GOTTA HAVE IT

The Fresno State football team is in a must-win situation tonight at Hawaii.

By George Takata
VSP Senior Writer:

Sometimes life is super simple. For the Fresno State football team, it doesn’t get more simple than this.

If the Bulldogs (1-3, 0-1 WAC) want to have a shot at a conference championship, provided that Boise State stumbles along the way, they have to beat Hawaii (2-2, 0-1 WAC) tonight in Honolulu. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. from Aloha Stadium.

“It’s a must-win, definitely,” said Bulldogs wide receiver Marlon Moore. “Every game is a must-win but we really need this one.”

This will be Fresno State’s fourth consecutive game playing in a different time zone. Games at Wisconsin (central time zone), Fresno (pacific), Cincinnati (eastern), and now Hawaii are a huge chunk of the most mileage logged by any college football team this year. An 0-2 hole in the WAC would be devastating, especially for a team that has hung in there against top ten competition.

“Both teams are coming off tough losses,” Bulldogs head coach Pat Hill said. We’ll see a much different Hawaii team Saturday. We’re going to get their best shot. It’s going to be a tough football game.”

Hawaii lost at Louisiana Tech 27-6 last week. Fresno State is coming off of a bitter 28-20 loss at Cincinnati two weeks ago and haven’t defeated Hawaii since 2005, a 27-13 win on the island.

Fresno State is licking their chops at the thought of running the ball. Hawaii surrendered 352 rushing yards to Louisiana Tech last week, and the Bulldogs boast the nation’s number two running back in Ryan Mathews, who averages 148 yards a game. Fresno State averages 275 yards rushing a game, third best in the nation.

Another sidebar to this matchup is at quarterback, where former Fresno City College signal caller Bryant Moniz takes over as the starter for the Warriors after Greg Alexander was lost last week to a season ending knee injury. As fate would have it, Moniz will make his first career division one start against Fresno State. Moniz was the Rams’ quarterback in 2007. He threw for 2,268 yards and 18 touchdowns for Fresno City.

“It’s exciting,” said Moniz, a Hawaii native (O’ahu). “I was just ten minutes away from their school, now I’m an ocean and miles away. I’m looking forward to it.”

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