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FRESNO, Calif. >> Jamire Jordan held the dagger. The Fresno State senior receiver/kick returner lined up in the end zone as Hawaii set up for a 53-yard field-goal attempt at the end of the first half on Saturday night.
The Rainbow Warriors were already trailing by 17, so the field goal would be a modest thing, some small positive to take into the locker room.
Or not. On the sideline, Jordan’s teammates had told him to be ready for a big return.
Ryan Meskell’s kick was short. Jordan fielded the ball about 8 yards deep in the red and white checkered end zone, started straight up the middle, then cut hard to his right at the goal line. By the time he got to the sideline he had a phalanx of blockers and nary a white jersey in sight. Jordan cruised into the end zone, breaking open the game, which ended up a 50-20 Bulldogs victory.
Officially, it goes down as a 100-yard return because NCAA statistics don’t count yards in the end zone. But Jordan was deep. Very deep.
“That was the most excited I’ve seen our sideline get,” Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford said. “That was big before the half. My only concern was that our kids got too excited. At halftime, we had to get them back to reality.”
Jordan is the backup kickoff returner (he came into the game with three kickoff returns for the season). Tedford said he sent Jordan out because, “He’s the one who practices it every week.”
And the Bulldogs do practice it.
“We work on that,” Tedford said. “(A 53-yard attempt) is a perfect situation for it. Typically, when the field-goal team is in there, there’s a lot of big guys in there. They may not have worked on covering it. We try to take advantage of it.”
Jordan had already scored on a 49-yard touchdown pass from Marcus McMaryion near the end of the first quarter, giving the Bulldogs a 14-3 lead.
Jordan wasn’t available to the media after the game. However, the 5-foot-11 170-pounder out of Lancaster, Calif., is one of several big-play athletes that have helped Fresno State build a 7-1 record (4-0 in the Mountain West Conference).
Another is senior receiver KeeSean Johnson, who broke the school record for receptions on Saturday. His eight catches for 102 yards gave him 234 in his career, breaking Davante Adams’ mark of 233.
McMaryion, a senior as well, isn’t too bad himself. He completed 21 of 31 passes for 284 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions before sitting out the fourth quarter.
Sophomore running back Ronnie Rivers also showed big-play capability, turning an off-tackle smash into a 76-yard touchdown. He finished with 125 yards on 11 carries.
The Bulldogs now have won six in a row since their only loss, a 21-14 defeat at Minnesota. Their fans are more than a little irked that Fresno State has been unable to crack the AP Top 25 poll. One fan held a sign while the players left the field that read:
AP Poll
=
Fake News
For the record, the Bulldogs were in the “others receiving votes” category last week and would have ranked 29th if the poll officially went down that far.
The players and coaches say they aren’t concerned.
“I’m going to leave that to the people involved,” safety Juju Hughes said. “I have my own opinion but I’ll keep that to myself.”
Said Tedford, “That’s for other people to figure out. At the end of the year, that’s when it really matters.”
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