Just before they kicked off against in-state rival Idaho yesterday, word broke that it would be head coach Rob Phenicie's final game as head coach.
Phenicie led the program the last five seasons.
"I know I had to be a better head coach," Phenicie shared via Local News 8. "The university, I think they need to move forward, and I can't be upset at the decision because bottom line is you got to win games, and when you don't do that, there's going to be a change at the top and that starts with me."
Over the past five seasons, Phenicie went 16-33, with his lone winning season coming in 2018, his second year with the Bengals.
Phenicie signed a two-year contract extension back in January that ran through January of 2023 worth $168,875 per year with the opportunity to earn over $80k more in incentives.
The team was 1-8 this fall, with that one win coming against a top 10 UC-Davis squad. They dropped Saturday's game against the Vandals, who also recently announced a head coaching change in moving on from Paul Petrino at the conclusion of the season.
A coach with a number of FBS stops on his resume, Phenicie was named head coach heading into the 2017 season after spending two seasons as the program's receivers coach.
Prior to that he had stops with the coordinator title at UNLV (where he started off as offensive coordinator before shifting to just quarterbacks and then just tight ends), Montana, and Cal State Northridge. Other FBS stops during his coaching career includes Memphis and UCLA (where he was a graduate assistant), and Wyoming.
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