Is Fresno State in a race to hire Jeff Tedford, its presumed No. 1 coaching candidate?

Fresno State could now be in a race with another Mountain West Conference school for the football coach believed to be at the very top of its wish list.

That would be Jeff Tedford, who according to a source is on the list of candidates at Colorado State, which on Thursday fired coach Steve Addazio after just two seasons in Fort Collins. And, if past contracts are any indicator, the Rams also have more money to flash in front of their candidate pool.

Addazio in 2021 was paid $1.55 million in base salary, the second-highest paid coach in the conference, and under terms of the contract would have made $1.6 million, $1.65 million and $1.7 million the next three seasons. He also had a package of performance bonuses worth $685,000 a year.

Before Addazio, coach Mike Bobo had a contract at Colorado State that topped out in the final year at $1.75 million and when that deal was extended in 2017 the Rams bumped up the base salary to $1.8 million in 2018 with $100,000 annual raises that took it up to $2.2 million in the final year of the deal.

Fresno State this season paid Kalen DeBoer, who left to take on a Power Five challenge at Washington, $1.35 million and his contract topped out at $1.5 million in the final year of a five-year deal.

Tedford, who stepped down as the Bulldogs’ coach following the 2019 season due to heart-related health issues and to spend more time with his family, has indicated that he is ready for a return to the sidelines.

Would a former Fresno State quarterback, assistant coach, offensive coordinator, head coach and Red Wave fave take a job at a conference rival in Colorado State? Color clash aside, Colorado State has much newer facilities and in 2017 opened a $220 million football stadium that includes a Hall of Champions, the Rams’ football offices and training facilities on the west side of the venue.

The Bulldogs are moving along in their search, close to moving into a next phase of its search, which would include longer in-depth conversations or interviews with candidates.

“We hope to move forward with that very quickly,” athletics director Terry Tumey said Wednesday night. “We’ve of course had conversations and we hope to continue to do that. We’re not in a position yet to give you landmarks or stages of the process, but the work we’ve done so far has been good and I feel very confident about it.”