Fresno State football opens first day of fall camp under head coach Matt Entz

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- This year's Bulldogs have a saying on shirts and on the practice field fence: "toughness wins."

Day one of Fall camp didn't bring the typical tough temperatures of a Fresno summer.

"It's 12:21 p.m. and it's 80 degrees," said head coach Matt Entz. "If we could keep dialing it up, I'm all for it."

This season, first-year coach Matt Entz plans on dialing up a run-first offense.

"They told us we're going to be running the ball a lot, so we lick our chops when we get that call," said senior running back Elijah Gilliam.

There's also a battle to see who will win the job of starting quarterback between Buchanan grad Jayden Mandal, Sacramento State transfer Carson Conklin and Rice and Temple transfer EJ Warner.

"I brought [the QBs] in yesterday for a meeting, said these are the things I'm looking for and then I'll make a decision right around practice 15," Entz said.

Warner has the most experience of the bunch and leads the FBS in career passing yards with 8,814.

"Definitely cool to be recognized with all those names on there," Warner said. "Trying to add to that and trying to translate to wins while I'm here."

Warner is the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner and, like his dad, is back wearing the number 13 but this time in a bigger size.

"I've gained a lot of good weight, a lot of speed that was kind of the main thing for me going into my senior year making sure my body was ready," he said.

Warner is just one of a number of new faces, including K'vion Thunderbird, a sophomore linebacker who transferred in from Arizona State.

"I feel like we had a great day of practice," Thunderbird said. "We had guys communicate. That's the big thing really."

While game one is just 30 days away, coach Entz says he's taking his time in building a depth chart, saying that the "real evaluation will start when we get the pads on."

The Bulldogs open up the 2025 season in week 0 on the road against Kansas on August 23.

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