Delay of game jump-started Fresno State

The storm chasers did what they do best.

Fresno State, the FBS team with the nation’s best win improvement from 2016, showed superior improvisation to Hawaii coming out of the locker room from an unprecedented lightning delay, infusing the Bulldogs during a 31-21 victory at Aloha Stadium on Saturday night.

The Bulldogs, mulling their options in the visitors locker room during the 41-minute delay, caught lightning in a bottle. They scored twice after the delay at the nine-minute mark — both touchdowns came in the final two minutes of the half — to seize a 21-7 lead going into halftime.

Shocker.

“Yeah, I just feel like we were determined in the locker room,” said defensive end Tobenna Okeke, who was dominant defensively with three sacks and two forced fumbles. “We wanted to come out, catch the momentum that was there, since the weather delay kind of stopped everything. We wanted to catch it. And that’s what we did.”

Wide receiver KeeSean Johnson hauled in two of Marcus McMaryion’s four touchdown passes and the Mountain West’s West Division leaders (7-3, 5-1) stayed on course for a showdown with Boise State for the conference title.

Fresno is now plus-six in wins coming off a 1-11 season that saw coach Tim DeRuyter get fired.

First-year coach Jeff Tedford said he’d never been a part of a weather stoppage in a college game, but had as a pro. He knew the weather report said there would be rain coming and going during the day, and was supposed to stop at 7 — that’s exactly when the game was stopped because of a few flashes over the previous 15 to 20 minutes.

“Well, the officials did a really nice job of telling us exactly how long it was going to be,” Tedford said. “So we knew it was going to be at least a half-hour. We kind of made adjustments, let them just rest and tried to stay as warm as we could. Did some stretching, had some bands, some rollers. Things like that to keep our legs loose.”

Fresno sprinted out of the tunnel when the game was called on.

After the teams went through on-field warm-ups, FSU forced UH to punt immediately. The teams exchanged two more punts. Then it was Fresno’s time.

One of Fresno’s three backs, Ronnie Rivers, was used heavily to set up a 25-yard scoring pass to Jared Rice, putting the Bulldogs up 14-7.

After Okeke sacked Dru Brown during a three-and-out, FSU went to Johnson, eventually setting up David Tangipa’s 3-yard TD catch.

“It’s a first for everything. We’d never been through that before,” Okeke said of the delay. “I’m glad the way we responded to it. We approached it well, came out and we were on fire.”

“It gave us a quick chance to figure out what they were running and switch up a little bit to the defensive scheme,” Johnson said of the delay. “It worked out.”

Said Tedford: “We went in, made some adjustments, came out and got 14 points afterward, which is critical for us,” Tedford said.

By the time UH recovered and the damage was assessed, the Bulldogs had scored 31 straight points between the first and fourth quarters. They weathered UH’s fourth-quarter rally when McMaryion threw two interceptions, including one returned to the house.

In the end, the Bulldogs continued their mastery of the Warriors at Aloha Stadium, winning there for the fifth straight time.