As the season opener creeps closer, alarms are beeping all around the Fresno State football program.
Just not at Tim DeRuyter’s house.
“I got up at 5:30 this morning,” the fifth-year coach said at the beginning of Wednesday’s kickoff news conference at the Josephine Theater. “Didn’t even have to wait for the alarm to go off.”
Regardless of DeRuyter’s enthusiasm about starting anew, there is a sense of uneasy anxiousness, even slight trepidation, as Fresno State begins three weeks of fall camp in preparation for Sept. 3 at Nebraska and the 11 games that follow.
Although the Bulldogs have done much to turn the page from last season’s 3-9 trash novel, starting with a thorough flush of the coaching staff, the checklist of questions and concerns that led to that “unacceptable” result (DeRuyter’s adjective choice) haven’t vanished into our steamy, smoky air.