Posted on: Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Warriors are in for a dogfight

 • Fresno's not exactly fan-friendly
 • Fresno State's Hill wants to play UH twice in '05

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

FRESNO, Calif. — This week the football team that calls the square, squat cement Duncan Building on the Fresno State campus home, has come to mirror its bunker-like surroundings.

Step inside the building that houses the Bulldogs' football offices and locker room, and such is the mood that it is easy to forget who the 19-point favorite in Friday's ESPN national game with the University of Hawai'i really is.

Spend much time around the coaches' offices and the concern is so deep you wonder which team has won its last two games by a combined 94-21.

Bulldog head coach Pat Hill's countenance sets the grim tone as he sternly lays down the ground rules for the week: No interviews with outside (read: Hawai'i) media about the game. No interviews with staff or players. Closed practices. No visitors.

"We don't have much to say," Hill said. "We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot on the line these last three games."

"They've gone into their bunker mode," an athletic department official said.

Indeed, this just might be the point game of the remainder of the regular season for the Bulldogs, the one that decides which side of the ledger the year falls on.

With just Nevada at Bulldog Stadium and San Jose State up the road remaining, win this one and the 5-3 Bulldogs figure to salvage an 8-3 regular season. Maybe even a Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl berth.

Lose it and a team that opened the season with upset wins over Washington and Kansas State on the road to spark Bowl Championship Series dreams might not even get to a bowl.

Only the top two finishers in the Western Athletic Conference are guaranteed positions in the conference's three bowl games. And, we know Boise State will be one of them. Texas-El Paso looks to be the other. So, the Bulldogs who, unlike UH, have no assurance of a bowl just because they achieve eligibility, have scant room for error after dropping games to Boise State, UTEP and Louisiana Tech.

Already Fresno State has lost to Boise State for a fourth consecutive season. If Hawai'i prevails Friday, the Warriors, too, will have taken four in a row from the Bulldogs, something that would not sit well with the home fans.

Already, in the face of the first three-game losing streak since 1998 earlier this season, the howls have been shrill.

And the Warriors have shown with quick-strike capability in the last three games against the Bulldogs the ability to change things in a hurry. Even at Bulldog Stadium.

"This (game) is a big deal," associate head coach John Baxter said on his KFIG show yesterday. "This is a major river to cross. We have to get this one down."

So, Hill has gone to the bunker to rally his troops and save a season.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.