FRESNO, Calif. >> It is 15 minutes after Fresno State’s football practice has concluded on a rare, for the end of October, warm, sunny day in California’s San Joaquin Valley, and the complex is empty except for the winded exertions of a solitary figure.

While his teammates have hit the showers, running back Josh Hokit remains in full gear charging — not jogging — up and down a grassy incline interspersed with runs through a multi-pronged device designed to knock the ball lose from the ball carrier.

Former Bulldogs head coach turned radio analyst Pat Hill surveys the scene and says admiringly, “That’s the toughest (expletive deleted) on this team.”

Tough enough, the Bulldogs hope, to inspire and help lead the defending Mountain West Conference champions from their present 3-4 (1-2 conference) predicament back to at least a bowl appearance, if not a title.

Up until a couple of months ago Hokit hadn’t intended to be with the Bulldogs when they come to Aloha Stadium on Saturday, much less being called upon to help lead them. His plan, endorsed by coaches on both sides, was for him to be with the Bulldogs wrestling team, where he is a returning All-American at 197 pounds.

The idea was that he would work out with football in spring and summer, where he had been a linebacker, but redshirt so he could build himself up to wrestle as a heavyweight and then return to football as a linebacker his senior year.

But when an injury plague hit the running backs, Hokit, a 6-foot, 1-inch 232-pounder, was moved back to running back. And when the Bulldogs prepared to break fall camp still short of able-bodied players at the position, head coach Jeff Tedford called Hokit in for a talk.

“After (Romello) Harris tore his ACL we were real short (running backs), and Coach Tedford asked me to step in and give them some depth,” Hokit said. “I had my mind set on redshirting, but at the end of the day, I’m here to help the team win, however that may be.”

So far he has, plowing for a team-high eight touchdowns (plus another as a receiver) while averaging 4.4 yards per rush.

Hokit was a California state high school wrestling champion at Clovis High who, on a leap of faith, thought he could manage a rare double in major college athletics, competing in wrestling and football down the road at Fresno State.

It was a considerable gamble for someone who had been offered wrestling scholarships by several schools, including Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, and walked on at Fresno State for football as a linebacker while waiting to see if the rumored addition of a wrestling program would get off the ground.

As a freshman Hokit played linebacker but also got in some work in practice as an H-back. Late in the 2016 season he was pressed into duty in the backfield and ran for 97 yards on 18 carries against UH. “I cramped up and had to come out, or I could have had some more yards in that one,” Hokit said.

When Tedford took over in 2017, Hokit said, “He told me he thought I was a better running back than linebacker. I don’t know what film he was looking at to think that,” Hokit said. “But I had to accept it.”

Told that Hill had described him as the “toughest (expletive deleted) player on the team,” Hokit smiled. “I like that. There probably aren’t too many All-American wrestlers playing (major college) football, I guess.”

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