Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Fresno State’s Logan Hughes caps senior year at home in Las Vegas Bowl

‘Positive outlook’ has guided Green Valley High grad through adversity

Logan Hughes Fresno

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Fresno State running back Ronnie Rivers (20) runs the ball against Boise State behind a block from Logan Hughes (62) during the first half of an NCAA college football game for the Mountain West championship Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018, in Boise, Idaho.

Logan Hughes fancied himself as the next Indiana Jones.

Picturing a lucrative life of globetrotting and exploring, the Green Valley High graduate declared his major as anthropology when he arrived at Fresno State University on a football scholarship three years ago. Then he went to his first class in the major track.

“They say, ‘Tell us what you want to do in this field,’” Hughes recalled. “Everyone is like, ‘I want to be a history professor,’ or, ‘I want to be a museum curator.’ I go, ‘I don’t want to do any of those.’”

Hughes phoned his father and immediately altered his plans. It’s a predicament he looks back and laughs about now, but not one that’s particularly surprising that he found himself in considering his personality.

He acts instinctually, letting his passions guide him. Although it may have resulted in a slight setback from a collegiate perspective, it’s worked out perfectly in football.

Hughes has gone from an overlooked and undersized lineman in high school to the starting left guard on a championship team in college. He’ll finish his career at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium when Fresno State looks to pad its Mountain West Conference championship with a Las Vegas Bowl win over Arizona State.

“It’s pretty special just to play in front of all my friends and family,” Hughes said. “It was cool coming out for UNLV earlier in the year and getting to play in that. To do it twice in a year, hopefully we finish strong. Not hopefully. We’re going to finish with a ring.”

It wouldn’t be the first ring of Hughes’ athletic career. He won a state championship in high school as part of Green Valley’s powerhouse wrestling team.

Hughes credits wrestling for much of his college football success as he says his understanding and mastery of leverage is one of his greatest strengths on the field. Wrestling was a positive long-term, but it may have limited his options in the short-term out of high school.

Always having to be cognizant of the wrestling weight limits, the 6-foot-4 Hughes rarely tipped the scales at larger than 210 pounds in high school, and as he says, “no college wants a lineman who’s 210 pounds.”

“He always loved the game and always expressed to us that he wanted to play but with the position he was in, he wasn’t the biggest guy,” Green Valley High football coach Brian Castro said. “But he had the physicality, and he had the desire.”

Hughes could have played football at a smaller school, but he had his sights set on the Football Bowl Subdivision level. In an effort to make catching the eyes of recruiters possible, he went the junior-college route and headed to Victor Valley in Victorville, Calif., to play defensive end.

The Desert Rams didn’t have enough offensive lineman to field a team, however, so Hughes quickly switched positions at a coach’s request.

“Probably the best decision I ever made football-wise,” Hughes said.

Hughes began packing on weight, adding about 50 pounds before getting noticed by Fresno State’s then-coaching staff in practice after his first season at Victor Valley. He arrived at an FBS school a year ahead of schedule, as he could have played another season in junior college.

“I’m definitely not surprised at all,” Castro said of Hughes’ success. “He was such a physical football player and a great athlete for the position he plays, and he was always out here working hard. I don’t think he ever missed a day here. He enjoyed being out there.”

Hughes made an immediate impact as a sophomore at Fresno State, initially being featured in a couple personnel packages before taking over as the starting left guard for the final half of the season.

Everything changed his junior year.

Fresno State overhauled its coaching staff in the offseason after a 1-11 campaign, with Jeff Tedford taking over the program. Hughes lost his starting spot.

But he said he never got too down, and found plenty of ways to enjoy watching the Bulldogs pull off the nation’s biggest turnaround from the sidelines. Fresno State went 10-2 last season, reaching the Mountain West Conference Championship Game where it lost by three points to Boise State.

“The first year I got to Fresno, everything was about football and nothing else mattered,” Hughes said. “Then, the following spring, I switched majors and started to fall in love with school again. I decided it was, ‘as long as you love what you’re doing,’ and I was doing something I loved. Football was up and down, but I had a positive outlook. Even though I wasn’t playing, you’ve got your brothers out there and I got back to how I felt in high school —just the camaraderie regained.”

Hughes began studying kinesiology with eyes on a career in physical therapy. Finding a new calling helped refresh his mind for his senior season, which he entered intending to make the most of any opportunity.

He didn’t start at the beginning of the year, but implanted himself back at left guard early in the conference season — including in a 48-3 win at UNLV in November.

Hughes said about 25 to 30 friends and family attended the win over the Rebels, and he expected the number to increase to 40 for the Las Vegas Bowl.

He’ll return to Fresno State for a final semester of college in January, but then aims to come home in hopes of getting admitted into UNLV’s physical therapy program.

He’d also like to help out locally with high school football, where the wisdom gleaned from his college journey could be every bit as beneficial as his professional expertise.

“I got lucky enough to have my shot and make the best out of it,” Hughes said.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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