Boise State football is hiring Oregon defensive coordinator Andy Avalos, a former Broncos player and assistant, as his next head coach, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Avalos, 39, has spent the past two seasons in Oregon, helping the Ducks win the consecutive Pac-12 championship. He came from Boise State to Oregon, where he spent seven seasons as an assistant, the last three as the team’s defensive coordinator.
A former All-WAC linebacker at Boise State, Avalos replaces Bryan Harsin, who left last month to become Auburn’s head coach. Avalos trained with Harsin at Boise State and played and coached Chris Petersen at school. Petersen, who resigned as Washington coach after the 2019 season, helped Boise State in its search for a coach, according to sources.
Last week, Boise State hired Jeramiah Dickey as its new athletic director. Dickey on Friday afternoon tweeted that the football coach hired was “coming soon”.
Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, a Boise State star quarterback for Petersen, announced on Saturday that he would no longer seek the job of coaching the school and agreed to a multi-year contract with the Cowboys. Moore and Avalos were considered favorites to replace Harsin, although Boise State also considered Montana State coach Jeff Choate, a former Broncos assistant, as well as Florida offensive coordinator Brian Johnson and southern California offensive coordinator Graham Harrell , according to sources.
In 2019, Avalos was a semi-finalist for the Broyles Award, recognizing the country’s best assistant coach after overseeing an Oregon defense that finished ninth in national scoring. The Corona, California native helped Boise State win three titles at the Mountain West Conference as an assistant.
Idaho Press first reported on Boise State’s decision to hire Avalos.