Bojay Bruce Feleunga Filimoeatu (born December 6, 1989) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach and former

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

who is currently the inside linebackers coach at

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

. He played college football at Utah State and played in the NFL briefly for the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

before becoming a college football coach.

Early life and high school career

Born in

Fontana, California Fontana is a city in San Bernardino County, California. Founded by Azariel Blanchard Miller in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area. It is now a regional h ...

and raised in

West Valley City, Utah West Valley City is a city in Salt Lake County and a suburb of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 140,230 at the 2020 census, making it the second-largest city in Utah. The city incorporated in 1980 from a large, quic ...

, Filimoeatu graduated from Granger High School in West Valley City in 2008. He played at linebacker and fullback at Granger.

College career

Returning to his native California, Filimoeatu began his college football career on the junior college level at

Mt. San Antonio College Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) is a public community college in southern California, located in Walnut in eastern Los Angeles County. It offers more than 260 degree and certificate programs, 25 support programs, and more than 50 studen ...

(Mt. SAC) in

Walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

near

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Helping Mt. SAC win its second straight state title, Filimoeatu was the 2010

CCCAA The California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) is a sports association of community colleges in the U.S. state of California. It oversees 108 athletic programs throughout the state. The organization was formed in 1929 as the Calif ...

Defensive MVP. On January 30, 2011, Filimoeatu signed his letter of intent with

Utah State Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

, one of four Division I FBS schools to offer him scholarships. He started all 26 games in the 2011 and 2012 seasons at Utah State and registered 112 tackles (48 solo), eight sacks, one interception, two passes defensed, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. During his senior season, he posted 71 tackles and five sacks.

Professional career

Due to a knee injury during the Casino Del Sol College All Star Game in January 2013, Filimoeatu put his football career on hold and only tried out before NFL scouts at Utah State pro day prior to the

2014 NFL draft The 2014 NFL draft was the 79th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players to the league. The draft, officially the "Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall in New Y ...

. Filimoeatu originally signed with the

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

on May 19, 2014 and was waived by the team at the end of training camp before signing to the

practice squad In sports, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. Frequently used in gridiron football, they serve as extra players during the team's practices, ...

two days later. On September 13, 2014, Filimoeatu was promoted to the active roster after a season-ending injury to

Taiwan Jones Taiwan Asti Eric Jones (born July 26, 1988) is an American football running back and return specialist who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the fourth round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He played college football at ...

. Filimoeatu made his NFL debut on September 14 against the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

. For the 2014 season, Filimoeatu played in eight games and made six tackles. Filimoeatu did not see any game action in 2015.

Coaching career

Filimoeatu began his coaching career in 2016 at

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

as inside linebackers and defensive quality control coach under

Brent Brennan Brent Munger Brennan (born March 20, 1973) is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at San Jose State University. Early life and education Brennan was born and raised in Redwood City, California, and attended Saint Francis ...

. When Brennan became head coach at

, Filimoeatu followed him there in 2017 as linebackers coach. On December 19, 2018, returning head coach

Gary Andersen Gary Lee Andersen (born February 19, 1964) is an American football coach who was most recently head football coach at Utah State University. Andersen has also been the head football coach of Southern Utah (2003), Wisconsin (2013–2014), and Oreg ...

hired him to be the defensive ends coach on his new staff. Filimoeatu joined

in 2024 as their inside linebackers coach.

References

External links

*
NFL.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Filimoeatu, Bojay Living people 1989 births American football linebackers Utah State Aggies football players Oakland Raiders players Players of American football from Fontana, California People from West Valley City, Utah Sportspeople from Salt Lake County, Utah Players of American football from Utah Mt. SAC Mounties football players Oregon State Beavers football coaches San Jose State Spartans football coaches American people of Tongan descent People from Montclair, California Utah State Aggies football coaches