Unbeaten Fresno State Has a Distinct El Camino Flavor : Football: Winning is a way of life for three former Warrior gridders and as a result, the Bulldogs are on a 5-0 roll.

The last time these three guys played football together, their team went undefeated in 11 games en route to a national community college championship.

That was 1987. The place was El Camino College. And the trio was composed of Bryan Burnett, Aaron Craver and Dwight Pickens.

The three have been reunited this year at Fresno State. And after a 35-18 victory over Oregon State on Saturday night, the Bulldogs are 5-0 thus far.

So what’s the secret?

Craver, Fresno State’s tackle-breaking junior tailback who is on a pace to shatter nearly every rushing mark in the Bulldogs’ record book this year, thinks the solution is a simple one.

“Winners,” Craver said. “The three of us have won a lot of games, and the people we’re playing with won a lot of games before they came onto this team. That’s the chemistry to it.”

Whatever the reason, Fresno State is on a roll, and a big part of the Bulldogs’ success has to be due to its El Camino connection on offense:

* Craver is one of the nation’s top rushers, with an average of 107 yards per game.

* Pickens is Fresno State’s big-play receiver, averaging 27.7 yards per catch.

* And Burnett, the Bulldogs’ best possession receiver, had a pair of crucial touchdown receptions in Fresno State’s first two victories.

What it all adds up to is a lot of points on the scoreboard for Fresno State.

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. In Division I football, that streak is second only to the 17-game current winning streak of top-ranked Notre Dame. Miami of Florida, a perennial collegiate powerhouse, also owns a 12-game winning streak.

All of which puts Fresno State in some pretty heady company. 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.

Fresno State Coach Jim Sweeney is the first to admit that he’s had some banner recruiting years of late. 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.

Dwight Pickens

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.

The school didn’t earn its reputation as “Wide Receiver University” for nothing. 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.

Pickens would like to become the fourth name on that list.

After 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. He was courted by Miami, UCLA, Oregon, Washington State, Iowa and Utah.

But 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. Unfortunately for Pickens, “Wide Receiver University” was in the process of converting to “Running Back University” when he arrived.

With the freshman Barsotti at the helm, Sweeney chose to emphasize Fresno State’s running game to take pressure off his inexperienced quarterback. 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.

Nonetheless, Pickens was a big part of Fresno State’s 10-2 season. 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.

This year, Fresno State’s offense is opening up, and Pickens is now the most dangerous weapon in the Bulldogs’ aerial arsenal. 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.

Pickens’ 13 receptions have gone for 360 yards--which leads to Pickens’ most important number, that average of 27.7 yards per play.

By comparison, the Rams’ Ellard averaged 26 yards per catch his senior year at Fresno State.

“That’s a major field position switch,” Sweeney said. “That means if he catches the ball three times, we score once. If he catches it six times, we score twice. And so on.”

And, Sweeney says, Pickens is comparable to Ellard in his potential as an overall offensive threat. 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.

Sweeney rates Pickens’ speed somewhere at a step behind Ellard and a step ahead of Paige.

“He’s a prospect, that’s for sure,” Sweeney said. “Plus he’s a playmaker. He’s very good in the clutch.”

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. At 145 pounds his senior year, Pickens thought he was too small to play football.

He sat out three years before enrolling at El Camino. By 1986, thanks mostly to working with his father at a Knudsen’s ice cream plant, Pickens was tipping the scales at 170. He always knew he had pretty good speed, so he tried out for the Warrior football team.

And even though Pickens hadn’t played tackle football since his Pop Warner days, his speed was enough to land him a spot on El Camino’s roster. Pickens said the strangeness of it all disappeared in his first game, after El Camino quarterback Craig Kennedy hit him for a short completion against Glendale.

“After that first catch, it all seemed like second nature,” Pickens said.

Aaron Craver

Aaron Craver has a similar story to tell about his high school days. His football coach at Compton High School said Craver’s arm was too weak to play quarterback and that his body was too frail for running back.

Instead, Craver suited up for track and became a hurdler. On his graduation day, he stood 5 feet, 9 inches and weighed 150 pounds.

Today, Craver is a strapping 6 feet, 1 inch and 215 pounds, and he punishes defenses with his gung-ho running style.

Swift and sure-footed in the open field, but with a knack for running through linebackers and defensive backs, Craver has the all-around talent that has led Sweeney to brand him the best running back on the West Coast.

But Craver was still something of an unknown quantity to Sweeney when he arrived at Fresno State, despite his physical attributes and the 845 yards he had rushed for in 1988 at El Camino.

“Aaron passed the eyeball test, that’s for sure” Sweeney said. “He just looks like a great running back. But there are a lot of guys who look like Tarzan and play like Jane.”

Craver quickly swept aside any doubts Sweeney may have had, with a fearsome 4.29-second clocking in the 40-yard dash.

And also with his coachability.

“A lot of players give you, ‘Yes, sir,’ and ‘Aye aye, sir,’ when you tell them to do something, and then they don’t do it,” Sweeney said.

“But you can look Aaron Craver right in the eye and tell him you want him to run harder. And he runs harder on the very next play. He doesn’t need any repetitions.”

Craver’s coachability was an asset when he was a raw product at El Camino. Like Pickens, Craver toyed with the idea of playing baseball at El Camino, but an ankle injury during baseball tryouts squelched that idea.

Instead, Craver showed up on the football field in sandals and a pair of torn-up shorts for the 1987 tryouts.

Craver’s raw speed was impressive enough that he made the team. So was his work ethic. He spent hours at El Camino refining the fundamental skills he had missed out on by skipping high school football--skills such as the basics of run-and-pass blocking, and receiving. Craver gained 510 yards as a freshman on the 1987 championship team.

It has paid off at Fresno State. Not only is Craver a deluxe rusher, he’s also a ferocious blocking back.

“Aaron is a lot like Marcus Allen in that he blocks just as hard as he runs,” Sweeney said. “He takes a great deal of pride in his blocking, and it’s something that most running backs just aren’t all that crazy about doing.”

After four games, Craver is already on a pace to shatter Fresno State’s record for rushing yardage in a season. In his first four Division I games, Craver became the first Fresno State back to rush for over 100 yards in four straight games.

He’s also a sure-handed receiver. He’s tied for the team lead in receptions with Pickens, with 13 for 136 yards.

“He can catch the ball deep and score with it,” Sweeney said. “That’s something that we haven’t exploited yet. He can catch the ball thrown behind him, in front of him, low or high. He’s got awesome hands.”

Craver’s hands are going to be on the football a lot more this season. Sweeney considers his backfield tandem of Craver and fullback Myron Jones (averaging 83 yards rushing per game) on par with San Jose State’s combo of Johnny Johnson and Sheldon Canley as one of the top one-two punches in the nation.

As at El Camino, Craver still has a tendency to bury his helmet a little too often into oncoming bodies, and he likes to run over tacklers as often as around them. But if he can avoid injury, Craver is going to send the NFL scouts flocking after his combination of size and speed.

The scariest thing might be that he is only a junior.

But if it hadn’t been for some nifty recruiting research by Fresno State assistant coach Steve Mooshagian, Craver might not be playing Division I football at all.

Craver’s four-touchdown, 142-yard performance in El Camino’s 49-22 thumping of Saddleback in last year’s Pony Bowl had convinced many scouts that he was for real. But after learning that Craver hadn’t scored higher than 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test as a senior at Compton, recruiters from Texas-El Paso, Nebraska and Oregon State backed off.

Mooshagian didn’t. He found a loophole around the requirements of the NCAA’s Proposition 48. Since Craver had graduated from Compton in 1985, before Prop. 48 was passed, he only needed to meet two requirements to play Division I ball--a grade point average higher than 2.0 in high school, and 24 units of transferable courses from a community college.

Mooshagian did some detective work. He got hold of Craver’s high school transcripts, which showed a grade point average of 2.6 at Compton. Craver had also earned enough credits at El Camino to be eligible.

Which was Fresno State’s gain, and everyone else’s loss.

“Aaron is only going to get better,” Sweeney said. “Right now, he kind of zeroes in on guys and tries to knock them out. He’s not using his elusiveness as much as he can. But if he was a senior, he’d be a very high draft choice right now.”

Bryan Burnett

When he can’t go over the top of the defense with Pickens, or go through it with Craver, Sweeney can always turn to junior flanker Bryan Burnett.

And Burnett usually finds a way around it.

Burnett’s nifty moves, precise pass routes and dependable hands were the main tools he used to pile up 703 receiving yards last year at El Camino. He’s doing more of the same at Fresno State.

“Bryan is an excellent possession receiver,” Sweeney said. “He’s made some outstanding, tough catches already for us.”

Burnett, a Banning High School product, is right behind Pickens and Craver with 10 receptions. Two of those--one in each of Burnett’s first two games at Fresno State--have gone for touchdowns.

He’s also a hard worker. Burnett says much of his dependability comes from his days at El Camino. He remembers how El Camino Coach John Featherstone taught him that a dropped pass in practice is as bad as a dropped pass in a game.

Burnett caught on quickly, grabbing 15 passes for 457 yards to contribute to El Camino’s championship drive.

“Coach Featherstone used to stress catching the ball at all times,” Burnett said. “He didn’t believe in dropping any balls in practice. And it makes a difference.”

Consequently, Burnett is often Barsotti’s desperation target when he’s flushed out of the pocket and his receivers are covered. He knows that if he can get the pass near Burnett, it will probably be caught.

“A lot of times, when a quarterback is pressured, it’s an accomplishment if he can get the ball within five yards of the receiver,” Sweeney said. “Bryan adjusts well to the ball, and the quarterbacks appreciate that.”

Burnett was Fresno State’s leading receiver against Oregon State. He hauled in four passes for 47 yards in that game.

So it’s no surprise that Sweeney plans to expand Burnett’s role from a short-route, possession receiver to more of a deep threat.

It’s also no surprise that Burnett and Pickens, friends from their El Camino glory days, are roommates at Fresno State. And Craver spends much of his free time at the Burnett-Pickens apartment, so the three old teammates have established a little family unit away from home.

“When we first got up here, we didn’t know anyone,” Burnett said. “So it’s just natural that we’re closer than ever.”

In their spare time, the trio try bowling, the batting cages or dominoes--anything competitive, Craver said, “where we can see who’s best.” A lot of times, they sit and reminisce about their triumph at El Camino.

“That’s one of the memories I’ll never forget,” Pickens said of the 1987 season. “Not too many teams get to go undefeated at any level of football. It’s definitely something to cherish for life and be proud of.”

Craver considers his friendship with Burnett and Pickens to be an extension of the family spirit that the El Camino championship team had as a unit.

“That was the best time I ever had in my life,” Craver said. “It was a family, and the three of us played a big part in that family tradition. I remember everybody on that team ate together. The whole team would just take over the mall, like 80 guys, and everybody would be looking at us, wondering who all these people were. Everybody put in a little extra so the guys that didn’t have any money could get something to eat.”

The three old teammates traveled down to Fullerton two weeks ago, when Fresno State had an off weekend, to watch El Camino, ranked No. 1 in the state and undefeated, hand a 31-24 defeat to Fullerton.

There, they traded old stories with Cal State Fullerton quarterback Dan Speltz, who led the El Camino offense in 1987. And they passed on some wisdom to the younger players.

“That team seems to have the same thing going,” Craver said.

Craver said he sees a similar scenario building at Fresno State, now that the three old buddies from El Camino have settled in as the mainstays of the offense.

“We may be developing the same kind of family tradition here at the university level,” Craver said. “It’s just taking a little longer. One thing’s for sure, there aren’t any individuals. We all come together when the game is on the line.”