Bulldogs ‘refreshed’ after bye week, moving onto Washington St. matchup
FRESNO, CA – The bye week blues are officially over.
Preparations are in full force for the Fresno state football team, as Washington State comes to the Central Valley this Saturday for a live preview of future Pac-12 action.
Fresno state is looking to bounce back after its first conference loss of 2024, using the bye week to strengthen the health of multiple position groups.
“I think the biggest thing that was set up for us, at the timing of this thing, is getting healthy bodies back,” said Fresno State interim head coach Tim Skipper at his weekly press conference on Monday. “I mean, that was huge. Even guys that you see playing, they’re not all 100 percent. So, just to get healthy and to feel good again, we needed that week to refresh a little bit.”
The bye week might have been especially helpful for a couple of the Bulldogs’ veteran leaders up front, senior defensive end Devo Bridges and senior center Mose Vavao.
Bridges missed the UNLV game unexpectedly.
“It was kind of freaky, but in pregame (before the UNLV game), we lost Devo. He had some shortness of breath stuff going on, and he actually spent most of the first half in the hospital, a local hospital out there in Vegas,” said Skipper Monday. “And hopefully, some guys you saw playing can get a lot more healthy, like Mose’s out there playing, but he’s on one leg.”
Washington State and Fresno State will be future Pac-12 conference rivals starting in 2026, and they also have some recent history as well. The last meeting between the two schools came during the 2022 season, when the Mountain West champion Bulldogs capped off a 9-game winning streak to close that season, with a 23-point victory over the Cougars in the LA Bowl.
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