DeRuyter pushing Fresno State forward to Utah

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Even after a full day of reviewing film, Bulldog head coach Tim DeRuyter had a tough time finding anything positive to take from his team's performance in Saturday's 52-13 blowout loss to USC.

"We've had a lot of happy Sundays the last couple years, and certainly yesterday was not one of them," admitted DeRuyter. "But it also gives you that drive to get up and go OK how do we fix this?"

Headlining a long list of disappointments for DeRuyter was the fact his defense couldn't seem to get off the field. USC racked up a school and Pac-12 record 105 plays for 701 total yards.

"The depressing part of it, you know it's like hey we're playing good for a second down defense especially when we're getting into third and longs," said DeRuyter. "But we weren't able to make that play on third down on critical downs."

Both players and coaches say they can't wait for this Saturday's game at Utah, if for nothing else, to show the USC game was an anomaly and the real Bulldogs will be on display against the Utes. Utah demolished Idaho State 56-14 last Thursday.

"This feels like a hiccup," said offensive lineman Justin Northern. "This isn't something where we're going oh maybe this is. No. We all understand this isn't us and we're moving on."

"Our players relish these kind of opportunities," said DeRuyter. "We didn't take advantage of our opportunity on Saturday but thankfully we've got another one to hopefully show people what we showed on Saturday is not the 2014 Bulldogs."

Kickoff at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City is set for 12 p.m. Pacific, and will be shown live on the Pac-12 Network.