Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford to miss team's bowl game due to health issues
Fresno State said assistant head coach Tim Skipper will serve as the team's interim coach
Fresno State coach Jeff Tedford is stepping away from the team effective immediately as he deals with a health issue.
The Bulldogs announced Friday that Tim Skipper, the team’s assistant head coach and linebackers coach, will serve as the interim coach through the team's bowl game.
“The entire Fresno State community sends its thoughts and prayers to Coach Tedford and wish him a speedy recovery,” a statement said.
Fresno State (8-4) will find out its bowl destination Sunday.
Tedford, 62, is in his second stint at Fresno State. He came to the Bulldogs in 2017, and the team won 22 games over his first two seasons before going 4-8 in 2019. He resigned after that season, citing health reasons.
The school hired Kalen DeBoer as his replacement and went 10-3 in 2021. That season led to DeBoer’s hiring at Washington — the Huskies are currently a win away from the College Football Playoff — and Tedford returned as the team’s head coach.
Fresno State went 10-4 in 2022 and was 8-1 before losing its final three games of the regular season.
Before he was at Fresno State, Tedford was the longtime head coach at Cal and coached NFL draft first-round picks Aaron Rodgers and Kyle Boller. The Golden Bears went 82-57 and had two 10-win seasons during Tedford’s tenure from 2002 to '12. After he was fired in 2012, Tedford agreed to become the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator in 2014 but was unable to coach full-time during the season due to his recovery from heart surgery.
