Oregon State Football: A Closer Look At Fresno State

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With the Oregon State football team (1-0) set to face Fresno State (1-0) on Saturday evening, BeaversEdge takes a closer look at the Bulldogs...

MORE: WATCH: OSU Offense Talks Win Over Boise, Previews Fresno | WATCH: Jonathan Smith Press Conference | Recruit Reaction From OSU's Win | Snap Counts vs Boise State | Grades & Top Performers vs BSU

- The 2022 Bulldog football season began with a 35-7 win over Cal Poly at Valley Children's Stadium last Thursday. Fresno State powered for 549 yards of total offense in the win. The Bulldogs won their first game with Jeff Tedford back as head coach. Fresno State is starting the season 1-0 for the third time under Tedford. In his fourth season as the team's head coach, Tedford led the Bulldogs to a 1-0 start in each of his first two seasons (2017, 2018)

- A total of five Bulldogs earned their first career starts last week, joining a group of experienced players on both sides of the ball. Fresno State had 36,011 fans at its season opener against Cal Poly last Thursday. It was the highest attended season-opener in Fresno, coincidentally, since Tedford's first game as head coach in 2017 (Incarnate Word).

- Saturday's matchup is the first time a member of the Pac-12 comes to Fresno since hosting then- No. 21 Utah on Sept. 19, 2015. The Bulldogs face Pac-12 opponents in back-to-back weeks this year, first facing Oregon State on Saturday before traveling to USC for a Sept. 17 matchup. Six players on the current roster had previous stops at a Pac-12 school - three on both sides of the ball.

- The Fresno State football team was picked to win the West Division by the media, the Mountain West announced prior to the 2022 Mountain West Football Media Days at the Mandalay Bay of Las Vegas in July.

- Fresno State had five players earn preseason recognition by the conference this season. Quarterback Jake Haener was named the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, and All-MW quarterback. Haener is the first Bulldog to be named Mountain West Preseason Offensive Player of the Year since Derek Carr in 2013.

- Fresno State had a big outing by transfer wide receiver Nikko Remigio last week. The fifth-year senior finished the game with a team-high 168 all-purpose yards. Senior DB Evan Williams led the team in tackles last time out, finishing the Cal Poly game with eight tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. Since 2019, Williams has finished as the team's leading tackler in a game 12 times.

FRESNO ST STATS

Oregon State and Fresno State are meeting for the first time since 2003 (16-14 Fresno win in CA) with the Bulldogs leading the overall series 8-5. The Bulldogs are a perfect 6-0 against the Beavers in Fresno... Oregon State's last win in the series came in 2002 when the Beavers defeated the Bulldogs 59-19...

Jake Haener vs Oregon State's Defense: For the second straight week, I'm going with the opposing quarterback vs Oregon State's defense as the key matchup to watch in this contest. Trent Bray's defense passed the week one test against Hank Bachmeier exceptionally well as they never allowed him to gain any sort of rhythm before the Boise staff ultimately pulled him.

For the Beavers to succeed on the road against Fresno State, the defense must make Haener's life as tough as possible.

The 6-foot-1, 200-pounder is one of the more premier quarterbacks the Beavers will face as he's coming off a season where he was named second-team all-Mountain West after throwing for over 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns. He looked like he picked up right where he left off in Fresno's week one win over Cal Poly as he tallied 377 passing yards and two touchdowns...

If Oregon State's secondary can play as tight as they did against Boise and the pass rush makes Haener make faster decisions, I like OSU's chances to be in a very similar position to this last week...

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