10 years after Alamo Bowl loss, Koa Ka'ai is writing a new Oregon chapter

The former TE turned Oregon assistant QB coach has never been one to turn down an opportunity.

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EUGENE — Koa Ka’ai thought the Alamo Bowl was the end of it.

You remember the game: Oregon was up 31 points at halftime against TCU before the wheels came off in an epic collapse.

The Ducks lost that Jan. 2, 2016 bowl game 47-41. And in the moments after the game, Ka’ai, a tight end then on Oregon’s roster, figured his football career was done.

“The last time I ever put on shoulder pads and a helmet was that game,” Ka’ai said.

It wasn’t, however, the last time he would take the sideline with the Ducks. See, Ka’ai is now a coach and in his fourth year back at his alma mater. He’s assisted with tight ends, running backs and, this spring, was announced as the team’s assistant quarterbacks coach.

The I-5 Corridor caught up with Ka’ai after Thursday’s spring practice to figure out how Ka’ai went from the Alamo Bowl back to Oregon, what it’s like having Marcus Mariota on speed dial and how he’s penning a new chapter to an ending he didn’t like.

(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length)

I-5: Nothing makes me feel older than interviewing a coach who I used to interview as a player. And I remember back in the day during spring ball, they had you moonlighting with positional changes. What do you remember from that time?

Ka'ai: Man, I think spring was definitely one of the most fun times as a player. You know, in regards to everybody practicing, there's not really any pressure, or there's not the same type of pressure you get in the season where you have to win games. Obviously there's pressure to get better. But spring was definitely a fun time. I didn't really see it as a grind. I mean, some guys will see it as a grind, like, we have no games why are we practicing? I just kind of saw it as an opportunity to get better. And it definitely was. I miss those moments for sure, I can tell you that much.

I-5: You’re entering your fourth season now back with Oregon. What was it like first being back and what’s it like now that this is your fourth year on the job?

Ka'ai: It's been crazy. You know, if you told me when I was 22 years old after that Alamo bowl game we lost to TCU, if you told me, Hey, you’ll be back here in 10 years — or whatever it was when I got back, seven years — coaching, I would have been like, you’re crazy. At the time, I didn't really see a career in coaching. My dad was a high school defensive coordinator for about 35 years, but I never really saw myself stepping into a coaching role. I kind of just fell into it.

It's been pretty cool to be back, I mean, to get to see the guys I played with come back, like Kenjon Barner has been out there most of spring ball. Marcus is in town. It's really cool to reconnect with my teammates that come in and out of town and see guys that I haven't seen in years. It means a little bit more, to me, just because this is home. I’ve lived in Eugene for 10 years now between playing and coaching, so it's become a second home for me.

I-5: I didn’t even think of how your last game was that TCU game. What was it like ending your career like that?

Ka'ai: That was the last game I ever put pads on. The last time I ever put on shoulder pads and a helmet was that game.

You know, my career here as a player didn’t go the way that I would have thought. Coming in as a defensive lineman out of high school, making the transition to tight end, and then playing there for four years — I played a lot early and then they recruited really good players and some injuries piled up for me. I think everyone in that tight end room played in the NFL — Pharaoh Brown, Evan Baylis, Johnny Mundt — so my career didn’t go the way that I thought, and then I got into this coaching deal.

I don’t really have any animosity towards that game, like, Aw shucks, the last time I ever put on my cleats, shoulder pads and helmet was after a game where we were up 31 points at half and lost.

But it’s been cool to come back and try to write another story for myself.

Losing that national championship game in ‘14, we were so close. Playing in all those games, the Rose Bowls and stuff, and coming back here with Coach Lanning and having the successes that we’ve had in the last three years, it’s just been cool to continue to write that chapter.

I-5: I imagine between the position change, injuries and that Alamo Bowl game, you have been through a fair amount of adversity that’ll help you relate to players today?

Ka'ai: For sure, I was blessed growing up to come from a really good family with two parents in a stable household. I never really had struggle or the general vision of what a struggle is growing up. But for me, my adversity came through the game. It was coming here. The position change. I didn’t really do everything right as a player when I was here in regards to — I did well in school and was a good teammate and stuff, but I could have taken better care of my body. I could have probably spent a little more time in the classroom in regards to football. And I’d be lying if I said when I was done playing there wasn’t some animosity toward the game itself. It was like, man, I was decently rated out of high school, I had all these dreams and aspirations and things just didn’t go my way. And I just kind of sat there. Every athlete goes through that when they’re done playing, when there’s no more and you’re just going, Well, what am I going to do? Where am I at?

You just kind of have this lost feeling.

Getting back into coaching, that journey has created some more adversity. Working for Todd Graham in Hawaii — not an easy guy to work for. He’s an old-school grinder and that definitely taught me what this profession can be like. So having been in the same shoes as the guys in the building, having gone through some stuff in football, having gone through the same issues that our guys have outside of ball in their personal lives, academics and stuff like that, and doing it at the same school that I’m able to coach now, yeah, it definitely does make it easier at times to relate to guys.

I-5: You first got into coaching in the Hawaii high school ranks. What was that like?

Ka'ai: I think it was 2017 when I moved back to Hawaii, and at the time my parents were like, “Hey, dude, you got two options: You go back to school again or you get a job.” And I’m like 22, and there were some things that I wanted to do school-wise, so I went and got an MBA at Chaminade. And while I was doing this, I was working out at Kamehameha, whose head coach at the time was Abu Ma’afala, who actually worked with Will Stein while Will was at Louisville back in the day.

It’s crazy how that kind of ties back here.

But Abu kept bugging me like, “Hey dude, you want to coach? You want to coach? You want to coach?” And I eventually broke and said, Fine, I’ll do this for a spring. And then once spring was done, I was like, Oh, this isn’t so bad. So that rolled into the summer, which rolled into the next season — my first season as a coach — and I thought it was pretty fun and challenging. It’s a different perspective on the game.

And from there, I went to Farrington for two years, which was crazy. Farrington is inner city and it’s a tough neighborhood. It’s kind of near where I grew up in Kalihi, and my dad was DC there for 35 years. I kind of grew up as a ball boy there.

I taught classes. I taught entry-level math one year and then I taught 10th-grade World History another year. I was head track coach, too. So I’m spending all day at school with these kids. I’m getting to work early and getting my lesson plans ready. On my break period, I’m practice planning and planning my track workouts. It really makes you appreciate what you have when you’re able to be in a place like this at Oregon.

I remember my dad telling me when I first got into coaching that nobody cares what you know if the kids don’t trust you. You need to gain their trust. You need to gain their respect. And the only way to do that is getting to know them. He told me you need to spend time with these kids and really take an interest in their lives and where they come from and what they’re going through.

And when you get them to respect you, then you can get them to trust you. And then, you can coach them more.

So I think getting my toes wet at the high school level was a great opportunity and I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

I-5: How does a defensive lineman who turned into a tight end in college end up being an assistant quarterbacks coach at Oregon?

Ka'ai: I was recruited as a defensive lineman. Then, I ended up playing tight end for four years.

When I got into coaching, my first year at Kamehameha was in 2017. I coached tight ends. I had just finished playing, so that felt pretty comfortable. Then the next year, Farrington was like, “Hey, will you be the junior varsity head coach?”

And I’m like, Oh, damn. I gotta learn all this stuff, right?

So now I’m calling plays there as a 23-year-old OC, thinking I know everything—just finished playing for Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich when we had one of the most explosive offenses in college football at the time. I thought I knew everything, and found that I did not know close to as much as I thought I knew. Then in 2019, I’m working with the varsity team as the offensive coordinator. Still kind of dealing with the same thing—thinking I know everything but realizing I’ve got a lot to learn.

Then I get a call from Hawaii and Todd Graham had just gotten hired, and he’s like, “Hey, want to interview for a GA spot? Someone gave me your name.”

I’m like, Yeah, sure. I’ll do it.

So I interview, and he says, “Well, I’ve got a GA spot on defense. Do you want it?”

And I’m like, Well, damn. No, not really. But I said, Yep, I’ll take it.

And so I go there in 2020 as a defensive line GA. And the thing with Hawaii is they didn’t have as big of a staff as we do here, so within four months, I’m pretty much Todd’s personal GA—working with the entire defense. I remember very distinctly my first night as a GA, he’s like, “Hey, I need five slides on cover three.”

And I’m sitting there like, Bro, I can’t do this. It took me literally three or four hours. I remember thinking, I can never progress in this profession. There’s no way I can do this stuff.

I did that for a year. Then in 2021, Todd says, “Hey, I’m going to move you to be the O-line GA.”

So now I’m A’Lique Terry’s O-line GA at Hawaii in ‘21.

Then A’Lique comes to Oregon, and Trent Figg—who was on staff here in 2022 and went to college with Coach Lanning—he also comes to Oregon. We were all together at Hawaii, and I get the opportunity to come out here and interview and Dan’s like, “Hey, I don’t know what the position’s going to be—probably running backs, as an analyst. You want it?”

I’m like, Sure, I’ll take it.

So I come out here. I’d never worked with running backs before, but I coached them for a year.

Then after the 2022 season, Dan says, “Hey, we’re moving you to receivers.”

I said, Sure, I’ll do it.

So I moved to receivers in ‘23 and worked with Junior Adams for a year.

Then ‘24 rolls around, Will’s like, “Hey, I’m going to move you to the quarterback room.”

I said, Sure, I’ll do it.

So in 2024, I spent the whole season with the quarterbacks.

And now we are here in ‘25.

I-5: Is that shifting around unique? Or does that just happen in the GA world?

Ka'ai: I wouldn’t say it’s normal. Most guys get on a track with one position and kind of stay there. They might hop from receivers to tight ends, or O-line to tight ends—something like that. But most coaches don’t really bounce around between a bunch of different positions.

For me, though—and this is kind of a funny story—I remember being this 22 or 23-year-old high school coach and I would look up these big-name guys in college. I’d be on their Wikipedia pages, and I’d see stuff and be like, Damn, this guy coached tight ends, O-line, receivers and even spent a year on defense?

And I remember thinking, Man, how do I get to that point?

Because I always thought there was real power in knowledge. If you work with all these different positions, you start to learn how everything fits together. You’re picking up different techniques, different fundamentals. It helps the whole scheme make more sense.

So I’d be sitting there like, How the hell do I become one of those guys?

And honestly, it’s just been by the luck of God and being open to opportunity. I never said no to an opportunity. I didn’t want to be a defensive GA at Hawaii—but that ended up being one of the best things for me. Getting to work on that side of the ball and seeing how they do things — I just never said no to an opportunity because I always had it in the back of my mind that the more position groups I can work with, the better my knowledge is going to be and the better my understanding of the game is going to be.

I-5: Were making these steps intimidating for you?

Ka'ai: Yes, most definitely. And not to generalize, but people from Hawaii—we’re pretty quiet and reserved people for the most part. We respect authority, we don’t speak unless we’re told to, that kind of thing.

So, when I first started coaching in high school, it wasn’t too bad. I was comfortable. I was back home in Hawaii, coaching high school ball. Everyone knew me—I had just finished playing.

So that wasn’t a bad transition there.

But when I went to Hawaii, that was a different story. I mean, if you look up Todd Graham, the guy’s got over 100 career wins and a couple of conference championships. This guy had won a bunch of games. And I had never coached in college before. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know anybody on staff at the moment. I just kind of walked into it. And I remember thinking, Am I supposed to be here? Am I good enough to be here?

But over time, you realize—football is football. It doesn’t matter if you’re coaching Pop Warner, youth football, high school, college, or the NFL. Football is football. And I’ve met great coaches at every one of those levels.

Still, yeah, I was definitely intimidated when I first popped in at Hawaii.

Coming back here, being able to come back to Oregon, that was a familiarity thing. Eased that transition a bit. But now I’m in year nine or ten of coaching, and the more experience I’ve gotten, the more comfortable I’ve become. Working with all those different positions has helped me be comfortable doing things I’m uncomfortable doing. Every year for a bit was just relearning.

When I was the O-line GA, I knew none of that stuff at first. But I worked my butt off to learn the O-line technique and fundamentals. Same thing with running backs—I didn’t know anything when I started, but by the end of the year, I was comfortable. Same with receivers. Same with my first year working with quarterbacks.

I think just taking those opportunities and having the mindset of, I’m going to work as hard as I can to be the best coach I can be—that’s what helped me.

Now, sure, you still get butterflies at times. But that intimidation? It’s mostly gone.

I-5: What’s your favorite thing about working with quarterbacks?

Ka'ai: Oh man, I think it’s the cognitive aspect.