BOISE ST. BLACKENS BULLDOGS' EYES

Boise St. brought their BCS-crashing football program to Bulldog Stadium on Friday night and flaunted it in front of a reported sellout crowd that included a bunch of goofs in "blackout" T-shirts. 34-21 Boise, and it wasn't much of a game after a wild first-quarter start. It was 14-14 with a few minutes to go in the first when Fresno State realized that they were disrespecting their daddies.

Fresno State's kick returning was stellar, including a Clifton Smith TD, but Boise State's running backs advanced at will. It was ridiculous. 282 total rushing yards for the Broncos and they racked them up effortlessly. Boise St. converted 10 of 18 third downs while Fresno State was just a bit behind them at 1 of 13.

So that's 43 WAC wins in their last 44 WAC games for Boise St. Fresno State, meanwhile, is doing cartwheels over the fact that this was their first confernce loss of the season. So while Boise State may have already botched their chance for another seat at the main table this season, the 'Dogs are clearly headed to a seat with a TV tray alongside the grandchildren. Again.

ROLLED OVER THE SPARTANS, HERE COMES THE BULLY

A 30-0 win over San Jose St. at Bulldog Stadium kept Fresno State perfect in conference play and continued the roll that the offense has been on. FSU is doing a lot of damage with the running game and now has a four-game winning streak and has scored at least 30 point in their last three games. It's time to celebrate. It's time to party. It's time to think "Freedom Bowl!" It's time....to play Boise St.

The Broncos will be in town this evening and given FSU's recent success it looks like the home team may have the upper hand. Then again, Boise State has thwarted the Bulldogs every which way from the football field to the basketball court to living out Pat Hill's promise to be party-crashers. So let's not underestimate their ability to piss all over our "We're Back!" parade. I can't wait to see how this goes.

I'M BACK.....AND SOME AROUND HERE THINK THE DOGS ARE TOO

Oh, man what have I done? This mess of a football season is almost half over and I'm just now getting back to mocking it. I'm going to have to summarize quickly to get this thing current.

The Bulldog faithful were treated to another opening night spectacular when good 'ol Sac State came to the corner of Cedar and Barstow. The preseason buzz around here was inexplicably upbeat, so much so that they took the 24-3 victory as a good sign. Sac State. I mean, Sacramento State. 24-3.

Out on the road went the Bulldogs to face Texas A & M. The Aggies were ranked somewhere around #23 at the time. (Hint, hint...they're not ranked now. CBS Sportsline has them at #35). Disillusioned goofballs all over the Central Valley were shaving off their fu manchus when halftime rolled around and A & M was up 19-0.

The Bulldogs got inspired, somehow, and scored 29 points in the second half to force overtime. First overtime, they matched field goals. Second overtime, they matched touchdowns with 1-point conversions. Third overtime, A & M 8, FSU 6.

Yeah, it was tough. The refs and the Iraq war and global warming all conspired against Fresno State. Poor guys. But it was worse for the fans, and they didn't even know it.

Thank goodness for local sports talk radio. Apparently without missing a beat this community shifted from "Anybody, anytime, anywhere" to "I'm so proud of our Dogs for playing well in defeat on the road!" Oh yeah, this was a GOOD loss. I never thought I'd miss the days of Pat Hill using the phrase "run the table" in every sentence. Funny what a 4-8 season will do to those ideas of "a seat at the main table" and "crashing the party." And I guess seeing Boise State pull it off last year kinda changed things around here too.

Well, next up was another bodybag.....uhhh, I mean road game against a BCS conference team. Oregon killed Fresno State 52-21. If there was time I'd go into detail but really all you have to do is think of any video you've seen of a building being brought down by dynamite charges. A systematic destruction of key points that bring the whole thing down in a heap while people look on from a safe distance. It was over in the first quarter.

At that point FSU was 1-2 and some folks remembered that last year was a complete disaster. Could it happen again?

Oh HELL no! Back to Jim Sweeney field it was for a 17-6 win over Louisiana Tech. The 'Dogs lit up the offensive stat sheet with a grand total of 262 offensive yards and somehow during the explosion managed to punt eight times. Back to .500 at 2-2.

The next two weeks are hard to comprehend and there surely will be more information forthcoming to explain these events. FSU outscored Nevada 49-41 in Reno to move to 3-2 and then made it a streak with a win over Idaho. Branstater's Bullies ran up 37 points in the team's third win in a row. That made them 4-2.

Now they face San Jose St. at home on Saturday. The Spartans just lost a shootout with Hawaii on their home field. This is the first of three home games for FSU, with Boise State and Utah State to follow.

Oh, and the best part of the whole football season from the Follies' standpoint - what the hell is THIS?