Fresno State goes with a Jeff Tedford link, hiring Kalen DeBoer as football coach

Fresno State has hired Kalen DeBoer as its next football coach, handing him the reins to a program that he helped rebuild under Jeff Tedford, who stepped down Dec. 6 due to heart-related health issues.

The hire was for the most part a layup, the Bulldogs’ words and actions hinting at a seamless transition.

Without a head coach in place, the assistants were sent on the road to recruit, offer scholarships and accept commitments from high school and junior college players.

Athletics director Terry Tumey talked up the San Joaquin Valley and its ties to the Bulldogs’ program, the importance of one to the other and vice versa. He said Tedford would help advise him through the process, knowing the Bulldogs’ former coach had hired DeBoer in 2017 to be his offensive coordinator despite the fact they had never worked together.

Now DeBoer, who left Fresno State after a Mountain West Conference championship season in 2018 for a Power Five program at Indiana, is the Bulldogs’ coach.

He will be introduced at a news conference on Tuesday, just ahead of the start of the early national letter of intent signing period for recruits that begins Wednesday.

The latest: Fresno State signs new football coach Kalen DeBoer to $7 million contract

Turnarounds at Indiana, Eastern Michigan

DeBoer at Indiana was fashioning the same type of turnaround that he had at Fresno State and before that at Eastern Michigan.

The Hoosiers this season won eight games for the first time since 1993 and are set to play Tennessee in the Jan. 2 Gator Bowl. It wasn’t immediately clear if DeBoer will stay on for that game.

The offense in DeBoer’s first season made significant gains In averaging 308.7 passing yards per game, up from 257.8 a year ago; 32.6 points per game, up from 26.4.

He leaves behind a group that returns its starting quarterback, top six running backs, top four tight ends and five of its top seven wideouts for a second run as a head coach.

Fresno State can only hope this one is as successful – DeBoer was 67-3 and won three NAIA national championships when at Sioux Falls from 2005 to ‘09. The Cougars won the last 29 games with DeBoer as coach and 55 of the last 56, the loss to Carroll College in the 2007 championship game.

Challenges at Fresno State

For Fresno State, most of the questions come off the football field.

Will DeBoer invigorate a fan base that has not filled Bulldog Stadium for a game since 2014? Will he inspire donors to come up with the $20 million needed to take a next step on a new, privately funded football facility, which would create badly needed space for the athletics department and its 21 sports programs? Will he give the Bulldogs and Fresno State a jolt on a national stage, raise the profile of the program or the university?

DeBoer definitely has a head start, the ties to the Valley and the program Tumey felt so important and to Tedford.

The staff Tedford assembled in 2017 engineered an all-time comeback, taking a team that was 1-11 to 10-4 in their first season and 12-2 with a Mountain West championship in their second. No team in FBS history had lost 10 or more games in one season and won 10 or more games in the next two.

This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 10:14 AM.