Joel O. Filani (born December 8, 1983) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

and current wide receivers coach for the Washington State Cougars Football Team. He was selected 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 of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...

in the sixth round of the

2007 NFL draft The 2007 NFL draft was the 72nd annual meeting of National Football League franchises to select newly eligible American football players. It took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 28 and April 29, 2007. The draf ...

. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship institution of the five- ...

. Filani was also a member of the

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

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 of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...

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) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

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

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

, California Redwoods,

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. The team was founded in 2001 and played in the Arena Football League's Central Division. The Rush qualified for the playoffs in 11 of 12 AFL seasons, during w ...

Early life

Filani attended Paradise Valley High School 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 United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

and Colorado State.

College career

At Texas Tech, he redshirted in 2002. In 2003, he played in all 13 games and finished the season with one reception for nine yards. In 2004, he caught 12 passes for 310 yards and two touchdowns and led the team with 17.2 yards per reception In 2005, he was First-team All-Big 12 catching 65 passes for 1,007 yards with a 15.5-yard average and 8 touchdowns. In 2006, Filani was again First-team All-Big 12 after catching 91 passes for 1,300 yards for a 14.3-yards per catch and 13 touchdowns.

Professional career

Tennessee Titans

He was drafted by the

in the sixth round of the

with the 188th overall pick.

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 ...

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

Coaching career

Boise State

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, 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 resp ...

for the Broncos.

WSU

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

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

Washington State University Washington State University (WSU, or colloquially Wazzu) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Pullman, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest Land-grant uni ...

North Texas

From

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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

Texas Tech

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, he joined the coaching staff of his

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

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, who is the current head coach at Wake Forest. He was the head coach at Washington State University from 2021–2024. Dickert attended school and played football at the U ...

. Filani returns to the

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of North Central Idaho, north central Idaho, southeastern Washington (part of eastern Washington), and by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. ...

, 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 Players of American football from Tempe, 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 Coaches of American football from Arizona Texas Tech Red Raiders football coaches Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football coaches