{"id":485216,"date":"2026-10-04T23:16:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T23:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485216\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T23:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T23:16:28","slug":"fresno-state-wins-pac-12-debut-beats-washington-state-26-6-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485216\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno State wins Pac-12 debut, beats Washington State 26-6"},"content":{"rendered":"

PULLMAN, Wash. — – Wide receiver Josiah Freeman<\/a> scored on a reverse and Fresno State beat Washington State 23-6 on Saturday night in the inaugural game for both teams in the new-look Pac-12 Conference.<\/p>\n

Washington State (1-4), off to its worst start since the 2010 season, had a season-low 30 yards rushing and finished with 182 total yards. The Cougars, went into the game 130th out of 138 teams in the Bowl Subdivision in third-down conversions at 28.9% (13 of 45) this season, were 3 of 14 (21.4%) on third down against the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Fresno State (4-1) has won four in a row since a 39-0<\/a> loss at then-No. 14 USC in the season opener.<\/p>\n

Freeman, who finished with seven receptions for 61 yards, took a pitch from Jayden Mandal<\/a> and outraced the defense to the right corner of the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown that gave Fresno State a 13-6 lead with 9:31 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Julius Gillick<\/a> had an 8-yard rushing touchdown for the Bulldogs. Mandal finished 24-of-33 passing for 245 yards.<\/p>\n

Manaki Watanabe<\/a> made field goals from 27, 22, 31 and 33 yards, the last of which capped the scoring with 3:15 left. His 33-yard attempt midway through the third quarter was blocked by Damarjhe Lewis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Caden Pinnick<\/a> was 21-of-34 passing for 152 yards with an interception for Washington State.<\/p>\n

Fresno State running back Rayshon Luke<\/a> left the game in the first quarter and did not return (concussion protocol).<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Washington State: Plays Friday at Utah State.<\/p>\n

Fresno State: Hosts No. 22 Boise State next Saturday.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here<\/a>, visit the Top 25 here<\/a> and see AP’s full college football coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PULLMAN, Wash. — – Wide receiver Josiah Freeman scored on a reverse and Fresno State beat Washington State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[189724,1321,750,112,114,113,3257,13667],"class_list":["post-485216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-189724","tag-college-football","tag-espn","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-fresno-state-bulldogs","tag-washington-state-cougars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}