
- Moses Harris was selected as a finalist for the 2009 National Football Foundation Campbell Award, also known as the Academic Heisman Trophy. As a finalist, Moses has been awarded an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. Moses is the second Bulldog to win such a prestigious honor, joining 2001 winner Vernon Fox. Fresno State has produced more NFF Scholar-Athlete Award winners this decade than the four California Pac-10 schools (Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC) have combined.
- Three seniors, Seyi Ajirotutu, Robert Malone and Lonyae Miller, have been selected to play in the 2010 East- West Shrine Game in Orlando, Fla. The game will be played Jan. 23 and televised live on ESPN2.
- In all 10 Bulldogs were named to the All-WAC first or second team honors, of those seven are underclassmen. Earning first team honors were: RB Ryan Mathews, RG Andrew Jackson, P Robert Malone, K Kevin Goessling, DE Chris Carter and LB Ben Jacobs. Those on the second team were: WR Seyi Ajirotutu, RT Kenny Wiggins, FS Lorne Bell, and SS Moses Harris. Malone, Ajirotutu and Harris are the only senior Bulldogs in the group.
- Ryan Mathews enters the bowl season leading the NCAA
"We are Your Team!" The Fresno State football team will play Mountain West foe Wyoming in the fourth Annual New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 19 at 1:30 p.m. PT in Albuquerque. The game will be televised on ESPN and tickets are available by clicking the ticket icon at the top of this page.
