Former USC assistant coach Chad Kauha'aha'a (“cow-HA-ah-HA-ah”) was officially announced as a member of the UNLV football staff on March 11, 2020, to oversee the Rebel defensive line.
Kauha'aha'a spent the 2019 season as USC’s defensive line coach as the Trojans ranked 28th in the nation with 35 quarterback sacks and featured First Team All-Pac-12 lineman Jay Tufele and second-teamer Drake Jackson, who was also named a First Team Freshman All-American by 247Sports.
Kauha’aha’a previously assisted the line at six other schools: Boise State (2018), Oregon State (2015-17), Wisconsin (2013-14), Utah (2011-12), Utah State (2009-10) and Weber State (2005-08). No less than 10 of his players have made it to the NFL, including 2013 first-rounder Star Lotulelei from Utah.
While coaching in the Mountain West at Boise State in 2018, the Broncos ranked 10th nationally in sacks and 23rd in rushing defense. In addition to coaching the defensive line at Oregon State, Kauha’aha’a served as the Beavers’ associate head coach and outside linebackers coach his final two seasons in Corvallis. While at Wisconsin, the Badgers were fourth nationally in total defense, 17th in scoring defense, 20th in sacks and 23rd in rushing defense in 2014. The team ranked fifth in rushing defense, sixth in scoring defense and seventh in total defense in 2013.
Kauha’aha’a helped Utah rank in the top 25 in rushing defense both of his seasons in Salt Lake City. Lotulelei (twice) and Derrick Shelby (2011) made the All-Pac-12 first team and Lotulelei won the Morris Trophy as the league’s top defensive lineman in 2011.
Kauha’aha’a was head coach at his alma mater, Baldwin High School, in Wailuku, Hawai’i, from 2002-04, posting a 25-5-2 record and winning two Maui Interscholastic League championships with the Bears.
As a collegiate player he lettered at defensive line and linebacker for Utah for three seasons, earning Second Team All-Western Athletic Conference in 1996 and Honorable Mention All-WAC in 1995. He received his bachelor’s degree in sociology from the school in 1997.
