Jason Kaufusi

Last updated

Jason Kaufusi
Current position
TitleRun Game Coordinator/defensive line coach
Team Washington
Biographical details
Born (1979-02-27) February 27, 1979 (age 45)
Salt Lake City, Utah
Alma mater Utah
Playing career
2000–2003 Utah
Position(s) Defensive end
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2004–2008 Cottonwood HS (DL/strength)
2009 Utah (CB)
2010–2011 Weber State (DE)
2012–2013 BYU (GA)
2014–2015Weber State (DE)
2016Weber State (DC/DE)
2017–2018Nevada (DL)
2019–2021 UCLA (OLB)
2022–2023 Arizona (OLB/DB/STC)
2024-present Washington (RGC/DL)

Jason Linden Kaufusi (born February 27, 1979) [1] is an American college football coach and former player who is the Run game coordinator and defensive line coach for the Washington Huskies. He played as a defensive end for the Utah Utes.

Contents

Early life

Kaufusi was born on February 27, 1979, to Petelo and Eveline Kaufusi, both Tongan immigrants who came to the United States in 1972. [2] He played high school football at East High School in Salt Lake City, where his team won the Utah 4A state title in 1996, when Kaufusi was a senior. Kaufusi played defensive end and tight end for East High; in his senior season, he caught 17 passes for 327 yards as a tight end and recorded 16 sacks as a defensive end.

Playing career

In 1997, Kaufusi signed to play college football at the University of Utah before embarking on a two-year mission to Panama for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Kaufusi's freshman season with the Utes was the 2000 season, in which he started nine games. In the 2000 season, Kaufusi recorded 63 tackles and eight sacks and was voted Co-Mountain West Freshman of the Year. In the 2001 and 2002 seasons, Kaufusi earned first-team All-Mountain West honors. Kaufusi entered the 2003 season as an All-America candidate before suffering an injury that sidelined him for the season.

Coaching career

Kaufusi began his coaching career in 2004, when he embarked on a four-year stint as an assistant coach at Cottonwood High School in Murray, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Kaufusi coached Cottonwood's defensive line, and he was also in charge of academics and helped with strength and conditioning.

In 2009, Kaufusi became an administrative assistant at the University of Utah, his alma mater. He helped with the cornerbacks, which contributed to a passing defense that ranked 14th in the nation that season. Kaufusi went on to serve at Weber State as the defensive ends coach, where he spent the 2010 and 2011 seasons. In 2012 and 2013, Kaufusi served as a defensive graduate assistant at BYU, where he was also the team's academic advisor.

Kaufusi returned to Weber State in 2014, and he went on to coach the defensive ends there for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. After Weber State led the Big Sky Conference in total defense in the 2015 season, Kaufusi was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2016. With Kaufusi as defensive coordinator, Weber State reached the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for the first time since 2009. That same season, Weber State ranked first in the Big Sky Conference in passing defense, allowing a mere 193.5 yards per game, and five of the Wildcats' defensive players earned all-conference honors.

In 2017, Kaufusi went to Nevada, where he served as the defensive line coach for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Kaufusi coached Malik Reed and Korey Rush, who earned first-team All-Mountain West honors in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, respectively.

In 2019, Kaufusi was hired as the outside linebackers coach at UCLA. One of the linebackers of Kaufusi's unit, Josh Woods, posted career highs in tackles, tackles for loss, and quarterback sacks. UCLA increased its total number of quarterback sacks from 11 in the 2018 season to 26 in 2019. [3]

In December of 2021, Kaufusi was hired by head coach Jedd Fisch to coach outside linebackers at Arizona.

In January of 2024, Kaufusi was hired by the Washington Huskies run game coordinator and defensive line coordinator.

Related Research Articles

Justin Peato Ena is an American football coach and former linebacker who is currently the linebackers coach at Brigham Young University football. He played college football at BYU and in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Ulbrich</span> American football player and coach (born 1977)

Jeffery Wade Ulbrich is an American football coach and former linebacker who is the defensive coordinator for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Hawaii and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round in the 2000 NFL Draft and played for the 49ers from 2000 to 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todd Grantham</span> American football coach (born 1966)

Jeffrey Todd Grantham is an American football coach who is the defensive line coach for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as defensive coordinator at the University of Florida.

Larry Coyer was an American football coach. He served as the defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL) from 2009 to 2011. Prior to the Colts, he was the assistant head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos and New Mexico State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heath Farwell</span> American football player and coach (born 1981)

Heath Charles Farwell is an American football coach and former linebacker who is the special teams coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the special teams coordinator for the Buffalo Bills and assistant coach for the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Holt</span> American football player and coach (born 1962)

Nicholas Holt V is an American football coach who is currently the head coach of Skorpions Varese of the Federazione Italiana di American Football. Previously he was co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Purdue University for three seasons from 2017 to 2019. Before that he was the defensive coordinator at Western Kentucky from 2013 to 2016. Earlier in his career, Holt was defensive coordinator and assistant head coach of the Washington Huskies, defensive coordinator and defensive line coach of the USC Trojans, and head coach of the Idaho Vandals from 2004 to 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sione Po'uha</span> American football player and coach (born 1979)

Sione Sonasi "Bo" Po'uha is an American football coach and former defensive tackle. On December 20 2022, Po'uha accepted the position of defensive tackles coach at Brigham Young University. He previously served as the defensive line coach at the University of Utah, for whom he played college football. He is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Brent Guy is an American college football coach and former player. Guy served as the defensive coordinator for Florida International University. Guy also served as head football coach at Utah State University from 2005 to 2008, compiling an overall record of nine wins and 38 losses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Davis (American football coach)</span> American football player and coach (born 1965)

Bill Davis is an American football coach who is the linebackers coach for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL).

Phillip Snow is an American football coach who is the senior defensive analyst for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers from 2020 to 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Polk</span> American football player and coach (born 1977)

Carlos Devonn Polk is an American football coach and former linebacker who is the assistant special teams coach for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as an assistant coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Diego Chargers and Grossmont College.

Mark Snyder is an American football coach. He previously was the defensive line and linebackers coach for the Orlando Guardians of the XFL linebackers coach for the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League (USFL). Snyder served as the head football coach at Marshall University from 2005 to 2009 after a four-year tenure as defensive coordinator at Ohio State University.

John Papuchis is the special teams coordinator and defensive ends coach for the Florida State Seminoles football team. He is a former defensive coordinator for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels football team and for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Fight Hunger Bowl</span> College football game

The 2013 Fight Hunger Bowl is an American college football bowl game that was played on December 27, 2013, at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. It was one of the 2013–14 bowl games that concluded the 2013 FBS football season. The 12th edition of the Fight Hunger Bowl, it featured the Washington Huskies, from the Pac-12 Conference, against the BYU Cougars, an independent team. The game began at 6:30 p.m. PST and aired on ESPN. It was the last Fight Hunger Bowl game played at AT&T Park.

Marvin Dale Jones is an American football coach and former player. He was most recently the defensive coordinator for Appalachian State. He served in various capacities for Appalachian State (1996–2022), including three years as defensive coordinator (2010–2012). Jones previously worked as a defensive coordinator for Georgia Military College (1992–1996) and the Parma Panthers (1990) of the Italian Football League (IFL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jayon Brown</span> American football player (born 1995)

Jayon Lee Brown is an American football middle linebacker who is a free agent. He was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL Draft, after playing college football at UCLA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Eberflus</span> American football player and coach (born 1970)

Matthew Charles Eberflus is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts from 2018 to 2021. He previously worked as the linebacker coach for the Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys, and has coached at Toledo and Missouri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brent Pry</span> American football player and coach (born 1970)

Brenton James Pry is an American football coach and former player who is currently the head coach at Virginia Tech. He previously served as the defensive coordinator at Penn State from 2016 to 2021. He played college football for the Buffalo Bulls.

Kane Wommack is an American football coach and former player who is currently the defensive coordinator at the University of Alabama. He previously served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Indiana from 2018 to 2020 and as the head coach of South Alabama from 2021 to 2023.

Andrew Avalos is an American college football coach and former player. He is the defensive coordinator for Texas Christian University. He previously worked as an assistant at schools including Boise State University and Oregon before returning to Boise State as head coach.

References

  1. ↑ "Jason Kaufusi - Football Coach".
  2. ↑ "Kaufusi family from Tonga definitely figured out American football". 10 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "Jason Kaufusi - Outside Linebackers - Staff Directory".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.