Jeff Tedford agrees to return as Fresno State coach after sides close big gap in negotiations

Fresno State closed what a university source said was a substantial financial gap in contract negotiations with Jeff Tedford on Tuesday and has a deal to bring the former Bulldogs football coach back to his alma mater.

A formal announcement could come as soon as Wednesday, once the contract is finalized.

Timing is becoming more of a factor, with the final weekend of official recruiting visits before the Dec. 15 early national letter of intent signing period rapidly approaching. But as the sides worked through a deal a potential sticking point could be the available performance bonuses included in the contract.

Fresno State was prepared to bump the base pay of coach Kalen DeBoer before he departed for a Power Five conference opportunity at Washington – he was paid $1.35 million this season and his deal topped out at $1.5 million in the final year of a five-year contract.

A base salary in that range or slightly higher would make Tedford one of the highest paid coaches in the Mountain West Conference – Colorado State coach Jay Norvell, hired away from Nevada on Monday, will reportedly receive a five-year contract worth $9 million, an average of $1.8 million per season.

When Tedford was hired in 2016 to take on a program that had just finished 1-11, bottoming out in a third losing season in a row, his contract included more than $2.7 million in available annual performance bonuses, not including a $350,000 completion bonus. That contract was problematic for an athletics department that at the time was struggling to competitively fund 21 sports programs, and became a point of contention in a caustic separation between the university and former athletics director Jim Bartko.

Tedford in 2017 was paid $2,751,710 including performance bonuses, according to financial documents the athletics department submits annually to the NCAA. That was nearly $1.6 million more than the coaches of the Bulldogs’ other six men’s sports programs combined. The men’s and women’s coaches in the department’s 20 other sports programs were paid just shy of $3.5 million total.

In 2018, he was paid $3,077,229 including bonuses, nearly $1.7 more than the coaches of the Bulldogs’ other men’s sports programs. The men’s and women’s coaches were paid around $3.6 million.

The Bulldogs won 22 football games and a Mountain West championship in those two seasons, but did not sell out a single home game and had crowds of more than 35,000 just twice. A chunk of any increase in budgeted ticket revenue also just went back to the head coach – among those bonuses, $200,000 for a paid attendance of 130,000 or more, or $300,000 for a paid attendance of 152,000 or more.

A sticky point in contract negotiations?

Fresno State even after eliminating its wrestling, men’s tennis and women’s lacrosse program thrives despite a tight financial outlook, and is facing significant and costly infrastructure improvements including planned upgrades to the aged Bulldog Stadium. University officials are not likely to sign off on a contract with Tedford or another football coach that posed such risk to its athletics portfolio with now 17 other sports programs, many of which have not seen a significant increase in their operating budgets in years.

But the university finally is close to an agreement with Tedford, who stepped away following that injury-riddled 2019 season due to heart-related health issues. Tedford the following month had a cardiac ablation, a procedure that scars tissue in the heart to block abnormal electrical signals and restores a normal heart rhythm.

The former Bulldogs quarterback, assistant coach, coordinator and head coach made it clear when he stepped away that he was resigning, not retiring. Any plans he had for an extended vacation were compromised by the coronavirus pandemic. But, three weeks ago, as chatter linking DeBoer to Washington heated up, Tedford’s agent told athletics department officials that he was ready for a return to the sidelines.

This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 5:46 PM.