19 Fresno State
To his teammates, Garrett McIntyre is known as Mac. To opposing coaches he's known as the WAC's premier defensive player. But McIntyre's best friends, who noticed how his upper body swayed like Shrek's when he walked, tagged him with the nickname Ookla. "It's supposed to represent an eat-with-your-hands, walk-with-a-club Cro-Magnon," says McIntyre, a senior defensive end. "I don't know where they got it. There are more ogreish guys on the defensive line than me. I'm a bit more athletic."
A former linebacker who walked on at Fresno, the 6'3", 250-pound McIntyre makes up for his lack of size with quickness, technique and relentless pursuit--in '04 he led the team with seven sacks and had 10½ tackles for loss. "He doesn't have the physical features of a great defensive lineman, but he has a motor," says coach Pat Hill. "He plays with passion, and he was that way the day he walked onto the practice field." Before the Bulldogs' 37-34 victory over Virginia in the MPC Computers Bowl last December, Cavaliers coach Al Groh said McIntyre plays like a "rolling ball of nails."
Even with McIntyre, Fresno has never won an outright WAC title. Most maddeningly, the Bulldogs have lost four straight to Boise State despite winning nine games against BCS conference schools in that span. This year's team, however, could be as good as the 2001 squad, which stunned Colorado and Wisconsin and climbed to No. 8 in the country. Over the final six games of '04 the Bulldogs were dominant on both sides of the ball, winning by an average score of 53-19. The ground-oriented offense ranked fifth in the nation in scoring (40.2 points per game).
Most important, Fresno may have found the right approach to playing its WAC nemesis. "Coach Hill said, 'We always talk down on Boise, saying we have the better athletes and the better program, but really they're right with us--maybe better than us,'" notes senior quarterback Paul Pinegar. "Now that we can finally admit that, we have a shot at beating them." --G.M.
FAST FACTS
2004 RECORD 9-3 (5-3, T3 in WAC)
FINAL AP RANK 22 RETURNING STARTERS 18
KEY RETURNEES (2004 stats)
QB Paul Pinegar (Sr.)
One of 7 QBs ever to win three straight bowls
RB Bryson Sumlin (Sr.)
Fresno's fourth 1,000-yard rusher in four years
CB Richard Marshall (Jr.)
Returned three picks for TDs in his career
DE Garrett McIntyre (Sr.)
WAC preseason defensive player of the year
TELLING NUMBER
.662 Winning percentage (160-81-3) for the Bulldogs over the last 20 years, the best of any program west of the Rockies in that time.
GAMEBREAKER
There's fast, and then there's Adam Jennings. The 5'10", 175-pound senior wideout has 4.3 speed and gets to use it in a variety of ways. The Bulldogs throw to him on bubble screens, hand off to him on end arounds and send him out to return kickoffs and punts. Over the last three seasons he had 14 touchdowns and 2,965 all-purpose yards.
SCHEDULE
Sept.
10 WEBER STATE
17 at Oregon
27 TOLEDO
Oct.
8 at New Mexico State
15 UTAH STATE 22 at Idaho 29 at Hawaii
Nov.
5 SAN JOSE STATE
10 BOISE STATE 19 at USC 26 at Nevada
Dec.
2 LOUISIANA TECH
COLOR PHOTO
AL TIELEMANS
FAST AND FURIOUS
At 250 pounds McIntyre uses quickness and technique, rather than size, to devastating effect.