The late, great, F1 champion Niki Lauda once said that the goal of racing is to win going as slowly as possible. Fresno State apparently adopted that ethos against New Mexico this week, as they finished a 2 week sweep of the state 38-21 and shutting out NMSU 48-0. I believe that legally makes Mikey Keene governor, but I’ll have to check the state bylaws.
All 3 wins for the Bulldogs this year have featured incredibly fast starts, even though this game took all the way until the 2nd drive to get points on the board. New Mexico’s first drive was derailed on their 3rd play as Malachi Langley forced the ball free, and Jahzon Jacks fell on the ball at the Lobo 39yd line. Fresno would push it into the redzone before Mikey Keene found Josiah Freeman for a 5yd touchdown catch, his first of the season. As they did two weeks ago, the Dogs ran a trick 2pt play with Jayden Mandal threw a quick pass to Brock Lium to go ahead 8-0.
New Mexico responded with a 14 play drive down the field, but the Bulldog defense stood tall at the end, and forced the Lobos to settle for a field goal to narrow affairs to an 8-3 margin. In response, Fresno ran down an 11 play drive before local product Bryson Donelson punched in the first touchdown of his young career stretching the lead to 15-3. Malik Sherrod wasn’t able to play after testing a lower body tweak during warm-ups, which meant that Elijiah Gilliam and Donelson would shoulder the load for the Dogs Saturday night. The two would combine for 86 yards on 26 carries, but the Dogs did not need to rely on the running game too much…