Rice exposes weaknesses of Fresno State and MWC

Now that wasn’t so difficult, was it?

Watching Rice University thoroughly dominate Fresno State 30-6 in the Hawaii Bowl Wednesday night it was hard to imagine how the Bulldogs could have won the West Division of the Mountain West Conference this year, much less somehow found their way into the postseason.

However they got here — and the Bulldogs depart a tattered 6-8 — the Owls (8-5) of Conference USA exposed them early and often on national television, making Fresno State the first team in the bowl’s 13-year history to go without scoring a touchdown.

Field goals of 44 and 40 yards — a third attempt was blocked — some long faces and wilted lei were all Fresno State had to show for the 3 hour, 24 minute pummeling.

"We felt this was a team that we could impose our will on," said Rice defensive end Brian Nordstrom, who had six tackles, a blocked kick and an express lane to the Bulldogs’ backfield. "We wanted to be relentless."

Two Fresno State quarterbacks, who combined to complete just 17 of 38 passes, did not have a connection of more than 14 yards. And the Bulldogs averaged just 3.2 yards per offensive play. All-conference receiver Josh Harper had just four catches, none for more than eight yards.

Meanwhile, Rice quarterback Driphus Jackson completed 15 of 24 passes for 318 yards and three touchdowns, three of the completions for 53 yards or more.

By the start of a second half, with the Bulldogs trailing 16-6, "we could see that they were kind of laying down," cornerback Bryce Callahan said.

It was Dog Obedience 101 and somewhere among the smallest turnstile crowd, 13,922, in the event’s history, you hope the folks at UH, who have lost four in a row to Fresno State, were furiously scribbling notes for the Bulldogs’ arrival in Aloha Stadium in the fall.

Even by Fresno State bowl standards — and the Bulldogs have lost six bowl games in a row dating to 2008 — this was bad. Really bad. "This one hurt the most," Bulldog linebacker Karl Mickelsen said.

"It is not acceptable, we have a higher standard," Fresno State coach Tim DeRuyter said.

Somewhere Pat Hill, the ex-coach with a Bulldog logo at the bottom of his swimming pool, was probably staring at his TV wondering what in Halawa happened to his once-pound program.

The Bulldogs’ demise Wednesday was the latest and largest reminder of just how weak its division in the MWC was. Together its three bowl teams — Fresno, Nevada and San Diego State — went 0-3. Only the Aztecs’ game, a 17-16 setback to Navy, was close.

And this was a Rice team that had been tagged for 76 points and 677 yards in its final regular season game, a 76-31 drubbing by Louisiana Tech, not Louisiana State.

"At this point in the season, words are empty," Rice coach David Bailiff said. "It is all about desire."

And the Owls clearly desired to atone for the trashing by Louisiana Tech.

"We wanted to show what our defense is really about," said Callahan who suffocated Harper and had an interception. "We wanted to show that we were better than that."

"These are prideful young men," Bailiff said of the team appearing in a Rice-record third consecutive bowl. "Nobody likes to be embarrassed."

You could ask Fresno State about that today.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flews@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.