El camino college football stats1/23/2024 ![]() ![]() If Pickens does catch on in the NFL, it will be a long way from Los Angeles Washington High School, where Pickens was known as a slick-fielding second baseman. “He’s a prospect, that’s for sure,” Sweeney said. Sweeney rates Pickens’ speed somewhere at a step behind Ellard and a step ahead of Paige. He’s a deluxe punt returner, runs the reverse very well (he scored two rushing touchdowns last season) and is a durable, hard-nosed receiver. And so on.”Īnd, Sweeney says, Pickens is comparable to Ellard in his potential as an overall offensive threat. If he catches it six times, we score twice. “That means if he catches the ball three times, we score once. “That’s a major field position switch,” Sweeney said. ![]() Pickens’ 13 receptions have gone for 360 yards-which leads to Pickens’ most important number, that average of 27.7 yards per play.īy comparison, the Rams’ Ellard averaged 26 yards per catch his senior year at Fresno State. He has caught a touchdown pass in every game this season, including an 88-yard scoring dash on a pass from Barsotti against Oregon State. This year, Fresno State’s offense is opening up, and Pickens is now the most dangerous weapon in the Bulldogs’ aerial arsenal. While his best friends Craver and Burnett were enjoying a 9-1-1 season last year at El Camino, flanker Pickens caught 26 passes for 476 yards his junior season, including seven in one game against Utah State. Nonetheless, Pickens was a big part of Fresno State’s 10-2 season. After Barsotti became more comfortable guiding the offense, the passing attack came back into balance, but Pickens’ stats were nowhere near as gaudy as the numbers he had posted at El Camino. With the freshman Barsotti at the helm, Sweeney chose to emphasize Fresno State’s running game to take pressure off his inexperienced quarterback. Unfortunately for Pickens, “Wide Receiver University” was in the process of converting to “Running Back University” when he arrived. He was courted by Miami, UCLA, Oregon, Washington State, Iowa and Utah.īut Pickens, who hauled down 56 passes for a state-high 1,209 yards his sophomore year at El Camino, took his 4.41 speed in the 40-yard dash and his picture-perfect pass routes to Fresno State. Pickens would like to become the fourth name on that list.Īfter he caught six passes for 177 yards and three touchdowns in the 1987 Pony Bowl to lead El Camino to a 24-6 victory over Taft and the national community college championship, Pickens was a hot commodity. In fact there are three big reasons-namely, Henry Ellard of the Rams, Stephon Paige of the Kansas City Chiefs, and Stephen Baker of the New York Giants, all Fresno State alumni who have gone on to stardom in the NFL. The school didn’t earn its reputation as “Wide Receiver University” for nothing. ![]() Whenever Dwight Pickens thought of Fresno State, he thought of footballs spiraling down out of the blue, burned cornerbacks sprawling at his heels and referees throwing their arms skyward. But the best may have been the last two years, when Sweeney plucked Pickens, Craver and Burnett out of his own personal mother lode at El Camino. But with a high-powered offense led by the three El Camino transfers and sophomore quarterback Mark Barsotti, the Bulldogs, who won the California Bowl last year with a 35-30 victory over Western Michigan, look as if they’re well on their way to defending their Big West Conference championship.įresno State Coach Jim Sweeney is the first to admit that he’s had some banner recruiting years of late. Miami of Florida, a perennial collegiate powerhouse, also owns a 12-game winning streak.Īll of which puts Fresno State in some pretty heady company. ![]() In Division I football, that streak is second only to the 17-game current winning streak of top-ranked Notre Dame. The Bulldogs are averaging 44 points per game this season and have won 12 games in a row since their last setback, a 21-10 loss to Oregon State last year. What it all adds up to is a lot of points on the scoreboard for Fresno State. ![]()
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