Idaho football: Paopao hired to coach wide receivers

| January 11, 2025 1:10 AM

MOSCOW — Idaho football coach Thomas Ford announced the hire of Augustana offensive coordinator Tyler Paopao as the wide receivers coach on Friday.

"I am grateful for the opportunity that coach Ford has given me to be a part of the Vandal family," Paopao said in a news release. "My family and I are extremely excited to be back home in the Northwest. I am excited for the chance to develop the young, talented group of receivers we have in the program."

Paopao comes to Idaho from NCAA Division II Augustana (S.D.) where he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach the past two seasons, helping lead the Vikings to back-to-back NSIC titles.

Before Augustana, he was the receivers coach (2022) and tight ends coach (2018-2021) at the University of South Dakota. He helped lead the Coyotes back to the FCS playoffs for the second time, and South Dakota hosted a playoff game inside the DakotaDome for the first time in 35 years.

"I'm incredibly excited to bring coach Paopao and his family to Moscow," Ford said. "He is another veteran coach that has play-calling experience at the FCS level. Coach Pao is an incredibly smart football coach that cares about his players and has deep recruiting ties on the West Coast. He is a proven developer who will do a great job with our very talented and deep receivers corps."

Paopao served as offensive coordinator at Eastern Oregon University from 2012-17 and served as assistant head coach for three seasons. During his time in La Grande, Paopao helped the Mountaineers to three winning seasons, including eight wins in 2014 and to a national semifinal appearance in 2016 when Eastern Oregon finished 10-3.

Prior to Eastern Oregon, Paopao spent five seasons at Southeastern Louisiana University where he produced multiple all-conference performers while working with tight ends, running backs and receivers.

Paopao earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from Occidental College where he was a two-time All-SCIAC quarterback (2001, 2002) and led the team to a conference title and an 8-1 record in 2001.

He was drafted by the Ottawa Renegades of the Canadian Football League in 2002 and served as an assistant coach there in 2005. A year later, he served as offensive coordinator for the Lazio Marines in Italy.