Joel O. Filani (born December 8, 1983) is a former

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 ...

wide receiver, and is the current wide receivers coach for the

Washington State Cougars Football Team The Washington State Cougars football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Washington State University, located in Pullman, Washington. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level in the FBS and is a member of the Pac- ...

. He was drafted by the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

. Filani was also a member of the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arri ...

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

California Redwoods ''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is the sole living species of the genus '' Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast redwood, coastal ...

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

and

Chicago Rush The Chicago Rush were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Located immediately northwest of Chicago, as of the 2010 census it had a population of 4,20 ...

Early years

Filani attended

Paradise Valley High School Paradise Valley High School (PVHS) is a high school located in Phoenix, Arizona and was the first of five high schools built in the Paradise Valley Unified School District. Paradise Valley High School opened in 1957. The school's athletic teams ar ...

in Phoenix, Arizona and was a student and a letterman in football. In football, he was named to the First-team All-Arizona as a senior when he caught 40 passes for 653 yards and eight touchdowns and also rushed for 559 yards and five touchdowns on 62 attempts and ran up 623 yards and four touchdowns on 16 kickoff returns. In addition to Texas Tech, Filani was recruited by

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

and

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

College career

At Texas Tech, in 2006, Filani was again First-team All-

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its fo ...

after catching 91 passes for 1,300 yards for a 14.3-yards per catch and 13 touchdowns. As a junior, he was First-team All-Big 12 in 2005 when he caught 65 passes for 1,007 yards a 15.5-yard average and 8 touchdowns. In 2004, he caught 12 passes for 310 yards and two touchdowns and led team with 17.2 yards per reception In 2003, he played in all 13 games and finished the season with one reception for nine yards. He reshirted in 2002.

Professional career

Pre-draft

Tennessee Titans

He was drafted by the

in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Filani was signed by the

on May 13, 2009. He was waived and subsequently placed on

injured reserve The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

on August 19. Filani was released with an injury settlement the following day.

Coaching career

Boise State

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, Filani began his coaching career at Boise State working as a

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research respons ...

for the Broncos.

WSU

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, Filani was hired by his former coach Mike Leach to become an offensive quality assistant at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

North Texas

From

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, Filani served as the wide receivers coach for the North Texas Mean Green.

Texas Tech

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, he joined the coaching staff of his alma mater where he worked as the wide receivers coach. He was not retained after the 2021 season. WSU On Jan. 3, 2022 he was named Wide Receivers coach, joining the staff of first year Head Coach

Jake Dickert Jacob Dickert (born August 23, 1983) is an American college football coach. He is the head coach at Washington State University. Prior to this, he served as defensive coordinator in Pullman, beginning in 2020. Dickert attended school and played f ...

. Filani returns to the

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a distinct geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of north central Idaho, southeastern Washington, and, by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. It is a major agricultural area, primaril ...

, one month after former Red Raiders teammate Eric Morris was named as the Cougs new Offensive Coordinator.

References

External links

Just Sports StatsTampa Bay Buccaneers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Filani, Joel 1983 births Living people Sportspeople from Tempe, Arizona Players of American football from Arizona American football wide receivers Texas Tech Red Raiders football players Tennessee Titans players Minnesota Vikings players Seattle Seahawks players Detroit Lions players St. Louis Rams players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Sacramento Mountain Lions players San Jose SaberCats players Chicago Rush players Washington State Cougars football coaches Boise State Broncos football coaches North Texas Mean Green football coaches