SAN JOSE — Fresno State played its last Mountain West Conference football game Saturday night, and took home the Valley Trophy as a parting gift.

The Bulldogs played old-school — a strong defense, a rushing attack spread out among several runners, and the occasional big play — in a 41-14 victory at San Jose State.

The Bulldogs (8-4, 5-3 Mountain West) will play next in a yet-to-be-determined bowl game. The Spartans (3-9, 2-6) concluded their season.

“I’m excited for our group and to win eight games — I think that’s unique. Not a lot of teams in the country get eight wins and we have an opportunity now for another one,” head coach Matt Entz said after the game.

Fresno State moves to the revitalized Pacific-12 Conference next year. San Jose State remains in the Mountain West, but the two teams will meet several times over the next few years as non-conference foes.

Seven Bulldogs rushers combined for 259 yards.

Entz preached the depth of the running back room.

“We preach that. We, the team, is on our back. We love that. It gives us a little push each week,” running back Elijah Gilliam said.

Gilliam led Bulldog rushers with 92 yards on nine carries and two touchdowns, including an exclamation point 34-yard touchdown run with two minutes remaining on a fourth-and-three.

He described the play as “slow motion.”

“It just worked out how I’ve been practicing it all week,” Gilliam said.

The defense forced five turnovers — all interceptions — against a cast of Spartans quarterbacks and neutralized the Spartans star wide receiver, Danny Scudero.

ANOTHER ONE! 🤯

📺FS1 pic.twitter.com/uJh297mSvH

— Fresno State Football (@FresnoStateFB) November 30, 2025

Warner Gets the Start

Quarterback E.J. Warner started for the Bulldogs in a week when Entz said he was unsure who his QB1 would be. And just when the old Warner reemerged, the senior shook it off.

Warner completed 10 of his first 12 passes and seemed to find his rhythm. Then it happened again — he threw to the wrong team. This time, Jordan Pollard took the ball back 42 yards for a pick-six. It was Warner’s 11th interception of the season in nine games. He also lost a fourth-quarter fumble, his fourth of the year. Pollard excelled throughout the game, finishing with 12 tackles.

“I said let it go. Skin like a duck at times, E.J.,” Entz said. “Being a quarterback, you better have thick skin and you better be able to move on and he did a good job.”

Warner finished 15-for-20 for 138 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.

After the Warner interception, Fresno State then ran nine straight plays on the next two drives — including running back Bryson Donelson fumbling the ball away. But SJSU couldn’t convert, missing a field goal.

Warner, with an empty backfield, connected with Josiah Freeman for a 37-yard touchdown. Freeman then took an end-around for the 2-point conversion for a 21-7 lead in the second quarter.

The defense provided Warner and the offense with five turnovers, including an interception from Al’zillion Hamilton. The senior cornerback guarded the Spartans Biletnikoff Award semifinalist Scudero most of the night, shutting him down. Scudero finally broke free in the fourth, with a 36-yard reception. Scudero was targeted 17 times, but only caught four passes for 57 yards.

Ethan Tierney prevented the 37th yard, and a possible touchdown with a hard goal line hit. The Spartans scored three plays later.

A Strong First Half

Until Warner’s interception and Donelson’s fumble, the Bulldogs rolled.

After an opening three-and-out, the defense gave the Bulldogs excellent field position on the next three drives. A poor Spartan punt set the Bulldogs up at the SJSU 35 for their second drive. They settled for a 34-yard Dylan Lynch field goal.

The next two Spartan drives resulted in back-to-back interceptions by Simeon “No Panic” Harris that led to another Lynch field goal from 41 yards. Hamilton followed with a pick on a tipped pass. It was the fourth interception for both Harris and Hamilton. Warner needed only five plays to go 37 yards, capped by running back Brandon Ramirez barreling in from 2 yards out.

“The ball is team, the team is the ball,. That’s our ball and no one gets to play with it. We just go take it,” Harris, who finished with two interceptions, said after the game.

Tami Amisone started at quarterback for the Spartans in place of the injured Walker Eget. After the two interceptions, Robert McDaniel relieved him in the second quarter. One drive later, Xavier Ward replaced McDaniel.

The Bulldogs were officially eliminated from Mountain West title game contention Friday, when New Mexico defeated San Diego State in overtime. With Boise State and UNLV also winning, the Mountain West has a four-way tie for first place.

Mountain West Madness

After the weekend’s games, the Mountain West championship matchup won’t be known until Sunday.

A four-way tie at 6-2 among San Diego State, Boise State, New Mexico and UNLV leaves the decision to the computers. The conference said it will release the computer results — and the title game matchup — by 8 a.m. Pacific time Sunday.

The first tiebreaker among three or more teams — head-to-head record or a sweep — didn’t resolve the issue.

The second tiebreaker — either ranking in the most recent College Football Playoff or the average ranking of four computer polls — will determine the two teams playing Friday in a 5 p.m. kickoff on Fox. Since no Mountain West teams were ranked in the CFP poll, the Connelly SP+, ESPN SOR, KPI and SportSource rankings will decide.

Heading into this week’s games, San Diego State ranked highest in the three publicly known polls (SP+, SOR and KPI), followed by UNLV, Boise State and New Mexico.

The two highest-ranked teams in the computer average will then be matched through the two-team tiebreaker to determine the host. Here are the possibilities:

• San Diego State vs. New Mexico: New Mexico hosts.
• San Diego State vs. Boise State: San Diego State hosts.
• Boise State vs. New Mexico: Boise State hosts.
• San Diego State vs. UNLV: the computer rankings will decide.
• Boise State vs. UNLV: Boise State hosts.
• New Mexico vs. UNLV: New Mexico hosts.

Where Will the Bulldogs Go?

Seven Mountain West teams qualified for bowl games (minimum six wins), including the Bulldogs. The conference champion will play in the L.A. Bowl on Dec. 13. The other six teams will likely play (in order of date): Potato Bowl (Dec. 22 in Boise); Frisco Bowl (Dec. 23 in Frisco, Texas); Hawai‘i Bowl (Dec. 24 in Honolulu); First Responder Bowl (Dec. 26 in Dallas); Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl (Dec. 27 in Tucson, Arizona); or the New Mexico Bowl (Dec. 27 in Albuquerque, New Mexico).

Entz wasn’t worried where the next destination may be.

“I’m not going to overthink that. It’s my first FBS bowl game, so I’ll be super excited about the experience and want to make sure that our players are prepared and we go about it with a thought process that if we’re going to play, let’s go play to win,” Entz said.

“Anybody, anytime, anywhere. We are going to be ready. We’re going to try to get one more win. So we’ll be ready. Wherever it is, we’ll be ready to go,” Harris said.

ESPN will have a role in deciding who plays where. Decisions will be announced Sunday, Dec. 7. While logic would suggest home teams play in their home bowls (for example, Hawai‘i in the Hawai‘i Bowl or New Mexico in the New Mexico Bowl), it doesn’t always work that way.

Logic would also suggest a team wouldn’t play in the same bowl two years in a row. Fresno State played in the Potato Bowl last year. The best guess: sipping gin and juice in Tucson.