Fresno State will start Jayden Mandal at quarterback in its season-opener at USC on Friday, the fourth-year junior from Buchanan High beating out Maryland transfer Khristian Martin in a competition that started last spring and ran through much of fall camp.
“You guys probably know I’m a numbers guy, and so we kept metrics on everything during the course of fall camp,” coach Matt Entz said, at his game-week press conference. “When I break it down, timing and accuracy were probably the two biggest things that stood out, and then ball security was another one.
“We want to minimize poor decision-making, we want to minimize turnovers, we want to minimize extra possessions by our opponents, and then there were some intangible things as well. Both quarterbacks have shown to be really tremendous leaders. Both of them have the ear of the football team, command of the huddle.”
Mandal, who missed last season with an arm injury, has made significant strides over the past season and summer, particularly operating the offense play-to-play.
“With coach-to-player communication, they get a lot of information pre-snap,” Entz said “But after 15 seconds, it’s on them, and his ability to get us in and out of plays, make the right IDs. It’s just something that he continued to grow and elevate as fall camp evolved.”
The hurdle will be taking gains on the practice field into games. Mandal has played only 33 career snaps, but started for the Bulldogs in a 2024 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl loss to Northern Illinois. He completed 3 of 6 passes in that game for 31 yards, hitting one deep ball in a sudden change situation off a Huskies’ turnover to set up a Bulldogs’ touchdown.
Mandal was replaced after that series by Joshua Wood, who transferred to Idaho after the season. But Mandal is two years older now, a more mature player.
“He shows up every day in the film room with (offensive coordinator Josh Davis) and (offensive assistant Jared Taylor), searching for answers, trying to find solutions to things,” Entz said. “Just, around, intentional about his actions being a quarterback. He told me in the spring when he was kind of maybe coming off the injury a little bit ‘Coach I want to be the starter and I’m going to do everything I can.’”
Mandal was not available to the media on Monday, after the decision was announced. Fall camp practices have been closed the past week.
At USC, the Bulldogs’ quarterback will match up against a USC defense that allowed 5.3 yards per play and three points through three quarters of a 42-26 victory over San Jose State.
The Spartans did have some success in the fourth quarter, but by that point the Trojans were into their depth playing with a 35-3 lead. USC had only one defensive player on the field for as many as 40 of 55 defensive snaps — free safety Prophet Brown — and had 20 players play between 23 and 33 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
This story was originally published August 31, 2026 at 12:52 PM.