Boise State football coaching job profile, potential candidates

Boise State needs a new football coach. The school fired Andy Avalos on Sunday, one day after a win against New Mexico.

Avalos went 22-14 as head coach. That included a 10-4 record and division title in 2022, but it was sandwiched around two of Boise State’s worst seasons in more than two decades. The 7-5 record in 2021 was the program’s fewest wins since 1998, and this season may finish with fewer than that.

“I am grateful for the passion, effort and dedication Andy has given to our community and his alma mater while serving as our head coach,” athletic director Jeramiah Dickey said in a statement. “Andy will always be a Bronco and we wish him and his family all the best in their next steps.”

It’s the first time Boise State has had a coaching change over performance since Skip Hall resigned in 1992 after a 5-6 season. The last five coaches left for Power 5 jobs. Avalos seemed like the perfect fit when he replaced Bryan Harsin, who left for the Auburn job. Avalos was a former star player at Boise State and had spent seven seasons as an assistant on the team plus two successful years as Oregon’s defensive coordinator before coming back. But it just never really clicked outside of a 7-2 finish in 2022.

So how good is the Boise State job? What names could get in the mix? Here are the factors to keep in mind.

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Boise State fires coach Andy Avalos

The history of Boise State is basically nothing but winning

Boise State hasn’t had a losing season since 1997. It has only five losing seasons since 1947, back when it was a junior college. The NFL is full of Boise State alumni, with a Broncos player selected in 14 consecutive NFL Drafts.

This change wasn’t just about getting back to major bowl games and reliving the 2006 Fiesta Bowl. This is about a program that is no longer winning the Mountain West and might have a losing season this year. That’s not acceptable at Boise State.

Maybe the run from Chris Petersen and Harsin with BCS bowls wasn’t sustainable long-term, but this is a program that expects to compete for the Group of 5 berth in the 12-team College Football Playoff moving forward. If the Broncos can’t get that Power 5 invitation, once again skipped over in the most recent realignment, it wants to be the big fish in the small pond. It has the history and resources where that should happen.

The program is making the upgrades it needs

Boise State has set athletics fundraising records in each of the last two seasons, a priority for Dickey since taking over. There is a master plan of athletics facilities upgrades in place. While some of it remains far away, the plans include major stadium upgrades, a new football complex and more.

The Broncos are also doing a pretty good job in the NIL space relative to the rest of the Group of 5. The Horseshoe Collective launched in September 2022 with support from the athletic department.

This program has a lot of support, period. Despite the struggles, Boise State has had crowds of more than 35,000 for every home game this year, making for a sellout or near-sellout in every game.

Will connections to the program or Pacific Northwest be a requirement?

Dan Hawkins and Petersen were promoted to the head coaching job. Harsin and Avalos were former Boise State players and assistants who came back. Is it time to break the cycle as college football heads into a new world?

The program recruits heavily in California, Texas, Arizona and Washington and always has. The next head coach or their staff will need to have connections out west.

What is the program’s home in the future?

Boise State didn’t get a Power 5 invitation this year, but the future of the Pac-2 and Mountain West could be intertwined. Do Oregon State and Washington State join the MWC? Or does the Pac-2 try to rebuild with Mountain West teams? Those around Boise State believe they can leap Oregon State and Washington State, as the teams compete for the same recruits, but the other two had the Pac-12 pitch that Boise State couldn’t match.

Boise State also had talks with the American Athletic Conference in 2021 over a potential move. Harsin wanted the program to get out of the Mountain West because he didn’t feel it supported and promoted the program enough. Harsin left, Boise State stayed and the MWC has new leadership under commissioner Gloria Nevarez.

Boise State also still has its special TV carve-out, giving it more conference revenue than other schools in the league and putting all its home games on Fox networks. Time will tell if that remains in place when the TV deal is up in a few years.

Former Boise State quarterback Bryan Harsin was the program’s head coach from 2014-20. Could he return? (Brian Losness / USA Today)

So who could get in the mix?

The idea of a Bryan Harsin return to Boise State has been floating around for a bit. Harsin went 69-19 as Boise State’s head coach from 2014-20. He won the Fiesta Bowl and finished with a top-15 team in his first season, but never quite reached that level again, though he did go 45-8 in Mountain West play and won three conference championships. Harsin was fired less than two years into his Auburn tenure, a place that never made sense from a fit or culture perspective. Harsin’s a Boise native and former Broncos quarterback. The history of coaches going back to their old jobs is mixed. It worked for Bill Snyder (Kansas State) and Mike Riley (Oregon State). Not so much for Brady Hoke (San Diego State) and Randy Edsall (UConn).

Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb has led the most explosive offense in the country the last two years, with the Huskies 21-2 over that span and currently 10-0 with Michael Penix Jr. sitting as a Heisman Trophy favorite. Grubb passed on the Alabama offensive coordinator job to stay with Kalen DeBoer, knowing a big season was in store. He and DeBoer go way back, working at Fresno State, Eastern Michigan and NAIA Sioux Falls before that. He’s expected to get looks to lead his own program soon.

There will be calls for Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, the record-breaking Boise State quarterback who went 50-3 as the starter from 2008-11. The 35-year-old Moore began coaching in 2018 and spent five years with the Dallas Cowboys before he was fired as offensive coordinator after last season. He landed with the Chargers, who have a top-10 scoring offense. Moore has no college coaching experience and still appears on a path to becoming an NFL head coach, but it’s worth a call.

Kellen’s brother, Missouri offensive coordinator Kirby Moore, could also be a name to watch. The younger Moore played wide receiver at Boise State from 2009-13. He spent 2017-22 as Fresno State’s offensive coordinator, and the Bulldogs led the Mountain West in scoring in his last season. At Mizzou this year, where Moore calls the plays, the Tigers are 8-2 behind an offense that has scored at least 34 points in every SEC game except against Georgia, but Mizzou’s 21 points are tied for the most anyone has scored on the Bulldogs this year.

Texas co-defensive coordinator Jeff Choate was a Boise State assistant during the golden era of 2006-11. He joined Petersen at Washington for two years and then went 28-22 as Montana State head coach, turning it from a 4-7 program to an 11-4 and top-five team when he left for Texas. The 53-year-old grew up in Idaho and has spent most of his career in the Pacific Northwest, he knows Boise State, and he’s got Power 5 experience at multiple schools.

Montana State head coach Brent Vigen is 32-7 in two-plus seasons, reaching the FCS national championship in 2021 and the semifinal in 2022 after filling the job left by Choate. Before that, he was a Wyoming assistant for seven seasons and a North Dakota State assistant for 16 years. He knows the Mountain West, the region and he’s got head coaching experience.

Toronto Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie is yet another former Boise State player succeeding in the coaching profession. Dinwiddie played at Boise State from 2000-03 and left with the FBS record for pass efficiency. He’s been in the CFL since 2006, either as a player or coach. He took over the Argos in 2020 and won the Grey Cup last season. He’s 36-14 as the head coach, but he has no college coaching experience.

Pittsburgh Steelers assistant defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander is a former Boise State safety and second-round pick. He coached Cal’s defensive backs from 2017-18, followed by two years with the Miami Dolphins in the same role. He’s well thought of in coaching circles.

Colorado offensive coordinator Sean Lewis may be looking for a new job after losing play-calling duties, despite the Buffs scoring more than 30 points per game. Before CU, Lewis had a pretty good run at Kent State. While he was 24-31 overall, that included annual nonconference schedules full of Power 5 opponents. He went 18-10 in MAC play in his last four years, won a division title and took Kent State to two bowls and three consecutive non-losing seasons for the first time since 1972-74.

Former Virginia and BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall was in the mix for the Colorado job last year. He went 135-81 as a head coach from 2005 to ’21, a consistent winner with 11 seasons of at least eight wins. The Utah native is plenty familiar with the region and the Mountain West. But if he’s interested in coming back after stepping away from the sport in 2021, he’d have to show he’s ready to keep up with the new era of college football.

Idaho head coach Jason Eck has quickly turned the Vandals into a top-25 FCS program. He took over a 4-7 program and went 7-5 with a playoff appearance last year, and Idaho is 7-3 this year, spending much of the season ranked in the top five. Eck was previously an assistant at South Dakota State. He’s done a really good job reviving the Idaho program on the field, but there is the factor of powerhouse Boise State potentially not wanting to associate with or acknowledge the in-state Vandals.

(Top photo: Brian Losness / USA Today)

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