The Boise State Broncos fired football coach Andy Avalos on Sunday, with the school at 5-5 and in danger of the program’s first losing season since 1997.
Avalos went 22-14 in his three seasons at Boise State, including a 10-4 season that resulted in him being named 2022 Mountain West Coach of the Year. At no point during Avalos’ two-plus seasons was Boise State ranked in the Associated Press Poll; the Broncos’ 19-year streak of being ranked ended during his first season in 2021.
Under coaches Chris Petersen, Bryan Harsin and Dan Hawkins, Boise State emerged as one of the sport’s disruptive darlings, entering the national championship picture, winning three Fiesta Bowls in recent seasons — 2006, 2009, 2014 — and rising to the top five in the Associated Press Poll in five different seasons.
Avalos, a Southern California native from Corona, California, played and coached at Boise State while also having stints at Oregon, Colorado and Sacramento State. He helped Mario Cristobal win the Rose Bowl at Oregon in the 2019 season, the catapult toward the Boise State head coaching job.
Keep Andy Avalos on your list of USC defensive coordinator candidates. We will keep you posted on this search.
Avalos doesn’t rate as highly as Jim Leonhard, Tony Gibson, Zach Arnett, or a few others, but if all of them refuse to coach at USC, Avalos could be a fifth or sixth choice.
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