New Fresno State Football Head Coach Matt Entz was introduced by the university on Thursday, and he promised to build relationships throughout the Central Valley as he builds the program.
While Entz gets to work behind the scenes and begins to meet with players and put together a coaching staff, Interim Head Coach Tim Skipper will remain on the sideline for the next few weeks and lead the team in the upcoming bowl game, which has yet to be announced.
Connecting with the Valley: Entz ended his opening remarks during Thursday’s press conference emphasizing that he will focus on building from within and cementing Fresno State as a developmental program.
- “I know there’s a lot of people that are heavily invested in this program,” Entz said. “I know from my conversations with the president, this football program is the front porch of this university, and I want to make sure that I represent it the right way, a way that we all can be proud of, that we’re all excited for.”
- He said the first thing on the agenda is to meet all of the local high school coaches and get in front of the local players.
- “I need to be in their building. They don’t need to come see me. I need to be the one on the ground. I need to be out and shaking hands and talking and saying how do we become more appealing to local talent,” Entz said. “Because I know there’s plenty of kids in this region. Within a five hour radius of Fresno, I think 80 to 90% of our team could be located here. We just need to do a great job of evaluation. Just because they’re from the Central Valley doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re right for Fresno State. We’ve got to find the right young men that are good enough to play for this program and are going to help us get to the next level.”
From the ground up: How exactly does Entz plan to stress development at Fresno State? When asked about his vision for the offense, Entz offered a gameplan for recruiting and developing players in what will be a years-long process, even in the era of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness payouts.
- “I guarantee here in the Central Valley there’s a 6’5”, 250 pound basketball player running around somewhere that doesn’t know he’s the next starting left tackle for Fresno State football,” Entz said. “But that’s what we did. That’s what we did, and we gave them to our strength coaches and in three years they came back and they’re 310 pounds. They had shoulders axe handle-wide. And they were ready to ball, and they were ready to play, and they were in shape.”
Playoff hopes: “We all know what we want it to look like,” Entz said. “We want to hoist trophies. We want the stadium to be packed. I think we’re in an exciting time right now in college football with this 12 team playoff. Schools like Fresno State have access. For us to take advantage of that, we need to make sure we have the right people in our organization.”
- Entz went on to praise University President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval and Athletic Director Garret Klassy for their support in getting Fresno State to a point where the program can compete for a playoff spot.
On the field: Along with the physical brand of football that Entz promises to bring to the offensive side to the ball, his specialty lies on defense, as he historically has coached as a defensive coordinator and linebackers coach outside of his head coaching stint at North Dakota State.
- “We’ll probably operate out of a split safety defense – quarters, Cover 2, with the ability to roll down. I believe in having answers. I believe in having solutions and adjustments. I’ve never been a coach that has wanted to defend with volume. I believe in players with clear minds, play fast, and they have the answers already given to them through preparation and practice,” Entz said. “If we feel we can recruit to a four-down system, I think we definitely will. Are we going to be a 4-3 or a 4-2-5? I think part of that depends on what we see weekly. But I do want to have the flexibility that we can jump in and out of some personnel groupings and have some subpackages from a defensive standpoint.”
Zoom out: Klassy said he heavily leaned on former Fresno State head coaches Pat Hill, Jeff Tedford and Kalen DeBoer in the process that eventually concluded with hiring Entz.
- Entz said he also had conversations with the three former coaches in the last couple of weeks and was consistently told that he will love Fresno State and the Central Valley.
- Klassy also said that eight out of his 10 top candidates for the job proactively reached out to Fresno State to apply, saying the position was extremely coveted across the nation.
