Meet the Oregon State Coaches: Defensive Position Coaches

In preparation for camp, we are recapping offseason staff changes, and reintroducing key members of Trent Bray's staff, including the head honcho himself. We’ve also written about the offensive position coaches. This piece focuses on the defensive position coaches, and the special teams coordinator.

Edge Coach Kharyee Marshall

Kharyee Marshall’s career trajectory is sky high. After playing defensive end at Boise State from 2010-13, Marshall has made quick work of a coaching career that started with NAIA College of Idaho and now includes multiple stops in FBS. 

After spending 3 seasons as a grad assistant, first with his alma mater Boise State from 2018-19, and then with Oregon in 2020, Marshall caught a big break. Oregon defensive coordinator Andy Avalos - a proud Boise State alum - was named Boise State’s next head coach. Marshall followed him back home, spending the next two seasons as a defensive analyst. 

In 2023, Marshall joined Jonathan Smith’s last Oregon State staff as a defensive quality control coach. Following the 2024 season, he was promoted to edge coach. 

Defensive Line Coach Ilaisa Tuiaki

Few coaches embody their position quite like Ilaisa Tuiaki. The towering, burly former fullback at FCS Southern Utah pivoted to a defensive line coaching role with Kyle Wittingham’s Utah Utes in 2013, and has excelled on the defensive side of the ball ever since. In 2014, Tuiaki was named a finalist for FootballScoop’s Defensive Line Coach of the Year award. 

In 2015, Tuiaki joined Gary Andersen’s first staff at Oregon State, where he coached linebackers and special teams. The following season, he joined Kelani Sitake at BYU, where he coached defensive linemen and held defensive coordinator duties. Tuiaki returned to Corvallis ahead of Jonathan Smith’s final season in 2023. 

Secondary Coach AJ Cooper

Paired with secondary coach and co-DC Rod Chance, AJ Cooper gives the Beavers defensive backs a great chance to improve in 2025. 

Despite back-to-back all-conference selections and an all-state selection his senior year, the Las Vegas native lacked major scholarship offers out of high school, and elected to play college football at NAIA Southern Oregon (Ashland, OR) for the late Craig Howard. Cooper’s decision paid off: in his true freshman 2014 season the Raiders won a national championship, then followed it up with a championship game appearance the following year. 

The four year starter leapt straight into coaching following his graduation - first as a graduate assistant and then a cornerbacks coach with NCAA D2 Central Washington - and joined Jonathan Smith’s 2021 football staff as a graduate assistant. After a brief foray coaching linebackers at Sacramento State in 2023, Cooper returned to Oregon State ahead of the 2024 season. 

Special Teams Coordinator Jamie Christian

Central Washington alum Jamie Christian enters his 25th season coaching football, and his 9th consecutive year coaching special teams. 

Christian’s coaching career began as a graduate assistant on Dennis Erickson’s 2000 Fiesta Bowl champion Oregon State team. When Erickson took the San Francisco 49ers head coaching job in 2003, Christian joined him as a quality control coach. His introduction to special teams coaching began at Arizona State, where he tutored a variety of positions from 2007-11.

He became a full-time special teams coordinator with Houston from 2012-14, and has since held that role with Fresno State (2017-19), New Mexico (2020-23), and Oregon State (2024-present).