Fresno State football fills offensive coordinator opening, loses running backs coach

Fresno State lost running backs coach James Montgomery to Boise State, but did make official the promotions of Pat McCann to offensive coordinator from receivers coach and Matt Wade to quarterbacks coach from offensive quality control assistant on Tuesday following a very successful pattern under coach Jeff Tedford.

McCann inherits a challenging situation with Fresno State losing quarterback Jake Haener, running back Jordan Mims and wideouts Jalen Moreno-Cropper, Nikko Remigio, Zane Pope as well as Ty Jones and tight end Raymond Pauwels.

Haener represents 76.5% of the Bulldogs’ passing yards and 20 of 22 passing touchdowns from last season; Mims 72.1% of their rushing yards and 18 of 21 rushing touchdowns by running backs; and Moreno-Cropper, Remigio and Pope 77.2% of the receiving yards and 15 of 19 touchdowns by the wideouts.

McCann’s solid resume includes his work with the Bulldogs’ wideouts last season when Fresno State led the Mountain West in scoring and total offense and was second in passing. He was the passing game coordinator and an interim offensive coordinator at Eastern Washington before he was hired by Tedford, helping lead one of the most dynamic offenses at the FCS level.

In 2021 the Eagles averaged 400.5 passing yards with 47 passing touchdowns over 13 games, leading the Big Sky Conference by large margins. Sacramento State was second in passing yards with 291.7 per game and Montana State was second in passing touchdowns with 25.

Among the Bulldogs’ 10 on-field assistant coaches, Wade takes the spot of offensive coordinator Kirby Moore, who moved on and up to a Power Five conference at Missouri. Tedford two weeks ago hired Brian Armstrong from Montana State to replace offensive line coach and run game coordinator Saga Tuitele, who accepted a job at Arizona State prior to the Bulldogs’ victory over Washington State in the LA Bowl to cap a 10-4 season.

Tedford in his two stints and four seasons at his alma mater has had three offensive coordinators and all of them are now working at the Power Five conference level.

Kalen DeBoer, who was in relative obscurity at Eastern Michigan and now the head coach at Washington, was among Tedford’s first hires when taking the job after the 2016 season. When DeBoer left to be the offensive coordinator at Indiana in the Big Ten, Tedford promoted offensive line coach Ryan Grubb. And, returning to Fresno State after stepping away in 2019 due to heart-related health issues, he promoted receivers coach Moore to offensive coordinator with Grubb following DeBoer to Seattle.

Even with the changes, the Bulldogs have averaged 30 or more points over the past five seasons, which is the longest active streak in the Mountain West Conference.

Wade was the offensive coordinator at Southern Utah before joining the Bulldogs program last season, working alongside Moore in coaching quarterbacks.

This story was originally published January 31, 2023 at 12:02 PM.