FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno State football head coach Jeff Tedford announced a handful of support staff changes and additions on Tuesday. The announcement sees six new faces to the staff, including two former Bulldog student-athletes, and one title change for a previous staff member.
Mason Behiel, who spent the 2023 season as the Bulldogs' Director of Player Personnel has been named Assistant Athletics Director for Football. Behiel was hired by Tedford in March of 2023 and oversaw all aspects of player personnel and recruiting. Prior to his time at Fresno State, Behiel had stops at Columbia, Ole Miss and Nevada.
Allie Banducci has been hired as Director of Football Operations. Banducci joins the Bulldog program from Northern Arizona where she worked in the same role. She began her career at NAU as the Director of Recruiting in June of 2022. Prior to her stint at NAU, Banducci earned a bachelor's degree in both sports management and economics from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington in June 2022. During her time as an undergrad, Banducci spent time in multiple roles for both the athletic department and the football program.
In the recruiting department, Tedford announces the hiring of Jaden Diamond and Jake Rasmussen as Assistant Director of Player Personnel and Assistant Director of Recruiting Operations, respectively.
Diamond joins the Bulldog staff from Sacramento State, where he was the on-campus recruiting coordinator. He worked in the Hornets recruiting department as a student assistant in 2022 while earning his degree in Liberal Studies.
Rasmussen spent the last three seasons as Director of Football Operations at Eastern Washington. Rasmussen graduated from EWU in 2021 with a degree in business marketing.
Diamond and Rasmussen join L.J. Early who remains on the Bulldogs' recruiting staff as Director of Recruiting Operations. Fresno State still looks to fill its Director of Player Personnel position, previously held by Behiel.
Tedford also announced the additions of three graduate assistants in Malik Forrester, Bijan Hosseini and DelVon Hardaway to the staff.
Forrester, a Bulldog defensive lineman from 2016-17, will work alongside Jethro Franklin and the defensive line.
Hosseini spent the last three seasons as the offensive line coach at Missouri Southern. Prior to his time there, he held titles of offensive line coach, tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Independence Community College. He began his football playing career at Chaffey College (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) before transferring to UTEP. He graduated with his undergraduate degree in Multidisciplinary Studies from UTEP in 2019. Hosseini will work alongside first-year offensive line coach Matt Smith.
Hardaway, another former Bulldog, is back in the Valley as the Bulldogs' wide receivers graduate assistant. Hardway was a Bulldog wideout from 2013-18. After graduation, he went on to play in the USFL.
The Bulldogs are working through their winter workout cycle, and look towards the start of spring football in mid-March. A full spring football schedule will be released at a later date.