After five seasons at the helm of Idaho State University’s football program, Rob Phenicie will not return as coach of the Bengals following Saturday’s game against the University of Idaho, according to ISU officials.

Phenicie coached the Bengals in their Saturday season finale against the Vandals at Holt Arena despite the parting of ways.

”I feel the team has a solid foundation for future success,” Phenicie said in a Saturday university news release. “I step down knowing that we are leaving the program in better shape than when we took over, and we did our absolute best with the given resources. There was no quit in this team and staff.”{/span}

Since taking over the ISU football program in 2017, Phenicie accumulated a 16-35 record that woefully included a 4-24 record in road games.

But there was hope Phenicie had ISU on the right path after a 2021 spring season in which the Bengals exercised their youth and proved they could at least compete with every team in the Big Sky.

That notion was questioned this season. Heading into Saturday’s finale, the Bengals were 1-9. They scored less than 17 points a game and allowed more than three dozen. Even though they have dealt with a bevy of injuries, most notably to quarterback Tyler Vander Waal, the wide-ranging struggles persisted at an alarming level.

As a result, ISU Athletic Director Pauline Thiros decided it was time to make a change. In doing so, ISU will now have to pay Phenicie for the remaining year on his contract, which will cost the university $168,875.

”When it becomes evident you do not have the right trajectory in terms of performance on the field,” Thiros said in a statement, “it is time to make changes.”{/span}

Back in January — after the FCS canceled the fall 2020 season because of COVID-19 — Thiros gave Phenicie a two-year extension that extended through three seasons – spring 2021, fall 2021 and fall 2022. The extension came just a few weeks before Phenicie’s contract was set to expire.

As much as the move allowed Phenicie a few more seasons to prove himself, it also kept continuity through a period of uncertainty.

“We really like the changes that we’re seeing over these few years and we like the way the program is going,” Thiros said back in January. “It’s been a very unusual and an adverse fall, but we love our approach going forward and we certainly wanted to continue that and extend it.”

Previously the wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator for the Bengals, Phenicie was promoted to head coach in April 2017 after Mike Kramer retired.

The athletic director who hired Phenicie back then was Jeff Tingey, Thiros’ predecessor.

Now at the helm, Thiros will have her first chance to hire a football coach at ISU, to pick the person she believes can reverse the Bengals’ fortunes.

According to ISU’s Saturday news release: “A national search to hire a new head coach will begin immediately. Idaho State Athletics will retain Bowlsby Sports Advisors (a search firm) to assist with the search.”{/span}