Keith Abu Bhonapha (born May 12, 1980) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach who is currently the assistant head coach and running backs coach at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

. 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 ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

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

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

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 protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings The word 'safety' entered the English language in the 1 ...

and

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

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 was most recently the offensive coordinator of the Seattle Sea Dragons. Jones was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa ...

, where he helped to coach the defensive backs with secondary coach

Rich Miano Richard James Miano (born September 3, 1962) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a defensive back for 10 seasons with three teams in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for th ...

. While at Hawaii, he was credited with connecting Davone Bess 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, United States. 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 ...

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 an American former college football coach. He was the head coach for eight seasons at Boise State University; Petersen guided the Broncos to two BCS bowl wins in the 2007 and 2010 Fiesta ...

. He added the title of recruiting coordinator in 2011.

Washington

Bhonapha followed Petersen to

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

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 (DC) is a coach responsible for a gridiron football team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's coaching structure, wit ...

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 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen