University of Arizona Athletics

University of Arizona new Head Football Coach Brent Brennan has added Joe Seumalo as Defensive Line Coach.  

Seumalo joins the Wildcats coaching staff after serving as defensive line coach with the San Jose State Spartans since 2017. It was his second stint with the Spartans after serving as an assistant in 2005. He molded current NFL player Viliami Fehoko into Mountain West Defensive Player of the year. Becoming the third Spartan coached by Seumalo to earn the award.  

Fehoko was also named to the Sporting News All-America Second Team, the PFF All-America Second Team, and the Phil Steele All-America Fourth Team. Fehoko and Cade Hall were both named to the Mountain West First-Team in 2022.  

SJSU also led the Mountain West in sacks with 39 while playing in a conference low 12 games and finished fifth in the nation averaging 3.27 sacks per game in 2022. 

Seumalo has 22 seasons of NCAA Division I experience coaching defensive linemen. Ten of his players went on to play professional football. Chris Gocong, who played for Seumalo at Cal Poly, finished second in the 2004 Buck Buchanan Award voting for the top defensive player in the NCAA Division I-AA classification, now know as the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Oregon State’s Stephen Paea was the 2010 Pac-12 Conference Defensive Player of the Year. 
 
A defensive lineman at the University of Hawaii from 1985 through 1988, Seumalo was a second-team All-Western Athletic Conference his senior season. He went on to play in the Canadian Football League for Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Roughriders in 1989 and the Edmonton Eskimos in 1994. Seumalo concluded his pro playing career with the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe in 1995. 
 
SEUMALO FILE

• Defensive Line Coach at Arizona (2024)
• Defensive Line Coach at San Jose State (2017-23)
• Assistant coach at Arizona State (2016)
• Assistant coach at UNLV (2015)
• Assistant coach at Oregon State (2006-14)
• Assistant coach at SJSU (2005)
• Assistant coach at Cal Poly (2001-04)
• Graduate assistant at Hawaii (1999-2000)
• Assistant coach with the Hawaii Hammerheads of the IFL (1999)
• Guest coach for the CFL's BC Lions (1996)
• Assistant coach at Kaiser High School in Honolulu (1994-98) 

PERSONAL 

• He and his wife, Karen, have four sons, Andrew, Isaac, Noah, and Levi; a daughter, Jessi. 
• Andrew is in his fifth season as the defensive line coach at Lafayette College. 
• Isaac is in his seventh NFL season as an offensive guard with the Philadelphia Eagles 
• Jessi is the Player Personnel Coordinator at the San Francisco 49ers 
• Noah is a linebacker at Oregon State University.