Saul King Patu (born June 8, 1978) is an American football coach and former defensive end. He played college football at Oregon and professionally in the Arena Football League.

Early life and college career

Patu was born and raised in Seattle to a family of Samoan, Tongan, Fijian, German, and French background. He graduated from Rainier Beach High School in Seattle in 1996. From 1997 to 2000 at the University of Oregon, Patu was a four-year starting defensive end for

Oregon Ducks football The Oregon Ducks football program is a college football team for the University of Oregon, located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level in the FBS and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12). Although ...

. As a senior in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, Patu set a school record for single season tackles for loss with 21 and ranked third in the

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

in sacks with eleven. Patu earned honorable mention All-Pac-10 honors for his first three seasons and second-team All-Pac-10 honors in his senior year. He graduated from Oregon in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in family and human services.

Professional football

Saul Patu signed a free agent contract in the National Football League for the New York Jets (2001) and spent time with the New England Patriots (2001) and Tennessee Titans (2001–2002) before signing a contract in the Arena Football League for the Colorado Crush (2003–2008). Patu is the Crush's all-time sack leader and holds the record for yards per carry as a fullback. He was part of the 2005 Crush team that won ArenaBowl XIX. Patu played last for the Columbus Destroyers in 2008 before retiring from football. In his six seasons with the AFL, Patu had 125 total tackles, 14.5 sacks, nine passes defended, nine forced fumbles, 196 rushing yards, nine rushing touchdowns, and one touchdown reception.

Post-football career

Coaching career

Patu began a football coaching career in 2017 as defensive line coach at Sheldon High School in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

. Patu was defensive line coach at Rainier Beach High School in 2018 and defensive line coach and run game coordinator for Lewis & Clark College in 2019. Then in 2020, Patu joined Capital Christian High School in Sacramento, California as head football coach and advancement director.

Outside of football

After retiring from football, Patu also worked as a youth pastor, team chaplain for Oregon Ducks men's basketball, and as a manager at

Symantec Symantec may refer to: *An American consumer software company now known as Gen Digital Inc. *A brand of enterprise security software purchased by Broadcom Inc. Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier ...

and

Veritas Technologies Veritas Technologies LLC. is an American international data management company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company has its origins in Tolerant Systems, founded in 1983 and later renamed Veritas Software. It specializes in stor ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Patu, Saul 1978 births Living people American football fullbacks American football linebackers Oregon Ducks football players New England Patriots players Tennessee Titans players Colorado Crush players Players of American football from Seattle American sportspeople of Samoan descent High school football coaches in California High school football coaches in Oregon High school football coaches in Washington (state) Coaches of American football from Washington (state) Lewis & Clark Pioneers football coaches American people of Tongan descent American people of Fijian descent American people of French descent American people of German descent American football defensive ends Rainier Beach High School alumni