COACHES & ADMINISTRATION
RUNNING BACKS 12TH SEASON IN NFL • 1ST SEASON WITH RAIDERS KENNEDY POLAMALU
COACHING BACKGROUND Years Position Coached 1992-93 .........................UCLA .................................................................Graduate Assistant 1994-96......................... San Diego State..............................................Special Teams/Running Backs College/Pro Team 1997-98 ......................... Colorado ..........................................................Running Backs 1999 ...............................San Diego State..............................................Linebackers 2000 ..............................USC ...................................................................Running Backs 2001 ...............................USC ...................................................................Special Teams Coordinator 2002-03 ........................USC ...................................................................Special Teams Coordinator/ Running Backs 2004 .............................. Cleveland Browns...........................................Running Backs 2005-09 ........................ Jacksonville Jaguars .....................................Running Backs 2010-12 ..........................USC ...................................................................Offensive Coordinator/ Running Backs 2014-15.......................... UCLA .................................................................Running Backs 2016 ...............................UCLA .................................................................Offensive Coordinator 2017-21 .......................... Minnesota Vikings .........................................Running Backs 2022............................... Las Vegas Raiders..........................................Running Backs coaching staff, Polamalu served as Colorado’s running backs coach for two seasons (1997-98) between stints at San Diego State as the linebackers coach (1999) and running backs coach (1994-96). PERSONAL: Native of Pago Pago, American Samoa…Attended Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., where he was an All-American in football, lettered in basketball and track, and served as the student body president… Played fullback and linebacker at USC from 1982-85, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history…Nephew, Troy Polamalu, played at USC and played 12 seasons in the NFL, winning two Super Bowls with Pittsburgh and was a 2020 inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame…Brother, Ao Polamalu, played football at Penn State and nephew, Nicky Sualua played running back at Ohio State before playing for the Bengals and Cowboys in the NFL…Great nephew, Isaiah Pola-Mao, signed with the Las Vegas Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2022…Polamalu has three children.
Kennedy Polamalu enters his 31st season in coaching at both the NFL and collegiate levels and his first season as running backs coach with the Las Vegas Raiders. Prior to arriving in Las Vegas, Polamalu spent five seasons as the running backs coach with the Minnesota Vikings. In 2021, Polamalu coached Vikings RB Dalvin Cook to his third-straight 1,000-season, as the veteran back totaled 1,159 yards on the ground to rank fifth in the NFL. Additionally, Polamalu aided RB Alexander Mattison in setting a career high with 491 rushing yards and Mattison combined with Cook to account for 66 receptions out of the backfield. In 2019, Polamalu coached Cook to a breakout season as he earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week and FedEx Ground Player of the Week honors and was named as a Pro Bowl starter after leading all non-quarterbacks in fan voting. FB C.J. Ham also was named to the Pro Bowl for his part in the Vikings rushing attack. Cook finished the 2019 regular season with 1,135 rushing yards, 10th-most in the NFL, and became the eighth player in franchise history to eclipse 1,000 rushing yards in a single season. Cook’s 13 rushing TDs in 2019 ranked fourth in the NFL and tied for the second most by a Viking in a single season. Cook also became one-of-nine players in NFL history to record 500-plus rushing yards and 200-plus receiving yards in the first five games of a season. He became the fifth player in NFL history to open a season with three consecutive games of 110-plus rushing yards and a rushing TD, joining Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Curtis Martin, O.J. Simpson and Emmitt Smith. The 2018 backfield workload was split equally between veteran Latavius Murray and Cook as he returned from a knee injury suffered early in his rookie season. In his first season with the Vikings in 2017, first-year sensation Cook set a team record for rookies with 288 yards in the opening three games of the season but was lost to injury for the season in the fourth game. Cook’s production was replaced by the duo of Murray (842 yds, 8 TD) and Jerick McKinnon (574 yds, 3 TD) who combined for 1,412 yards and 11 rushing TDs. Under Polamalu’s guidance at UCLA, RB Paul Perkins became the first Bruin since DeShaun Foster (2000-01) to register consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons and the first running back in program history to record 80 career receptions. Perkins, who was selected by the New York Giants in the 2016 NFL Draft, earned second-team All-Pac-12 recognition after rushing for 1,343 yards and 14 TDs as a senior. In 2014, Perkins experienced a breakout campaign, becoming the second player in school history to lead the Pac-12 in rushing with 1,575 yards. Prior to his second UCLA stint, Polamalu was the offensive coordinator and running backs coach at his alma mater, USC, from 2010- 12. In Polamalu’s system, QB Matt Barkley became the all-time leading passer in school and conference history, throwing for 12,327 yards and 116 TDs. Polamalu previously coached the running backs in Jacksonville (2005- 09) and Cleveland (2004). The Jaguars totaled the third-most rushing yards (133.7 ypg) and second-most rushing TDs (95) in the league from 2005-09, and two Jacksonville running backs earned Pro Bowl nods during that span: Fred Taylor (2007) and Maurice Jones-Drew (2009). Polamalu has deep roots at USC where he was a player and was involved in coaching or recruiting Heisman winners Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush. He also recruited the heralded ‘Thunder and Lightning’ backfield of Bush and Lendale White. He joined USC for the 2000-03 seasons, coaching running backs and special teams during that span. Prior to joining the USC
Las Vegas Raiders 2022
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