After back-to-back 2-9 finishes, it would’ve been no surprise to see newly-hired Sacramento State Athletic Director Mark Orr hire his own head coach last spring for his struggling football program.

However, Orr chose to retain Jody Sears — who has posted a 15-26 overall record in his three-plus years at Sac State — as he entered the final year of his four-year contract that he signed in 2014. Despite the Hornets’ win-loss record, Orr said the idea of making a head coaching change during the spring didn’t even cross his mind.

“I think I knew a bit about the program and some of the injuries that we had experienced the previous year and some of our youth, so I knew that we had a good group of young men and a good group of coaches that hopefully things would pan out this year,” Orr said. “(At the end of the season) we’ll sit down and evaluate what is going well with the program, what is not going well. If they’re changes that need to be made, we’ll make adjustments and changes.”

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Sears, who has spent 10 years coaching football in the Big Sky Conference, echoes Orr’s wait-and-see approach in terms of an extension to his contract and his future at the helm of the program.

“There will be a time and a place for that specific conversation, so have we had that (extension) conversation? No,” Sears said. “There’s a time and a place for that, and in the middle of the season is not the time, and it’s not the place. Our focus, and our whole energy, is devoted to developing these young men and making sure we’re preparing them for success.”

Sac State (4-3, 3-1 Big Sky) has found some initial success this season after matching its win total (four) from the past two seasons combined this year. Most recently, the Hornets enjoyed a 34–27 victory over North Dakota Saturday for their first road win in nearly three years. The win also earns Sac State its longest winning streak (two games) since the team won three straight at the end of Sears’ first season at the helm in 2014.

“We did great our first season when we had (Sears as head coach) at 7-5 (overall) then kind of struggled for a little bit,” said Ben Sorensen, the Hornets senior defensive lineman. “But I feel like it just takes awhile as a college coach when you come into a team to really establish your program, it takes a little while to work out the kinks a little bit.

“I feel like we’re actually getting settled in and moving in the right direction.”

This direction has led the Hornets to the tune of a defense that ranks second in total yards (373) allowed per game and fifth in points (30.2) given up per contest in the Big Sky. Sac State junior cornerback Dre Terrell points to Sears — who was initially hired on to be the Hornets’ defensive coordinator in 2014 before being elevated a few months later to head coach — as a major reason for the revival of the defense.

“I feel like he’s a defensive-minded coach, (and) he keeps us going,” Terrell said. “He brings a different type of energy. He sees things that, normally, people, especially at corner, wouldn’t see, (and) he tries to embed that in us, and we just try to use it out here on the field.”

Orr — who came to Sac State after 11 years as the athletic director at Saint Mary’s College — speaks highly of the football team and sites experience and coaching as the main reason for the programs turnaround.

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“Some of that is just a maturity, some of that has to do with another year of coaching and another year of development, so I’m certainly not surprised with the success we’ve had, thus far, because, quite frankly, with the maturity level of our team, it was expected to see that,” Orr said. “I think the coaching staff, not just Jody, have done a good job, thus far, of getting guys ready to play and prepared each week, (and I’ve been) very pleased to see the progress of our program, at least in my first year, and I’m looking forward to the second half of the year.”

After the second part of the season runs its course, Orr said he will sit down with Sears, key athletic administrators and the football players themselves to decide what is best for the program going forward.

“At this point in time, Jody Sears is our head coach, and I’m 100 percent committed to him and all the coaches, (and) there is no key decision that has been made, and I’m not sure if there’s going to be one at the end of the year or not,” Orr said. “It just depends on how things fall out and how the evaluation goes.”