Fresno State fires Tim DeRuyter

Fresno State finally made the decision to fire head coach Tim DeRuyter now that the team is no longer bowl eligible. Fresno State athletics director Jim Bartko called for a 12 p.m. PT press conference to make it official.

While Bartko appreciated who DeRuyter was but his overall record at Fresno State and the drop off was too much too keep him around.

“Tim DeRuyter is a man of high character – a class individual who is a leader of young men,” said Bartko. “Over the time I’ve been here, the football program has shown it has the ability to be a product the Red Wave can be excited about, but the results have not been to the standard we anticipated and expect.

“When you make a coaching change the evaluation process covers many aspects of the program. Through this process the decision was made to make a change at this time. There are five remaining football games on the schedule, and the focus will be to prepare and put this team in a place to create success and engage the fan base. We look forward to Eric’s leadership, starting with Friday’s Salute to Service game against Air Force.”

DeRuyter had a 31-30 record overall but ever since he lost access to Derek Carr his record fell off quickly and was 10-27 from 2014 to his firing.

Fresno State will honor the rest of DeRuyter’s contract which will pay him $3.1 million over the final two-plus years that were left on his contract.

As of now the leading candidate and reported hire is former Cal head coach Jeff Tedford.

Fresno State is on a short week as they take on Air Force Friday night.