Greg Lupfer Position: Defensive Line Years Coaching: 19th season (Second at CSU)

GREG LUPFER
Defensive Line | 19th season in coaching | Second season at CSU

Greg Lupfer at a glance...

• Last name is pronounced LOOP-fer.
• Officially joined the CSU staff on March 20, 2012.
• Owns 11 years of experience as a defensive coordinator.
• Served as Portland State's interim head coach in the winter of 2006-07.
• Helped Portland State defeat two Division I-A opponents, including then-No. 23 Hawaii in 2000.
• Coached former CSU player Adam Hayward, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, at Portland State.
• Led the Vikings to the top-ranked defense in the Big Sky Conference, in 2004.

Career background

Postseason experience

Personnel file
Age on Sept. 1, 2013: 43
Hometown: Dayton, Wash.
High School: Dayton (Wash.)
College: Portland State (social science, '94)
Family: Wife Tina, three children (Taylor, Colby, Demi)

Prominent players coached:

• Adam Hayward, who lettered at Colorado State in 2003 before transferring to Portland State, where he became the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, and a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award as the top defensive player in Division I-AA; a sixth-year NFL veteran, Tampa Bay selected him in the sixth round of the 2007 draft.
• Portland State's Jordan Senn, a five-year linebacker who has played in every game of the 2011 and '12 seasons for the Carolina Panthers. He originally signed with the Indianapolis Colts as a non-drafted free agent in 2008.
• Cal Poly's Asa Jackson, an All-American, three-time first-team all-conference selection and Senior Bowl player who earned a Super Bowl ring as a reserve defensive back for the Baltimore Ravens as a rookie in 2012.
• Cal Poly's Marty Mohamed, the 2010 Great West Defensive Player of the Year, who played with the CFL's Hamilton TigerCats in 2011.

Playing career: Linebacker at Portland State (1991-93); linebacker at Walla Walla College (1989-90).

Greg Lupfer is in his second season at Colorado State in 2013, and his 19th season overall in coaching. He was hired by Jim McElwain on March 20, 2012 as part of his first Rams coaching staff.

In 2012 Lupfer oversaw a Rams defensive line that was led by second-team All-Mountain West peformer Lanston Tanyi, a transfer from Appalachian State. Under Lupfer's tutelage Tanyi registered a team-high six quarterback hurries, the most by a Colorado State player since 1999. Tanyi ranked third on the team with 77 tackles, second-most by a Mountain West defensive lineman in 2012 and second-most by a Rams lineman since 1988.

Lupfer brought to CSU 11 years of experience as a defensive coordinator, including the previous three seasons (2009-11) at Division I FCS Cal Poly, in San Luis Obispo, Calif., where he also coached the linebackers and secondary.

At Cal-Poly, Lupfer coached a pair of standout defenders. CB Asa Jackson, a first-team all-conference selection for three straight years, was an FCS All-American who was drafted in the fifth round by Baltimore in 2012 and earned a Super Bowl ring with the Ravens. Lupfer also coached 2010 Great West Defensive Player of the Year Marty Mohamed, who signed with the CFL's Hamilton TigerCats during the NFL lockout of 2011.

Lupfer spent one season in the Mid-American Conference, coaching the safeties and outside linebackers at Toledo, in 2008.

Before that stop, he coached for 12 seasons (1995-2006) at Portland State, his alma mater, finishing his long stint there as the Vikings' interim head coach during the winter of 2006-07. At the reins of some of the top-rated defenses in the Big Sky Conference, his units produced a pair of NFL players. Colorado State transfer Adam Hayward was the conference player of the year and a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award as the top defender in the country. Lupfer also tutored future Carolina Panthers linebacker Jordan Senn.

Portland State in 2006 allowed only 12.4 points per game in conference games, easily the top mark in the league, and the team's 18.4 overall points per game marked the program's lowest mark since it joined the Division I-AA level in 1996. What's more, only one other team in the country had more than Portland State's 31 takeaways. Lupfer's unit also excelled in 2004, when the Vikings led the league in every significant category, including scoring defense (20.3), rushing defense (110.1) and total defense (346.3). And in 2000, the Vikings knocked off No. 23-ranked Hawaii, a Division I-A team.

From 1995-99, prior to his appointment as Portland State defensive coordinator, Lupfer coached the program's outside linebackers (1995) and secondary (1996-99), while coordinating special teams from 1996-99. He got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant, working with outside linebackers, for one season at Boise State in 1994. That year, the Broncos advanced to the Division I-AA national championship.

A standout linebacker at Portland State, Lupfer earned All-Western League honors in 1991, leading the team in tackles and helping the Vikings (11-3) to the NCAA Division II semifinals. An injury sidelined him during the 1992 campaign, but he rebounded in 1993 to lead the Vikings back to the postseason. Lupfer finished with 177 career tackles at PSU, after beginning his playing days at Walla Walla Community College, near his hometown of Dayton, Wash.

A 1994 graduate of Portland State, Lupfer owns a degree in social science. He and his wife, Tina, have three children, Taylor (12), Colby (10) and Demi (2).