Fresno State defeated Washington State, 29-6, Saturday in the second annual Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl at SoFi Stadium, the Bulldogs’ ninth straight win following a 1-4 start.
Fresno State senior running back Jordan Mims rushed 18 times for 206 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs, while quarterback Jake Haener completed 24 of 36 passes for 284 yards with two touchdown passes and no interceptions.
The Bulldogs never trailed, led 16-0 at halftime and outgained the Cougars in total yards, 501 to 182.
Fresno State (10-4) earned a spot in the game with a 28-16 victory over Boise State in the Mountain West Football Championship Game Dec. 3, avenging a 40-20 loss to the Broncos on Oct. 8, their last loss.
Saturday’s win makes the Bulldogs the first Football Bowl Subdivision team to have a 10-victory season after a 1-4 start, an accomplishment made easier by the expansion of the regular season to 12 games in 2006. (Teams were also able to play 12 games in years when there were 14 Saturdays from the first permissible playing date through the last playing date in November, which occurred in 2002 and 2003.)
Fresno State’s 1-4 start included two games quarterback Haener missed because of an injury to his right left suffered Sept. 17 in a 45-17 loss to USC. He was also sidelined for the first two games of the eight-game winning streak, the Bulldogs’ longest since a 10-game winning streak in 2013.
Haener was a first-team All-Mountain West Conference selection, despite missing four games.
“Jake is an unbelievable competitor,” Fresno State Jeff Tedford said before Saturday’s game. “He’s a grinder. The way he approaches the game, with his preparation, everyone just feeds off of him.
“He’s the most disciplined guy I’ve ever been around when it comes to anything. His diet. The way he prepares. He’s just been a blessing.”
Haener spent the first two years of his college career at Washington, redshirting in 2017 and completing nine of 13 passes for 107 yards and one touchdown in four games in 2018.
After sitting out the 2019 season because of NCAA transfer rules, Haener started all six games for the Bulldogs in the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season, completing 150 of 232 passes for 2,021 yards and 14 touchdowns with 14 interceptions.
Haener has accepted an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl, widely regarded as the preeminent college football all-star game and the first stage in the NFL draft process.
The Cougars (7-6) played the game without both their offensive and defensive coordinators. Offensive coordinator Eric Morris was hired as North Texas’ coach while defensive coordinator Brian Ward was hired as Arizona State’s defensive coordinator.
Coach Jake Dickert also served as defensive coordinator Saturday, a role he held with Washington State in 2020 and 2021. Dickert was Washington State’s interim coach for the final five games of the 2021 season following Nick Rolovich’s firing for failing to comply with Gov. Jay Inslee’s proclamation to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and was appointed to the job on a permanent basis one day after a 40-13 victory over rival Washington in the regular-season finale.
Offensive line coach Clay McGuire was the offensive coordinator Saturday.
After the College Football Playoff, Rose Bowl and other New Year’s Six bowls, the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl had the fifth choice among Pac-12 Conference teams, behind the Alamo Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl and Sun Bowl. The Cougars, 7-5 at the time, were the only remaining bowl-eligible Pac-12 team when it came time for executive director Jason Gannon to choose the game’s representative from the conference.
Washington State made its seventh bowl appearance in eight seasons, missing only in 2020 when it was 1-3 with three games canceled because of coronavirus issues. The Cougars have not won a bowl game since the 2018 Alamo Bowl when they defeated Iowa State, 28-26.
Fresno State made its second consecutive bowl appearance and third since 2018.