The Other Dog Pound

The Other Dog Pound

The fans of the Cleveland Browns are some of the best fans in all of the NFL.  They stay loyal to their team even after many tough seasons.  The energy and the rowdy nature of the crowd has earned their stadium the title of "The Dog Pound."  With respect to that name, I believe there a collegiate team whose fans have earned their stadium the same title: the Fresno State Bulldogs.

Fresno State is a little known team that recently joined the Mountain West Conference, coming from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), which was disbanded due to conference realignment. Fresno State has produced some NFL caliber quarterbacks, most notably David Carr who played for the Houston Texans. The school has been blessed with having another member of the Carr family at quarterback, younger brother Derek. In the last 3 years, Derek has broke school records set by David. With Derek Carr at quarterback and a trio of receivers with potential NFL careers, Fresno State was set to make history this year.

The season started out in electric fashion in their first game at home against Rutgers.  Carr completed 4 touchdown passes in regulation and Rutgers missed a last-second 43 yard field goal to force overtime with both teams tied at 45.  On the first play of Fresno State's overtime possession, Derek threw a 25 yard TD pass to put the Bulldogs up by 7,with the extra point.  It was now up to the Bulldog defense to come up with a stop.  (The game wasn't over because in college football overtime rules, each team gets a chance to score starting from their opponents 25 yard line)  Rutgers scored a touchdown (score is 52-51) but instead of kicking an extra point elected to go for 2 to try and win it.  Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova dropped back and fired a pass to Brandon Coleman, but the ball bounced off his fingerprints.  The stadium echoes with the sound of thousands of shouts of joy. The Bulldogs escaped with a victory.  But an even tougher challenge against rival Boise State loomed on the horizon.

The Fresno State Bulldogs hadn't beaten the Boise State Broncos since 2005, suffering losses in 7 straights games against them.  However, in front of a packed home stadium and Friday night ESPN viewers, the Bulldogs' mouths watered for a victory.  Flash to late in the 4th quarter, Fresno State has the ball but is down 34-40 with just over 7 minutes remaining.  The Bulldogs need to score a touchdown on this drive and then somehow hold a resurgent Broncos offense to no points.  But Derek Carr is calm and collected as he leads his offense down the field, completing 8 passes and setting a 1 yd. touchdown scamper by running back Josh Quezada.  The scoreboard reads 41-40 Fresno with just over 2 minutes to play.  The fans holds their breath, hoping and praying for a victory.  Boise State completed 2 passes and got a first down.  However, on the next 3 plays, the Broncos only managed to gain 4 yards, setting up a last chance 4th and 6 opportunity. Boise State quarterback Joe Southwick threw the ball toward his reliable tight end Kirby Moore.  The pass looked like it would be completed for a first down.  But at the last moment senior defensive back Jonathan Norton rushed in and knocks the ball away from Moore, right in front of the Fresno State sideline.  As the ball hit the ground incomplete, the sideline and the entire stadium exploded with excitement, shaking the camera. The air is filled with happy screams and shouts.  A long deserved victory was achieved at last.

(above: Bulldogs hoist the "Milk Can" trophy which goes to the winner 

of the yearly contest.  Why a milk can?  Local dairy producers sponsor

each team)

Fresno State chewed and bit their way to victories through most of their Mountain West Conference schedule.  However, they did suffer a disappointing loss to San Jose State, a game in which the porous Bulldogs defense gave up 62 points and over 700 yards of total offense.  Fortunately, Fresno State had a opportunity to bounce back in the inaugural Mountain West Championship Game.  Why didn't the Mountain West Conference have a championship game sooner?  The answer is that in order to have a conference championship game a conference needs to have at least 12 teams which can be divided into 2 divisions of 6 teams each.  The Mountain West Conference was able to incorporate the remains of the Western American Conference (WAC) into their conference, bringing the total teams to 12.  Their mostly flawless conference record meant the Bulldogs would have home field advantage.  They managed to beat Utah State 24-17, a game in which the crowd noise was a major factor.  It was then a sign in the crowd caught the camera crew's eyes and was shown during the game.  It read "The Dog Pound."

Thank you, Auburn

It should be old news to those who know me, but I have a profound dislike of the Alabama Crimson Tide.  It all started back in 2009, when the annoying Alabama defense shut down the Florida offense led by Tim Tebow in the SEC Championship Game, preventing him, the best role model in all of sports, from acquiring a second SEC and National Championship title.  Alabama went on to win the National Championship that year, a fact which was hard for me, and all Gator fans, to swallow.

But it would only get worse.  After narrowly missing the chance to capture a second National Championship in two years in 2010, Alabama was soon to get a tight stranglehold on the Championship.  In both 2011 and 2012, Alabama bulldozed their way through all but one of their regular season games but got tripped up each time, losing to LSU by 3 points in 2011 and by 5 points to Texas A&M.  But because the rest of college football was so weak, producing only one undefeated team each year, Alabama managed to get up to No.2 in the BCS Standing and get an invite to the National Championship Game.  Both years they made their competition look silly and beat them easily, making for two boring Championship games.  Ugh!  It makes my blood boil just thinking about it.

When Alabama won their 3rd Championship in 4 years, it was nothing more than old news.  College football fans everywhere read in the paper: "Alabama wins again," and thought "Big Whoop!" I had been stretched to the limit of my tolerance for seeing Alabama win again and again.  It was then I thought of a good way to describe them.  Another word for crimson is red.  So you could think of Alabama as "Red Tide."  Growing up in Florida, I know that Red Tide is a harmful and toxic algal bloom that sometimes occurs along the coast, which makes beaches off-limit to people.  That's what I think Alabama is: a harmful infestation in college football that is just plain ugly.  Furthermore, their mascot is an elephant.  How does that make any sense at all!

Now it was time for a team to finally step up and take down Alabama fully and completely.  And that team was Auburn....

Auburn had an absolutely horrendous go of it last year, finishing the season with a record of 3-9 and no wins against SEC opponents.  After a season like that, firing their head coach Gene Chizik, even though he was only two years removed from winning a National Championship, seemed like the only good choice for Auburn.  And it certainly paid off.

Enter Gus Malzahn, who in his first and only year at Arkansas State led them to a Sun-Belt Conference Championship.  He accomplishes a massive turnaround for the Auburn program, suffering only one loss in their first ten games.  No small feat in the SEC.

But the first real test for Auburn happened when Georgia came to town.  With some key players back from tough injuries, Georgia fought with wild abandon and got themselves a 38-36 lead with under 90 seconds to play.  Auburn needed a miracle to win.  And that's just what they got.  On 4th and 16, with 30 seconds left, Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall lofted up a desperation pass to receiver Ricardo Louis locked in double coverage.  The two Georgia defenders jumped up to grab a sure interception.  But they impeded each other, and the pass bounced off of one of their arms and flew through the air right in front of Louis.  He simply grabbed the free gift and ran into the endzone.  The fans in Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium went nuts.  TOUCHDOWN TIGERS!!

But looming on the horizon was Alabama, a bitter in-state rival.  Thankfully, they had a bye week to recover after such a wild ending.  The stakes were high enough in the yearly Alabama-Auburn rivalry game, nicknamed the "Iron Bowl."  The winner would earn a trip to the SEC Championship game.  Even more, College Gameday, the nation's premier pregame show which attends the biggest game of the week, was there at Auburn.  The stage was set...

Jump to late in the fourth quarter, 2 minutes left, Alabama is up 28-21 and getting ready to attempt a medium distance field goal.  If the kicker makes it, Alabama would have a two score lead with almost no time left.  The ball is snapped, the kicker gives a mighty kick, but it's blocked! Auburn has a chance.

In the next minute, the Tigers rip and claw down the field, using their potent read option running attack to get 3 first downs.  It's 1st and 10 at the Alabama 40 yard line with 40 seconds left.  Quarterback Nick Marshall fakes the handoff, makes like he is going to run, but just before he crosses the line of scrimmage, he throws the ball to wide-open receiver Sammie Coates.  With nobody in front of him, Coates runs easily into the endzone.  After the extra point, the score is tied at 28.  "We're going to overtime." Or so everyone thought.

Alabama received the kick with about 30 seconds left, and instead of smartly kneeling down and conceding overtime, they try to go for the win.  They get a short pass play to about to their 40 yard line and with 10 seconds left they call a run play.  It works well against the prevent defense and Tide running back T.J. Yeldon makes it to the Auburn 40 yard line and steps out of bounds.  But the clock reads 0:00.  Time for overtime right? Nope!  Upon further review, Yeldon stepped out of bounds with 1 second left on the clock.  Alabama head coach Nick Saban calls on the back-up kicker to attempt a 57 yard field goal, because their starting kicker had missed 3 in a row.  But before the kick Malzahn calls a timeout to "ice the kicker" and decides to put speedy cornerback Chris Davis in the back of the endzone in case the kick falls short.  The ball is snapped, the kick is on the way and the Alabama kicking team stares at the ball sailing through the air.  But the kick is short and is caught by Davis, and the kicking team leaps into action to cover the return.  But it's too late, Davis is racing down the field, picks up a wall of friendly blockers, tightropes the sideline, and literally walks into the endzone. 

TOUCHDOWN!!!!! TIGERS WIN!!!!!!

The Auburn fans go ballistic, one Auburn player stands in shock, the mouths of Alabama fans are agape.  Alabama's reign of terror is over.  The fans storm the field, celebrating a long overdue win against the Crimson Tide. 

College football fans everywhere, except the formally overconfident and now dumbfounded Alabama fans, rejoice loudly.  And I join with most of college football fans to say: THANK YOU AUBURN!!