100 Days, 100 Reasons G6 Football Matters

Farmer State. Tractor U. Hicks. Those were the names USC had for the Fresno State Bulldogs.

The two programs had never played each other — not once in Fresno State’s 71 years of football. The Trojans, with their eight national championships and 27 Rose Bowl trips and four Heisman Trophy winners, had no reason to schedule a game against a school 200 miles up Highway 99. Their band chanted “CIF” at Fresno State players before kickoff — short for the California Interscholastic Federation, the organization that governs high school sports in the state.

It took the Freedom Bowl to force the meeting. And on the night of December 29, 1992, at Anaheim Stadium, in front of 50,745 fans, Fresno State beat No. 23 USC 24-7. Beat them in total offense 405 to 183. Beat them on the ground 241 to 88. Held them scoreless in the second half. It was not competitive.

“Nothing needs to be said about that,” defensive back Brian Porter told the Fresno Bee, “except who’s the CIF team now?”

Seventy-one years and USC had never bothered to schedule the game. An estimated 30,000 Fresno State fans drove down from the Central Valley anyway, turning Southern California red from the parking lots to the highway exits to the streets around the stadium. They came to see if the Bulldogs belonged. The Bulldogs answered 405 to 183.

The Game

Rain fell in sheets across Anaheim Stadium in the first half. The Bulldogs — eight-point underdogs, in their first season in the WAC — did not care.

Sophomore quarterback Trent Dilfer kept the first scoring drive alive with a 10-yard pass to Tydus Winans on fourth-and-7. It was the 10th time in 18 tries the Bulldogs had converted on fourth down that season. Fullback Lorenzo Neal punched in a 1-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7.

From there, Fresno State’s offensive line took over. Ron Rivers ran for 108 yards. Neal added 75 and the game’s MVP award. Anthony Daigle rushed for 54 and scored the touchdown that made it 17-7 with 3:25 remaining.

The total offensive numbers told the story: Fresno State 405, USC 183.

“Our offensive line had total domination,” Fresno State coach Jim Sweeney told the Fresno Bee.

On the other side, cornerback James Burton shut down All-Pac 10 receiver Curtis Conway in the first half before Conway left with a knee injury. Burton finished with five tackles, two for losses, an interception and two pass breakups. His pick with 3:17 remaining sealed it. USC quarterback Rob Johnson went 7-for-18 for 95 yards and threw three interceptions.

“Our defensive coaches kept telling us that if we stopped the run, we’d win the game because their passing game isn’t that sophisticated,” Burton told the Fresno Bee. “We saw better passing teams like San Diego State and Wyoming, and we knew what USC was going to do.”

This was a defense ranked 98th in the nation, allowing nearly 30 points a game. They held USC to seven.

How badly did Lorenzo Neal want it?

“I wanted the game,” Neal told the Fresno Bee. “Harder than a fan wants a hamburger.”

The Coach

Jim Sweeney arrived in Fresno in 1976 determined to build something. He had been 0-7 against USC while coaching at Washington State. He carried every one of those losses with him. By 1992, he was in his 15th season with the Bulldogs and his 28th as a college head coach.

The Freedom Bowl erased all of it.

“Biggest win in the history of Fresno State football — by far,” Sweeney told the Fresno Bee.

Asked what the upset meant for the program, Sweeney drew a laugh from the assembled media. “Well, what it means to the program is that the coach is rehired,” he told the Fresno Bee.

USC head coach Larry Smith was quiet afterward. Asked whether the loss was the low point of his 16-year Division I coaching career, he told the Fresno Bee: “I would have to say yes.”

Smith tried to frame it as a no-win situation. “Fresno State games are no-won games for us,” he told the Fresno Bee. “Our fans don’t like to play them. They had everything to gain and nothing to lose.”

Then he said the thing Fresno State had been waiting 71 years to hear a Pac-10 coach say out loud.

“I love Jim Sweeney, and he has a great program,” Smith told the Fresno Bee. “The way they played tonight, they would stack up against anyone in our conference.”

Sweeney, the son of an immigrant hard-rock miner, did not gloat.

“Most of the people that have beaten me in my life,” he told the Fresno Bee, “I’ve stayed around long enough to beat them back.”

The Red Wave

An estimated 30,000 Fresno State fans made the trek from the Central Valley. “It was like the city of Madera moved south for a day,” the Fresno Bee reported.

They filled every restaurant and sidewalk in Anaheim in red. They packed the stadium. Even the elevator operator in the press box was pulling for the Bulldogs — he told the Bee he could not get over how many people had come for this game.

Steve Bittner, a 41-year-old Tulare County employee from Visalia, had called his shot on the charter bus before kickoff. “If I thought it was in the realm of consideration they would lose, I could have stayed home and watched on TV,” Bittner told the Fresno Bee. “We’re going to kick their Trojan butts!”

After the game: “I got them straightened out. They are no longer confused.”

Jesse Hardwick, Fresno State’s tackle from Garden Grove — USC country — put it simply.

“I grew up wanting to go to USC,” Hardwick told the Fresno Bee, “but I’m damn glad I went to Fresno State.”

What It Meant

Earl Oliver played his first career start at linebacker that night after spending four years on the defensive line. He had four tackles. He had something to say that went beyond football.

“It was a dream come true,” Oliver told the Fresno Bee. “This is a victory for Fresno State and a community that deserves national recognition. I think we’re going to get it now.”

That is what Fresno State won at Anaheim Stadium. Not just a bowl game. The credibility that programs outside the power structure spend decades earning and rarely receive. Larry Smith understood it even in the losing locker room. He tried to dismiss it as an inevitable mismatch of motivation. But his own words gave it away.

“Names and logos don’t win you games,” Smith told the Fresno Bee.

Sweeney knew it long before the rain stopped.

“We knew we could play with them,” he told the Fresno Bee. “We knew we could play with anyone in the country.”

They told you it didn’t matter. Here are 100 reasons it does.