Al Simmons Position: Co-Defensive Coordinator/Secondary Years Coaching: 28th Season (Second at CSU)

AL SIMMONS
Co-Defensive Coordinator/Secondary | 28th season in coaching | Second season at CSU

Al Simmons at a glance...

• Named to Jim McElwain's inaugural staff on Feb. 16, 2012.
• For all or parts of six seasons has coached at the NFL level, including two years (2003-04) as a full-time assistant coach with the San Francisco 49ers. Also has assisted NFL staffs during training camp on four occasions, with the Los Angeles Raiders (1993), Arizona Cardinals (1996), San Diego Chargers (1999) and Dallas Cowboys (2000).
• Coached three future Denver Broncos draft selections, Deltha O'Neal, Nick Harris and Syd'Quan Thompson, all at Cal.
• Enters his 28th season in coaching, with all 27 years of prior experience tutoring defensive backs in some capacity.
• First met former Colorado State head coach Sonny Lubick during a spring visit to Fort Collins in 1996, as a Montana State assistant. Wound up coaching Lubick's son, Marc, with the Bobcats, and later coached with his other son, Matt Lubick, splitting the defensive-backs duties at Arizona State in 2007.
• Owns 10 years of experience coaching in the former Pac-10. Also has nine overall years as a defensive coordinator during his career.
• Has spent 18 years of his career coaching in the Bay Area, near his hometown, Oakland. In fact, the Mountain and Pacific time zones have encompassed all of his college resume.

Career background

Postseason experience

Personnel file

• Age on Sept. 1, 2012: 50
• Hometown: Oakland, Calif.
• High School: Oakland (Calif.) High School.
• College: Cal State Hayward (bachelor's in business, 1987; master's in athletic administration/sensory motor skills, 1991).
• Family: Single.

Prominent players coached

• The top CB selected in the 2000 NFL Draft, Deltha O'Neal (15th overall, Denver).
• Two-time All-American Syd'Quan Thompson, the Broncos' seventh-round selection in the 2010 NFL Draft.
• CB Justin Tryon, the Redskins' fourth-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft, who was a member of the Super Bowl-champion New York Giants in 2011, and played in all 16 games for the Giants in 2012.
• S Chris Conte, the Bears' third-round choice in the 2011 NFL Draft, who started 15 games in 2012.
• K Thomas Weber, 2007 Lou Groza Award winner.
• P Nick Harris, Denver's fourth-round choice in the 2001 draft, and a 12-year NFL vet.
• All-American CB Dennis Weathersby, selected by the Bengals in the fourth round of the 2003 NFL Draft.
• First-team all-Pac-10 choice Terrell Roberts, who played two years with the Cincinnati Bengals.
• CB Omar Bolden, a Freshman All-American at Arizona State and a 2012 fourth-round choice by the Denver Broncos, with whom he played in all 16 games as a rookie.
• Seven-year NFL veteran Chidi Iwuoma.
• Darian Hagan Jr., son of the former Colorado cornerback; the younger Hagan signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Browns in 2011.
• A pair of all-conference players, Omar Turner and Jared Lucero, at Montana State.

Playing career: Laney College, 1981-82; Cal State Hayward, 1983-8

Al Simmons enters his 28th season in the coaching profession in 2013, and his second as co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Colorado State. Head Coach Jim McElwain made Simmons part of his inaugural Rams staff on Feb. 16, 2012.

In his first season at Colorado State Simmons combined with Marty English to coordinate a defense that ranked fourth in the Mountain West in passing yards allowed (203.2). The Rams' defense produced three players who earned All-Mountain West honors, including second-team defensive end selection Lanston Tanyi. LB Shaquil Barrett and CB Shaq Bell received honorable mention, while LB Cory James was named to Phil Steele's national All-Freshman second team. James set a Colorado State freshman record with 7.5 sacks in 2012.

Simmons came to Fort Collins from UTEP, where he'd served under Mike Price for one season (2011) as safeties coach. While still in the Mountain Time Zone, El Paso represented the Eastern-most stop in his impressive college coaching career.

For all or parts of six seasons, has coached at the NFL level, including two years (2003-04) as a full-time assistant coach with the San Francisco 49ers. Simmons also has assisted NFL staffs during training camp on four occasions, with the Los Angeles Raiders (1993), Arizona Cardinals (1996), San Diego Chargers (1999) and Dallas Cowboys (2000).

Prior to his year in Conference USA, Simmons spent three seasons (2008-10) on Jeff Tedford's staff at Cal, coaching the Golden Bears' defensive backs. During that period, his second stint at Cal, Simmons helped Syd'Quan Thompson, Denver's seventh-round selection in the 2010 NFL Draft, to All-America recognition in both 2008 and '09. The Bears, who picked off just 10 passes the year before Simmons' arrival, improved their interception total to 24, which led the Pac-10 and ranked third in the nation. Cal in the season after adding Simmons also improved its total defense from 378.8 yards/game in 2007 to 315.2, and its pass defense from 214.4 in 2007 to 193.0 in 2008. And in his last season on staff, 2010, Simmons helped Cal lead the conference in total defense, thanks in large part to the play of S Chris Conte, the Chicago Bears' third-round selection in the 2011 NFL Draft.

In two seasons at Arizona State (2006-07), Simmons worked under two head coaches, Dirk Koetter and Dennis Erickson. His Sun Devil pupils included Justin Tryon, a first-team all-Pac-10 selection and fourth-round draft selection who played for the Super Bowl-champion New York Giants in 2011, and Freshman All-American Omar Bolden, a 2012 fourth-round draft choice of the Denver Broncos. And as co-special teams coordinator, Simmons developed 2007 Lou Groza Award winner Thomas Weber, who was in training camp with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2011 and '12.

Simmons spent one season (2005) as Dick Tomey's cornerbacks coach at San Jose State, after two years on Erickson's 49ers staff in San Francisco, where Simmons coached the cornerbacks in 2003 and the overall secondary in 2004.

He got back into the NFL after two years (2001-02) as Oregon State's defensive backs coach, where he coached All-American Dennis Weathersby, the victim of a random act of violence days before the 2003 NFL Draft, but still selected by Cincinnati in the fourth round. Weathersby left the Beavers as the program's all-time leader in passes defensed.

Simmons' first term with Cal, and first experience in the Pac-10, was 1998-2000, when he served as the Golden Bears' cornerbacks coach. His top protégé at Cal was Deltha O'Neal, the No. 1 cornerback selected in the 2000 NFL Draft, 15th overall in 2000, by the Denver Broncos. He also tutored All-American punter Nick Harris, Denver's fourth-round choice in the 2001 draft, and a longtime NFL veteran.

He earned the jump to Cal after serving as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Idaho State in 1997.

Before that, Simmons coached for two years (1995-96) under Cliff Hysell at Montana State, as defensive backs coach. With the Bobcats, he first coached with McElwain, at the time the offensive coordinator, and coached a pair of all-conference players, Omar Turner and Jared Lucero.

Including one campaign (1994) as the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at San Francisco State, Simmons launched his coaching career where he grew up, in the Bay Area. Tim Tierney gave Simmons his first job, at Cal State Hayward as the defensive backs coach, a role he held for two seasons (1986-87). He earned additional duties as Hayward's defensive coordinator, and held the reins of the defense from 1988-93.

An all-conference linebacker at Laney College (1981-82) and an all-league safety at Cal State Hayward (1983-84), Simons grew up about 10 miles from the Oakland Coliseum, and graduated from Oakland High School.

Simmons owns two degrees, a bachelor's in business ('87) and a master's in athletic administration and sensory motor skills ('91), both from Cal State Hayward. He is single.