For the second time in the past five years, Jeff Tedford is stepping away from his head coaching job for the Fresno State Bulldogs. Tedford, 62, announced earlier this week he is leaving his position for health reasons – which first happened back in 2019 before he was re-hired three years later when his replacement, Kalen DeBoer, left for Washington.
Tedford is a college football legend, working with quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Kyle Boller, David Carr, Joey Harrington, Trent Dilfer, and Akili Smith during stints at Cal, Oregon, and of course Fresno State.
For the time being the Bulldogs will promote Tim Skipper, who has been coaching college football in various roles for 20 years and played at Fresno State from 1997-2000, as interim head coach.
Skipper led the Bulldogs to a 37-10 bowl game victory over New Mexico State in 2023 without Tedford, and is a very strong candidate to keep the job after this upcoming season – especially to help keep the roster together in the transfer portal era.
However, Fresno State may opt to look nationally for a coach replacement once this season is complete, and below is a look at five candidates they could consider to replace Tedford: