ESPN Preseason rankings

It would be great for them to stay that way. Its too hard to move up in the rankings for Mid-majors as it is. Unless we start high and play our butts off, we'd never get anywhere.

With Boise and Hawaii's player losses, I think we should be ranked ahead of them in national polls. This season shapes up to be one of the best yet. I was thrilled at Tommy B's improvements this year, and if it continues into next...looks real good.

I would suspect Fresno to be the front runner to win the WAC if you can get by Bosie.

Should be interesting.

Good luck against Wisconsin.

I Can't wait,should be a great season . Boise shouldn't be a real problem this year. The Badgers will easily be the toughest and to get out even close will help for the rankings. Starting in the top 25 matters so much.

All Hail, Pat Hill

First off let me simply point out a few glareing lies in your statement.  First off SDSU is not a respectable program.  Also you make the point o stateing that BYU was 6-7 years removed from their National title.  Your first game vs BYU after they won their NT was 8 years later nearly a decade later, and during that time span you played BYU a total of 5 times and won 2 of those meeting and lost 3.  That hardly makes as you put it, "beat respectible programs like BYU with regularity", having a losing record in that time span is hardly winning with regularity.  Also lets see how you matched up vs some of the other teams you claimed to beat with regularity.

SDSU-4-4 since 92 with your previous meeting being 1979.

Utah-4-5 total

CSU-4-6

Wyoming-3-3

AFA-2-4

So does regualrity mean that you don't have one winning record vs any of the formentioned teams?  Out od all 6 teams you mentioned that you beat regulary only 2 have a .50 record vs Fresno the rest have winning records vs Fresno.  the reasons why Fresno was left out was simple your school was one Huge NCAA violation after another at that time.  Heck you school is just barley getting over those earlier embarassments.  No team in the MWC or any conference but the pathetic WAC would touch Fresno with a 10 foot poll.

By the way Fresno doesn't even having a winning record vs BCS teams.  wnat to know who does?  Utah and TCU.

You were brought in to provide competition, to improve the quality of the WAC.  Why on earth would any conference wish to bring in a doormat?  That'd be crazy.

Here's the thing.  If your team is as good as you think it is and has been, and the WAC as decimated as it was by the creation of the MWC, why in sixteen years have you failed to capture a single outright conference title?  You have three shared titles, one of which came the year after the MWC teams left when there were no good teams left in the WAC.  I haven't actually looked at every season, but in each of your three shared title seasons you had two conference losses.  16 years of playing in a conference that at times has been downright poor, and you've never finished with fewer than two conference losses.  That's where your focus needs to be.  Abandon the "any team, any time, anywhere,"  philosophy, which hasn't worked as well as you think it has, and start focusing on claiming an outright conference championship.  My bet is your team would finally move past the almost ran status you've been stuck in for 16 years.

I believe that you CAN get better by playing top competition, but not necessarilly that you are guaranteed to improve.  You have grown a reputation for beating teams you shouldn't have, but that only serves to obscure the fact that your overall record against the BCS teams isn't really anything to brag about. 

I think the goal should be to finally capture that allusive WAC title, not simply to see if you can shock Wisconsin this year.  Yes, you take one game at a time, and when Wisconsin is up you focus on beating them.  But the overall focus should be on defeating your conference mates year in and year out, and let the OOC games fall where they may.  Because the reality is that 16 years of "anyone, anytime, anywhere" has yielded very little reward.

Don't get me wrong, we are always playing for a WAC title, but this year we are setting our goals MUCH, MUCH higher.  FSU can win these big games, don't you agree?  ESPN thinks so. 

Pat Hill is looking for good teams to play.  period.  He has brought games to Fresno, something to get excited about at least.  I agree with cjnuxoll in that the man from Turlock,  Brandstater should turn the ball upfield more and actually complete the difficult pass, but this year will squarely rest on his shoulders to win the big games.  Wissy is big and the running game shouldn't bee the whole offense.  I think a low turnover ratio and Brandstater actually playing outside himself and showing the town something special is definitely needed to take home a WAC championship and our non-conf games.  He must have a great start very early, because of Pat Hill's schedule this year, and I think our top 25 team can beat anyone no matter how big a underdog we are. 

All I got to say is watch out for Fresno State the next few years!  People ARE backing out because Fresno IS scary.  Hopefully this season and the few after that, our ranking WILL make us somebody TO play.  This is a case of ESPN actually helping us, rare as it seems, and it is our job to hold it up.  Pat Hill's schedule is top 25 and Brandstater is top 25.  Ebon Feathers is top 25.  I honestly haven't known any other school with as many other schools backing out as I have seen with Fresno State.  I think the image has changed or is changing into a respectable program. 

The answer:  ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PLAY US AND SEE WHAT THE TALK IS ABOUT!

I will agree in a sense that there are alot of teams "backing out" of playing you guys, although I would use avoiding as a more applicable term.  The truth of the matter is that I'm not going to go as far as to say teams are scared, but I would say hesitant (hopefully I get this message across correctly, either I undercut Fresno and get hate responses from Bulldogs, or I overinflate this and have big conference fans all over me...don't want that to happen again). 

The fact is that Fresno State is an under appreciated team by the media, being in a smaller conference and from the West doesn't help in regards to the media, which in essence creates much pull in the poll rankings.  Being under appreciated means that a team beating Fresno State usually doesn't get the "weight" that it should and because they are in the WAC there is a stigma attached to losing to them, although they may have a solid team.  The cost/benefit is just too skewed for upper mid/top level programs to want to play in a home/away series with Fresno.  Pat does understand this though and plays it well, by saying "we will play anybody", which I am not saying is a false statement by any stretch of the imagination, creates a higher respect for the team while he is very aware that he will not have to own up to that statement against many teams.

I'm just happy that ESPN finally gave the bulldogs some exposure in the beginning of the season, rather than making them work all season to crack the top 25.