Hi, Red Wave. Roz Ayala here, writing from a picnic table at Woodward Park with a bag of fresh peaches from a fruit stand, a red Bulldog hoodie and my reading glasses on top of my head where I will lose them in about four minutes. When people from out of state hear "the Valley," they think of tech or Hollywood. And I tell them, every time: not that Valley, babe. Ours grows the food.
The Bulldogs have an open date on Saturday, Oct. 24. No game, no tailgate, no Red Wave this week. So let's go back over a painful one in San Diego, and then let's look ahead to Halloween and Oregon State.
Part 1: San Diego State 26, Fresno State 23
On Oct. 17 at Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego State beat Fresno State 26-23 on Cooper DiLeva's 53-yard field goal with 57 seconds left. Per the AP, it was a career long for him. Of course it was. Of course it had to be the longest kick of his life.
It started rough. The Aztecs led 13-0 early in the second quarter after two DiLeva field goals and a 52-yard touchdown pass from Jayden Denegal to Jaylon Hawkins.
Then the Bulldogs came roaring back. Manaki Watanabe hit a 51-yard field goal, and Bryson Donelson ran in from the 4 to make it 13-10. San Diego State kicked a field goal at the end of the half to go up 16-10, but in the third quarter, Julius Gillick ran 7 yards for a touchdown, and Fresno State led 17-16.
San Diego State answered with a trick play, a 7-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Bert Emanuel Jr., and led 23-17. And with 5:02 left, Gillick punched in from the 2 to tie it at 23. The extra point failed. Then the Aztecs converted a third-and-10 with a 26-yard pass, and DiLeva won it.
The box score: Fresno State held the ball for 31:34 and ran 40 times for 135 yards. Donelson ran for 62 yards and a touchdown, and Gillick scored twice. Jayden Mandal completed 13 of 25 passes for 141 yards. Josiah Freeman had three catches for 49 yards. K'vion Thunderbird led the defense with nine tackles.
The honest Valley report: Fresno State gained 276 yards, went 4-of-13 on third down and lost a fumble. And one missed extra point turned into a three-point loss. That one stung like a peach-fuzz rash.
But I'll tell you what I saw. I saw a team that fell behind 13-0 on the road and didn't flinch. I saw Gillick run hard every time he touched it. I saw a defense that held San Diego State to 384 yards and kept the Bulldogs in it until the last minute. That's a team that's going to win a lot of close ones before this season's over.
The Bulldogs are 4-3 and 1-2 in the Pac-12. They lost 39-0 at USC, beat Sacramento State 49-3, won 26-10 at San Jose State, beat Rice 38-24, won 26-6 at Washington State, lost 38-31 to Boise State and then lost in San Diego. Two straight losses by a combined 10 points. That's close. We'll take close, and then we'll take the next one.
Part 2: Next Up, Oregon State at Fresno State
After the open week, Oregon State comes to Valley Children's Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 31. The kickoff time hasn't been announced yet, per ESPN. Halloween at home! I'm going as a raisin. Don't ask.
The Beavers
Oregon State is 5-2 and 3-0 in the Pac-12, and it can really throw it. The Beavers score 42.7 points per game and gain 527 yards per game, including 384.9 through the air, per ESPN. Braden Atkinson has completed 189 of 273 passes for 2,604 yards, 24 touchdowns and two interceptions. And Jesse Legree has 46 catches for 1,040 yards and 14 touchdowns. Per the AP, he was the first wide receiver in the country to reach 1,000 yards this season.
They beat Washington State 48-30 on Saturday, with Atkinson throwing for 347 yards and three touchdowns. And they're off this week too, so nobody gets a rest advantage.
But here's the thing about the Beavers. Their defense allows 23.1 points per game and 345.3 yards. And look at who they've been beating lately: UTEP, Colorado State, San Diego State and Washington State, per ESPN. Colorado State's defense ranks last in FBS, and San Diego State's ranks 133rd, per the AP. When the Beavers played Houston and Texas Tech in September, they lost both, 33-20 and 35-24. Our Bulldogs allow 20.9 points per game. Defense travels. Or, in this case, it stays home in Fresno.
Our Bulldogs
Mandal has completed 123 of 195 passes for 1,393 yards, eight touchdowns and just one interception, per ESPN. One! Freeman leads the receivers with 32 catches for 445 yards. Rayshon Luke leads the backs with 333 yards. The Bulldogs score 27.6 points per game.
The honest note: Fresno State's run defense allows 170.7 yards per game, and the Beavers' AJ Newberry has 431 rushing yards. The Bulldogs need to slow the run and get after Atkinson.
The Series
Fresno State leads the series 9-6, per CollegeFootballData.com, and beat Oregon State 36-27 in 2025. Let's make it 10.
Town Report: Fresno vs. Corvallis
Fresno. Fresno had 542,107 people at the 2020 census, per Wikipedia, the fifth-most populous city in California and the most populous inland city in the state. The name is Spanish for "ash tree," for the ash trees lining the San Joaquin River. The town was founded in 1872 as a Central Pacific Railroad station.
And look at the neighbors. Yosemite National Park is about 60 miles north, Kings Canyon about 60 miles east and Sequoia about 75 miles southeast. Three national parks in a day trip. We have the Forestiere Underground Gardens, the William Saroyan House Museum, the Armenian Museum of Fresno and the Shinzen Japanese Gardens at Woodward Park. The Fulton Mall downtown was one of the nation's first pedestrian malls, in 1964. And per Wikipedia, Fresno averages 81 percent of possible sunshine a year.
And the Red Wave? Per Wikipedia, Fresno State fans have been called the Red Wave for decades because they show up entirely in red.
Corvallis. Corvallis is a nice college town of 59,922, per the 2020 census. Its name comes from the Latin for "heart of the valley." Cute. But per Wikipedia, when Oregon's legislature was handing out that name, there was also a petition to rename Salem as Corvallis. So "heart of the valley" was almost the capital's name. Corvallis is the one that got stuck with it, babe.
And Wikipedia says Corvallis has mild, wet winters "with persistently overcast skies." Persistently! Fresno has 81 percent sunshine. Corvallis has persistently overcast.
Here's my go-to fact, though. Per Wikipedia, Reser Stadium is the tallest man-made structure in Corvallis and Benton County history. The tallest thing they've ever built in that whole county is a place to watch football. We built a city, babe. They built bleachers.
The Wait
Here's my plan for the open week. Rest. Heal. Find my reading glasses. Watch Oregon State tape until I can see Legree in my sleep. And come back on Halloween ready to slow down the first receiver in the country to reach 1,000 yards.
Not that Valley, babe. Ours.