Keith Abu Bhonapha (born May 12, 1980) 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 who is currently the assistant head coach and running backs coach at

Oregon State University 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 co ...

. 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 ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, where also began his coaching career. He has also spent time as an assistant at

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Playing career

Bhonapha played

from 1999 to 2002, where he was a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

who was credited with the ability to play both

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

and

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

Coaching career

Hawaii

Following his playing career, Bhonapha was offered a graduate assistant position at his alma mater

by head coach

June Jones June Sheldon Jones III (born February 19, 1953) is an American football coach and former player who is currently the Offensive Coordinator of the Seattle Sea Dragons. Jones was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 19 ...

, where he helped to coach the defensive backs with secondary coach Rich Miano. While at Hawaii, he was credited with connecting

Davone Bess Davone Atrayo Bess (born September 13, 1985) is a former American football wide receiver. He was signed by the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He played college football at Hawaii. Early years Bess attended Skyline High Scho ...

with Hawaii, as the two had the same high school football coach.

Boise State

Bhonapha was hired as the director of football operations at

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...

in 2006. He was reassigned to running backs coach in 2009 in a series of staff shuffling made by Boise State head coach

Chris Petersen Christopher Scott Petersen (born October 13, 1964) is a former American football coach who was most recently the head coach at the University of Washington. Previously the head coach for eight seasons at Boise State University, Petersen guided ...

. He added the title of recruiting coordinator in 2011.

Washington

Bhonapha followed Petersen to

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

in 2014 to serve as his running backs coach and the program's recruiting coordinator. While he was the recruiting coordinator, he and fellow assistant Ikaika Malloe were credited with rebuilding a recruiting pipeline in the state of

in part to their connections to the state that ended up with the successful recruitments of players such as Zion Tupuola-Fetui. He was promoted to special teams coordinator in 2021 following the promotion of Bob Gregory to

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

References

External links

*
Washington bio

Hawaii bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhonapha, Keith 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Oakland, California Players of American football from Oakland, California Coaches of American football from California American football defensive backs Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football players Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football coaches Boise State Broncos football coaches Washington Huskies football coaches