Former BYU Coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki Lands Job With Pac-12 School
Dec 12, 2023, 9:04 PM | Updated: 9:10 pm
Former BYU football defensive coordinator is now the defensive line coach at Oregon State. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)
(Tom Smart, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – Former BYU football defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki is back in coaching.
Tuiaki, who was on BYU’s staff for seven seasons, will now be the defensive line coach at Oregon State University.
Oregon State made Tuiaki’s hiring official on Tuesday.
welcome back, @coachtuiaki pic.twitter.com/egB9VpK478
— Oregon State Football (@BeaverFootball) December 13, 2023
The Beavers wrote on social media, “Welcome back, @coachtuiaki.”
Tuiaki coached at Oregon State along the defensive line in 2015. He was on the Oregon State staff under Gary Andersen and worked alongside Kalani Sitake on the defense.
Ilaisa Tuiaki was on the BYU football staff for seven seasons
Tuiaki was BYU’s defensive coordinator from 2016-2022 and was dismissed after that season. He took the 2023 season away from coaching and is now back in the game.
While at BYU, Tuiaki produced one NFL draft pick along the defensive line. Khyris Tonga was selected in the seventh round in the 2021 NFL draft. Tonga is still in the league with the Minnesota Vikings.
Along with previous stops at Oregon State and BYU, Tuiaki was an accomplished defensive line coach at Utah. He led Utah’s “Sack Lake City” defensive lines in 2013 and 2014.
Tuiaki joins Oregon State’s staff under the direction of first-year head coach Trent Bray. Bray replaced Jonathan Smith, who left to take the Michigan State vacancy after the Beavers lost to Oregon in November.
Oregon State is entering a new era due to realignment
The Oregon State program is in more transition than just new coaches. They are going through a massive shakeup to their conference alignment. The Beavers and Washington State are the only two schools left in the Pac-12 Conference. Ten of the 12 members are leaving for other leagues (Big Ten, Big 12, ACC) on August 2, 2024.
Oregon State and Washington State have finalized a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West Conference for the 2024 season.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X and Threads: @Mitch_Harper.
