FRESNO STATE HEAD COACH
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n his second year as head coach of the Fresno State Bulldogs, Tim DeRuyter rode the positive momentum from a season ago, becoming the winning first-year coach in Fresno State history, by guiding the ‘Dogs to an 11-1 regular season record and the school’s first outright conference championship since 1989 in his sophomore campaign. DeRuyter, who was hired as the 17th head coach at Fresno State on Dec. 14, 2011, has guided the Bulldogs to a 20-5 record and holds the school’s highest winning percentage for a TIM DERUYTER coach thus far in his career. With a coach that preaches conference titles are his team’s ultimate goal in the preseason to strive for, he has come up nothing else but short as he has led Fresno State to back-to-back conference championships for the first time since the 1992-93 seasons in two seasons playing in the Mountain West . In addition, DeRuyter is the first head coach at Fresno State to lead his team to back-to-back bowl games in his first two seasons at the helm. The Bulldogs gained a berth in the Sheraton Hawai’I Bowl last season after its sharp turnaround, and have accepted an invite to face USC in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 21. The improvements under DeRuyter and his staff are significant, but the sharpest improvements come in the one category that matters most - winning games. Fresno State finished the 2011 season 4-9 overall, improved to 9-4 in his first year and has the Bulldogs at 11-1 with one game to go. DeRuyter’s Bulldogs are the fifth 11 win team in school history and could become the first team in Fresno State history to reach 12 wins with a bowl victory in Las Vegas. With a background rooted on the defensive side of the ball - he was a defensive coordinator for 16 years before coming to Fresno State - DeRuyter changed the philosophy of how the ’Dogs played on both sides of the ball. Offensively, the Bulldogs went to an up-tempo spread offense in 2012 and finished in the top 20 nationally in scoring, passing and total offense. With an additional year in the system, his team improved that ranking in 2013 to the top 5 nationally in scoring, passing and total offense. Defensively, Fresno State’s most momentous change came in the turnover department. Fresno State had ranked 111th or worse in turnovers gained in the six previous seasons before DeRuyter’s arrival and tied for dead last in the nation in 2011 with only nine take-aways. In one season in DeRuyter’s 3-4 defense, now run by defensive coordinator Nick Toth, Fresno State had 35 take-aways to rank fifth nationally. The take-aways count has slightly dropped during the 2013 season to 21 so far, but good enough to rank inside the Top 50 in the FBS. Where the Bulldogs have excelled in DeRuyter’s second season is getting pressure on the quarterback and delivering sacks. Fresno State ranks tied No. 16
1 in the FBS with 39 sacks in 11 games and rank tied for fourth in nation with 98 tackles for loss. DeRuyter came to Fresno State with 22 years of coaching experience. He took over the Bulldog program after serving the previous two seasons as the assistant head coach/defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. There, he also served as the interim head coach for the Aggies in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas against Northwestern on Dec. 31, 2011, leading A&M to a 33-22 victory. DeRuyter hails from a pair of Hall of Fame coaches, as he was mentored by Fisher DeBerry at Air Force and by Chris Ault at Nevada. DeRuyter was a 2010 nominee for the Broyles Award that honors the nation’s top assistant coach, when he was working under former Green Bay Packers coach Mike Sherman. In DeRuyter’s two seasons with Texas A&M, he did what he has consistently accomplished throughout his career - developed defensive units that are among the best in the nation. DeRuyter made an immediate impact during his first season in Aggieland as the 2010 squad improved fifty spots in the national rankings for total defense, rising to No. 55 in the country as the resurrected Wrecking Crew helped lead A&M to the Cotton Bowl. In 2011, Texas A&M led the nation with 51 sacks and the Aggies were second in the Big 12 by only allowing 106.0 rushing yards per game. Before coaching the Aggie defense, DeRuyter spent three years as the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at his alma mater, Air Force. He also held the title of associate coach in 2008 and 2009. His last year at Air Force saw the Falcons sport one of the top defense’s in the country. Air Force ranked 11th in the NCAA in total defense in 2009, allowing just 288.3 yards per game. The secondary, under his watch, ranked fifth in the country by giving up just 154.3 passing yards per game and its 20 interceptions were the seventh-most in the FBS. For the season, Air Force created 34 turnovers to rank No. 5 nationally and the Falcon defense also ranked high nationally in fewest first down’s allowed (No. 4 at 14.62 per game), scoring defense (No. 10 at 15.69 points per game) and third-down efficiency (No. 13 at 30.86 percent). His transformation of the Falcon defense was evident in the fact that the
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