Fresno State makes its play for coach Kalen DeBoer, as ‘Dogs finish season with win

Fresno State is making its play to retain coach Kalen DeBoer, who has been linked to the job opening at Washington in the Pac-12 and could draw interest from other schools at the Power Five conference level as the firing/hiring season in college football heats up.

Athletics director Terry Tumey said before the Bulldogs beat San Jose State 40-9 on Thanksgiving Day at CEFCU Stadium that he has had preliminary conversations with DeBoer’s agent about a possible contract extension, and that university support is there to make a move.

“It’s a compliment that those types of conversations are occurring, but we do value the contributions here at Fresno State and we’re going to make sure our coaching staff recognizes that and the importance of what they do here for the university and the community,” Tumey said.

“We have support in terms of trying to do things to keep this thing moving in the right direction from our administration so I feel really good about that.”

If Washington or another Power Five school does make an offer, Fresno State would not be able to match – Jimmy Lake, the former Huskies’ coach, had a five-year contract worth $16 million and was paid $3.1 million this season.

But the Bulldogs could offer a more competitive deal and get DeBoer, who is in the second season of a five-year deal worth $7 million, closer to the top of the Mountain West.

The highest-paid coach in the conference this season is Craig Bohl at Wyoming, who will make $1.6 million.

Colorado State coach Steve Addazio ($1.55 million), UNLV coach Marcus Arroyo ($1.5 million) and Boise State coach Andy Avalos ($1.4 million) also will be paid more than the Bulldogs’ coach this season in base salary.

DeBoer is making $1.35 million, not including performance bonuses, and the deal tops out at $1.5 million in 2024.

“We’ve been very competitive within our league for the past three coaches,” Tumey said. “We value what football does here and what football means so we’ll continue to be very competitive as it comes to our coaches. That leadership position is an important one to the university and it needs to be compensated appropriately.

“We’ve had some preliminary discussions. Hopefully, we can find some commonality at some point. But there’s a lot of football still to be played, a lot of season, a lot of games to go. We have a lot of unfinished business and the distractions of those type of discussions really do become just that – distractions. We want to focus on these young people and helping them be successful and keeping our team moving in the right direction.”

This story was originally published November 25, 2021 at 5:31 PM.