ShareThisBy MATT JAMES
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The weird part is, the Fresno State Bulldogs looked better without the helmet decals.
They didn't play better, but when the mailman brings improvement, you don't turn him away, no matter how small the package.
Last Saturday, if you were one of those who found something else to do, Fresno State played its first football game in 30 years without mascot decals on their helmets.
You also missed the strangest drive of the season, when New Mexico State ran 18 plays before finally scoring on a quarterback sneak. By comparison, Fresno State ran only 22 plays in the entire first half against Boise State.
On the drive, the Aggies had first-and-10 at the Bulldogs' 11-yard line and then ran seven consecutive plays and still hadn't gotten to the end zone. In between, Fresno State went for the penalty cycle - face mask, offsides and pass interference twice. That's just the kind of game it was.
But back to the decals. Coach Pat Hill, after conferring with his players during the week, had the Bulldogs stickers pulled off the helmets.
The idea was that the Bulldogs hadn't earned the right to wear the decals. They hadn't been playing the kind of football Fresno State had become accustomed to playing, so they were being shamed. Sort of a scarlet letter situation, in reverse.
Yes, it's a junior high coaching move, the answer to the question, "What do you do when you're all out of ideas?" but they looked sharp.
Those Bulldog stickers were big and gaudy. The solid red helmets with a small green "V" in the back have a clean quality. It's a throwback to the '60s and '70s, when many college teams wore no decals.
These days, only a couple of teams have plain helmets. Navy for one. Penn State, Boston College and Ohio State have stripes. Fresno State, for now, is the only solid-red team in Division I-A, and the first in California since the days when Kansas City Chiefs coach Herm Edwards was playing cornerback at San Diego State.
Notre Dame took 100 years to look good. The Bulldogs did it in an afternoon.
Not to read too much into goofy motivational ploys, but at first glance the underlying message was pretty difficult to miss - that the players were being blamed - so Hill combed his hair and coached without his infamous hat. No blame. We're all screwing up together.
For years, people with some combination of money and influence have been trying to get Hill to shave his Fu Manchu, to look a little more business casual, which is a little like trying to get Barry Sanders to act like Ray Lewis. It's just not him.
A hatless Hill looked at least 15 percent sharper, so you'd have to count the entire thing as a quality coaching decision. And there has been a shortage. Let's start with an offense that seems pretty content with three plays: 1. Run up the middle. 2. Long pass down the sideline. 3. Screen pass of such stealth that the opposing sideline is yelling "screen" as the ball is snapped, the way you'd warn a guy on first base about a pick-off move.
Another thing: The coaching staff seems to be determined to make Tom Brandstater the starting quarterback. Has he really played better than Sean Norton? Let's look at the numbers.
Brandstater is 97 of 185 passing for 1,024yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. In the NFL, that would equate to a QB rating of 67.49, slightly less than Drew Bledsoe, who got benched.
Norton is 32 of 54 for 408 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. That's a smaller sample, but a QB rating of 93.75, just below Drew Brees and Carson Palmer. Is Sean Norton as good as Brees and Palmer? Obviously not, it's just a way to compare stats.
(While we're playing with the QB rating machine, opposing quarterbacks have completed 69 percent of their passes for 2,169 yards, 22 touchdowns and one interception against Fresno State so far. That's a rating of 116.8, meaning everyone they've played is a Hall-of-Famer.)
Norton played in only three games: the second half against Hawaii, the entire game at LSU and four possessions at Boise State. Three tough games.
The only college football game Norton has gotten to start and finish was in Death Valley against the then-No. 1 defense in the nation. Does that qualify as a fair shot? With Norton at quarterback, the Bulldogs don't lose to Utah State and might not lose to Colorado State or Washington.
It's a non-issue this week, with the news Tuesday that Norton has mono and will be unavailable for Saturday's game against Idaho. Brandstater did get the team a win, and will get a chance to make it a streak.
As for the decals, the Bulldogs say it's plain red until they are playing good football again. Might as well throw the decals away. If you start playing well, you stick with what works. And what looks good.
