LAS VEGAS – After arriving Monday evening for the Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl, the Fresno State football team kicked off day one of its bowl week on the practice field and capped it with a trip to Maverick Helicopters for media availability followed by a surprise tour of the iconic Las Vegas strip on Tuesday.
The flow of bowl week will be a familiar schedule for the team having been slated for a Saturday contest. The 'Dogs will just have to navigate around the festivities in preparation for the game. Tuesday started with morning meetings followed by a two-hour practice on the campus of UNLV and the energy was high knowing what's in front of them. The 2018 Bulldogs are keyed in on locking up the first 12-win season in program history.
"We've been dialed in on that," said junior Mike Bell about getting a 12th win after practice. "To know that we'd be the first team in Fresno State history to get 12 wins, I think if that happens, we might be considered the best Fresno State team ever, so that's my goal."
In order for that to happen, the Bulldogs will stick to what got them there.
"It's like any other week in the regular season," senior KeeSean Johnson said about this week's approach. "It's been one of our goals since the beginning of the season to get to this game, and we're here, so we're going to treat it like another championship game. That's our mindset."
When the work was over, Fresno State head coach Jeff Tedford and senior captains Marcus McMaryion and George Helmuth attended the first official media event held by the Las Vegas Bowl inside the lobby of Maverick Helicopters. The players met with numerous members of the media and posed for pictures with the official trophy, but what the players didn't know, a helicopter tour was coming next.
Both teams were in the cockpit together for the tour, joining the Bulldogs' were Arizona State's Manny Wilkins (QB) and Eno Benjamin (RB).
"I thought the coolest part was when we took off," said McMaryion. "It took a nose dive and sped forward, that took me for a loop, I wasn't expecting it, luckily George took one for the team and he was by the window so I didn't get the full experience of when we tilted. I was sitting in the middle."
"The scariest part definitely was the initial takeoff," Helmuth noted. "When we really got up high, that put the butterflies in the stomach."
The tour took the players down the strip, starting from McCarran International Airport, and looped around the Stratosphere Tower and back.
"I didn't realize [Las Vegas} was so big," McMaryion added. "I haven't been here that many times, and I think of just the strip, and there's not much else outside of that, but there was lights going on forever out there."
The Bulldogs will get back to work Wednesday morning. The events on tap Wednesday include select players making a trip to Opportunity Village (a not-for-profit organization that serves adults in the southern Nevada community with intellectual and related disabilities) and a welcome reception for the entire team on Fremont Street in the evening.
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