BREAKING: Fresno State hires Jeff Tedford

After losing head coach Kalen DeBoer to Washington last week, a new coaching hire has been made. Jeff Tedford will be returning to the sidelines in Fresno, according to sources close to the program. A press conference has been announced for 10:30PT Wednesday morning supposedly to confirm the hire.

Tedford was the head coach at Fresno State from 2017-2019, amassing a 26-14 record in three seasons before health issues forced him to step away from the program, clearing the way for DeBoer taking over. Tedford confirmed that he had a medical procedure performed at the Mayo Clinic that has fixed his health problems, and he is ready to return to college coaching. He led the Bulldogs to a 10 win season and West Division Title in 2017 and then a 12 win season involving a Mountain West Conference Title and a CFP ranking. 2019 featured a slew of one possession losses as Tedford’s health declined, but all seems to be fine now. The former Cal head coach had a 82-57 record in 12 seasons in Berkeley before taking a stop at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and University of Washington before coming back to his alma mater following the disastrous end to the Tim DeRuyter era.

It is expected that Lee Marks, William Inge, and Kirby Moore will still run the team for the bowl game, while Tedford works on assembling a staff and finalizing the 2022 recruiting class before the Early Signing Period begins. The biggest question mark for the Bulldogs will be at QB, with Jake Haener’s shock decision to enter the transfer portal. Will he now choose to remain in Fresno for one more year under Tedford, or will he follow his more recent head coach back to Washington? True freshman Jaylen Henderson and redshirt freshman Logan Fife will be competing for the starting QB spot in the bowl game and going forward, but I would not be surprised to see Tedford look at a transfer QB like he did when he brought in Marcus McMaryion when he first arrived in Fresno.

As more news becomes available, it will be posted on here. But for now, everything looks much brighter in Fresno than it did a week ago. We got our man back, and it looks like the march back to the top of the Mountain West will continue on like it did during his first stint.