FRESNO, Calif. >> Fresno State’s Zach Kline was one of the last to walk off the field at Bulldog Stadium on Saturday night. He carried his helmet in his left hand, chewing on his red mouthpiece, a stars and stripes headband covering his forehead.
A man called to him by the inflatable tunnel that leads to the locker room. Kline shook his hand. Fresno State defensive back Stratton Brown ran up from behind him and gave him a hug. Kline continued the long walk off the field following a heartbreaking 14-13 loss to Hawaii.
The 6-foot-2, 216-pound fifth-year senior had been a surprise starter against the Rainbow Warriors — in fact, the public address announcer told the smattering of people who showed up for this clash of teams with a combined record coming in of 5-16 that Chason Virgil would be starting.
“I knew kind of toward the end of the week that I was most likely going to be the guy,” Kline said.
The well-traveled Kline came on in relief of Virgil last week after the redshirt freshman Virgil suffered a shoulder injury early in a loss at Colorado State. This week, interim coach Eric Kiesau stayed mum on his starting quarterback but indicated Virgil could have played.
“(The) thought process was … you know when you’re a quarterback and you play that position and you’re not doing very well … Sometimes it’s like a golfer — they slice the ball out and they start to overthink it, overanalyze it,” Kiesau said.
It has been a journey for Kline to say the least. Coming out of San Ramon Valley High School-Danville (Calif.), Kline was rated in the top 10 in several recruiting ratings. One had him as high as No. 2. He signed with Cal and coach Jeff Tedford, who was fired at the end of Kline’s redshirt season in 2012.
Kline lost out to Jared Goff the next year, coming off of the bench in six games. Kline then transferred to Butte Community College, where Green Bay Packers star Aaron Rodgers once played. This past spring, Kline returned to Cal, figuring that now that Goff was in the NFL, he could step in as a graduate transfer. He saw action in the spring game, but when he didn’t get the starting job, he enrolled at Fresno State, instead.
Full circle department: Last week, Tedford was named the new head coach of the Bulldogs.
On Saturday, Kline finished 13-for-23 for 108 yards and no turnovers. That doesn’t sound impressive, but he was impressive on a last-minute drive that could have given the Bulldogs just their second win of the season. Hawaii had just scored a touchdown to go up 14-13 with 59 seconds left.
Kline took over on the 25. With limited action this season, one might think Kline would be nervous. One would be wrong.
“There was a complete calmness in the huddle,” Kline said. “You could feel it. You knew that we were going to go down and drive (75) yards and we were going to score. We had everything dialed up. We had a plan, we had a framework.”
Kline zipped the Bulldogs down the field, completing four of six passes for 46 yards. The two incompletions were both dropped, with KeeSean Johnson dropping one that would have put Fresno State inside the 20. On the next play, Kline went right back to Johnson, and this time the receiver hauled it in on the sideline, dancing out of one tackle and going out of bounds at the 24 with eight seconds left.
Kiesau called a timeout and had Kline move the ball to the center of the field for a 2-yard loss. Another timeout (followed by the obligatory icing timeout by Hawaii) and Kody Kroening lined up for a 43-yard game-winning field goal. The junior kicker was 17-for-19 for the season with just one block.
Fairy tales don’t come true, of course. Kroening hit the ball low. Viane Moala got his paws on it and the ball rolled harmlessly down the field, coming to rest at the 2-yard line.
