Fresno State goes outside the family for football coach, hiring USC assistant Matt Entz
Fresno State will hire Matt Entz to be its next football coach, bypassing a popular Bulldog in interim coach Tim Skipper following a 6-6 season that will conclude in a bowl game still to be announced.
Entz, the assistant head coach for defense at USC, had a highly-successful run as coach at FCS North Dakota State before making the jump to the FBS level this season, going 60-10 in five seasons and leading the Bison to national championships in 2019 and 2021. He was the defensive coordinator at North Dakota State for five seasons before becoming head coach and inherited the program at its peak — the Bison had won national titles in 2018, 2017, 2015 and 2014 under coach Chris Klieman and prior to that three in a row in 2013, 2012 and 2011 under coach Craig Bohl.
That is not the case at Fresno State, which has seen a flood of players head for the NCAA transfer portal since the regular season ended with a 20-13 loss to UCLA at the Rose Bowl including quarterback Mikey Keene, wideout Jalen Moss, linebacker Phoenix Jackson, defensive tackle Gavriel Lightfoot and cornerback Al’zillion Hamilton.
The Bulldogs also will lose 16 seniors who are out of eligibility including wideout Mac Dalena, offensive linemen Mose Vavao, Osmar Velez and Braylen Nelson, defensive end Devo Bridges, linebackers Tuasivi Nomura and Malachi Langley, safety Dean Clark and cornerback Cam Lockridge.
Dalena was a first-team All-Mountain West Conference selection on offense, with Nomura and Lockridge on defense. Bridges and Langley were second-team picks.
Entz, 52, is expected to receive a five-year contract.
Fresno State AD makes hire as Pac-12 move looms
The move ratchets up the pressure on athletics director Garrett Klassy to fund football at a more competitive level in the Mountain West, and as Fresno State moves to the Pac-12 in 2026. At Fresno State football spending has fallen by 7% to $16.9 million over the past five years while the median across the Mountain West has increased by 33%, according to the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database.
It also is not close to the other four schools that will be moving to the Pac-12 for the 2026 football season. Football spending among that group in 2023, and the change:
▪ Colorado State: $29.8 million, +37%
▪ Boise State: $21.5 million, +19%
▪ San Diego State: $21.1 million, +30%
▪ Utah State: $20.8 million, +73%
▪ Fresno State: $16.9 million, minus-7%
The task ahead for Entz is not an easy one, on the football field or off of it. Whether or not the new Bulldogs coach can talk some players headed to the transfer portal back into the program, rebuilding the roster is a challenge and it is worth noting that North Dakota State in winning its 2021 national championship had just two players from California on its roster. Fresno State this season has 88 players from California, and has done the majority of its high school recruiting in state and at California junior colleges.
Analyzing Fresno State’s football season
Skipper is 7-6 as the interim coach, having led Fresno State to a victory over New Mexico State in the 2023 New Mexico Bowl after coach Jeff Tedford had to step away due to a health issue.
The Bulldogs this season had eight different offensive line combinations start at least one game, and the same starting five has never played more than two games in a row. Four players have started at least one game at right guard, and three players have started at least one game at left guard and left tackle.
Left tackle Jacob Spomer, the Bulldogs’ highest-graded starting offensive lineman a year ago, didn’t get in a game until Week 10 against Hawaii due to a knee injury.
In addition, running back Malik Sherrod, who was a preseason all-conference selection, played in only four games and a total of 157 snaps due to a foot injury.
Wideout Josiah Freeman, a long and athletic play-maker who was expected to be one of the primary weapons in the offense, played in just four games and 76 snaps before suffering a season-ending foot injury against Washington State. His final catch of the year was a 34-yard touchdown from Keene.
That lack of continuity certainly had an impact on the offense, which is averaging just 26.6 points per game, sixth in the Mountain West. Fresno State has scored 30 or more points per game in six consecutive seasons, the longest active streak in the conference. To get there this season, the Bulldogs would have to score 71 points in their bowl game.
The Bulldogs have struggled to rush the football, and push it down field in the pass game. Fresno State is averaging just 3.3 yards per rushing play, which ranks last in the Mountain West and 123rd of 134 in the nation. Keene ranks second in the conference with 393 pass attempts, but is 11th with only 11.1% of those throws going 20 or more yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus.
The Bulldogs also rank in a tie for 129th in the nation in averaging just 3.9 points in the fourth quarter of games against FBS opponents. Over the final third of the season, the Bulldogs scored one touchdown in the fourth quarter. They ran 10 series including two that concluded with the end of the game. In those eight drives, they punted five times and turned the ball over on downs once.