Interim coach at Fresno State defines job title: ‘Whatever you are, you better win’

Fresno State coach Tim Skipper has an interim tag in his job title after taking over the football program when Jeff Tedford stepped away two weeks ago due to heart-related health issues.

It could be a one-shot deal. It could lead to more.

But, one week before fall camp opens, how do Skipper and new Fresno State athletics director Garrett Klassy view that title, and what it will take to erase it at the end of a season loaded with promise?

Skipper, who met with media on Wednesday for the first time as interim coach, balked at the suggestion that 2024 was a one-year tryout to land the full-time gig. Coaching is the family business. Jim Skipper, his father, is a longtime NFL assistant coach. Kelly Skipper, his brother, has coached in the NFL since 2007 and is in his seventh season with the Buffalo Bills.

Fresno State’s interim coach has been in it long enough. He sees it through a different lens, and years in a business where every season coaches are moved out, and then move on.

“I don’t really believe in tryouts,” Skipper said. “I believe in, ‘You have to win.’ Whether you’re an interim head coach, you’re a linebackers coach — whatever coach you are, you better win. If you don’t win, you’re out of here. That’s just the nature of the beast.

“I kind of like that part of it. I’m a competitive dude. I like that the best players play. I like that the best coaches coach. I like all of that. I’m excited for it, but I don’t look at it as a tryout. I look at it as, ‘Let’s go win.’”

Klassy, who started at Fresno State on Tuesday, said there will be a lot more in the equation at the end of the season than a number of wins and losses.

“I don’t have any metrics at this time and I think athletics directors that throw out metrics on win totals and things like that just don’t understand the full picture, and that’s nothing against some of my peers in this industry,” he said.

“A lot goes into it. What’s the culture like? Are the guys playing to the bitter end? What kind of adversity did they have to fight through? It would be premature and quite frankly not good business sense to lay out metrics for you when there are a lot of factors that go into what makes a successful coach in college football these days.”

Tim Skipper has 1-0 record: a bowl victory

Klassy said he has received positive reports on Skipper, who along with the Bulldogs staff pulled off one of the best coaching jobs of the 2023 bowl season.

Fresno State had ended the regular season on a three-game losing streak. Key players were dealing with injuries, compounded weekly over a long season. The Bulldogs had not scored 20 points in three consecutive games for the first time since 2016, and two of the three teams they lost to down the stretch of that were 3-7 New Mexico and 3-8 San Diego State. Both would finish with 4-8 records. Tedford had stepped away, due to a health concern.

But there was a bowl game to play, one that didn’t hold much cachet.

The Bulldogs rebounded to rout New Mexico State 37-10 in the New Mexico Bowl .

“It’s funny,” said Klassy, who was a deputy athletics director and chief revenue officer at Houston when hired by Fresno State. “He has a close tie to a couple of the coaches at Houston and even before this scenario went down, they were talking about what a great person he is and how good he is.

“It’s a very tight business. You know almost everyone and if you don’t you’re one phone call away from someone who has a lot of information on that person. But the feedback on coach Skipper is incredible.”

The dynamic for the new athletics director obviously abruptly changed, with Tedford stepping away. He was under contract for three more seasons. But Klassy said the expectations do not change for Fresno State, which was 45-22 under Tedford with two Mountain West Conference championships and four bowl victories.

“Any time that you come into a new role and you inherit a hall of fame football coach, one of the best to ever do it, you’re excited to work with that person, learn from that person and I’ll still have that opportunity, just in a different scope,” Klassy said. “But I think the positive looking at this whole thing, this is something that coach Skipper went through last year in the bowl game. He’s a Fresno State Bulldog through and through, and has an incredible coaching lineage in his family. I’m excited to support him, support these student-athletes and move forward.”

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