'Anybody, anytime, anywhere': Fresno State coach Tim Skipper talks 'hostile' environment at The Big House, Michigan QB situation, more

Anybody. Anytime. Anywhere. That’s the motto of the Fresno State program, with the catchphrase coined by legendary former head coach Pat Hill when he took over the Bulldogs ahead of the 1997 season. This weekend, that anybody is Michigan, that anytime is 7:34 p.m. ET on NBC and that anywhere is Michigan Stadium, the largest venue in college football with a capacity of 107,601.

Fresno State has notched 9-plus victories in three-straight seasons, been ranked in the top 25 for at least one week in five of the last seven years and is ranked 49th among FBS programs with 645 all-time wins.

In recent seasons, the Bulldogs knocked off Purdue (39-35 in 2023), UCLA twice (40-37 in 2021 and 38-14 in 2018), Arizona State twice (29-0 in 2023 and 31-20 in 2018) and Washington State (29-6 in 2022).

In its last 11 games against Power Conference opponents (since the start of the 2018 season), Fresno State is 5-6, with five of the six losses coming by one possession. The Bulldogs can hang.

Interim head coach Tim Skipper took over July 24, after head man Jeff Tedford stepped down due to health reasons. Skipper coached the team’s bowl game last December when Tedford was out with the same concerns, guiding the team to a 37-10 win over New Mexico State that snapped a three-game losing streak.

Skipper played linebacker for the Bulldogs from 1997-2000 and has been a coach since 2001, including spending nine previous campaigns on the Fresno State staff.

“I love this university — sincerely love it — and I know what it takes to win here,” said Skipper. “I know how the kids need to get prepared for it. And I’m excited for it.

“It’s like Coach Hill said in his very first meeting with the team. He said, ‘Anybody, anytime, anywhere.’ And he said, ‘We’re going to play the best of the best,’ and that’s why you come to Fresno State,” Skipper continued. “We’re going to get that opportunity this weekend, and excited for it.

“We know it’s gonna be a battle. We know they’re the defending champs. We know it’s gonna be a game everybody is gonna remember. But we’re staying in the moment right now.”

Skipper has experienced competing in tough places to play during his time as a player and coach, and he expects a challenge facing the defending national champions, especially at a venue where the Wolverines haven’t lost with fans in the stands since 2019. Fresno State has practiced silent counts and ways to combat the noise.

“I love hostile environments, to be honest with you,” Skipper said Monday. “I think that’s the magic of college football, you get 110 [thousand] in a stadium and it’s loud, it’s rocking, you can’t hear. You want it to be as hard as it could possibly be — that’s just the way I think about it.

“We did a lot of stuff with noise. We played crowd noise over the speakers and things like that, and with the coaches having to communicate with the players with the new technology that we have in the helmets and things like that. We definitely have a lot of tools we can use. We’ll see exactly how loud it is. When it gets loud, we’ll go to the tools that we need. But we’ve definitely been practicing that.”

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Fresno State special teams coordinator John Baxter held the same position at Michigan in 2015, so he’s familiar with the stadium and atmosphere, and he’s provided insight to the rest of the staff and players in preparation for the matchup.

“It’s gonna be loud,” said Skipper, who coached in the state of Michigan at CMU from 2020-21. “I mean, it’s 110,000 in there. I know some people say it’s not as loud as you think and all that. We’re anticipating it being loud. It’s the defending national champions. They’re going to be celebrating a championship, all that stuff, so it’ll be loud in there. So we’ll be ready to go for a hostile environment.”

Skipper was asked if he has a mentality of ‘What do we have to lose?’ He said confidently that he doesn’t think that way at all.

“I never think about losing,” Skipper said. “I think about it’s 0-0 and we breathe the same air, so why not go out there and try to win?

“But college football is hard. Every game is going to be hard, no matter who we’re playing. And we just stick to our plan: Play hard, play Bulldog football and let the chips fall as they may. That’s kinda how I look at it. But I’m not a negative guy; I’m more of a positive guy, so I think about ways to win.”

Fresno State preparing for two Michigan quarterbacks

Michigan is planning to name its starting quarterback internally toward the end of the week, and it may not be announced publicly until even closer to kickoff. Senior Davis Warren and junior Alex Orji are in a hotly contested battle that was too close to call heading into the week of practice.

Skipper and Co. are planning to see both signal-callers.

“College football, every year the roster is going to change,” the Fresno State coach said. “And they still haven’t decided on who their starting quarterback is going to be, so we’ve had to practice against different styles. We’ve had to do that since last week. So we’ll see what happens during the game.

“We’re anticipating seeing both, and we’re ready to see both. But they’re going to do it however they do it, and we’re going to have to adjust. 

“You get ready, you see all the stuff they did last year and then you get into the first game and there are going to be new wrinkles, because they obviously have a good coaching staff also. So they’re going to do things that are good for their quarterbacks and their O-line and their running back and all that type of stuff. 

“We’ll see how it goes. It’s a game of adjustments — it really is. And it’s not halftime adjustments. It’s going to be series-to-series adjustments. If we wait until halftime, this game will be over, so we’ll be adjusting as we go.”

Tim Skipper: ‘We want to impose our will’

Fresno State finished tied for 48th nationally with 23.5 points allowed per game last season and is expected to be strong defensively once again. Skipper sees similarities between his program and the Wolverines.

“We want to impose our will. That’s every single week,” the coach said. “That’s just kinda how we were built around here. It’s kinda the grit of the [San Joaquin] Valley. The same way the people of The Valley are is the same way we are.

“Obviously, Michigan thinks the same thing. They’re a physical football team. They’ve put it on film. They’re fundamentally sound. So, hey, we have the same motto — let’s go out there and see who has it, who’s gonna take it. And I’m excited for it.

“I think our guys play physical. We have a lot of full-pad practices. We did a lot of live, tackle-to-the-ground stuff. So it’s time to let the chips out there and see how they fall.”