After 10 years on The University Tulsa football coaching staff, Luke Olson has been promoted to  Golden Hurricane Defensive Coordinator.

Coach Philip Montgomery said, “We’re fortunate to have someone of Luke’s coaching ability and football knowledge already on staff where we can have a smooth transition in continuing with the success we’ve been able to have defensively in the 3-3-5 scheme,

“Luke has been an integral part of the creation of this defense. He has a tremendous relationship with our players and understanding of their capabilities within our scheme. Obviously, he will bring his own twist and creativity to what we do defensively in keeping with the standard that we’ve set and the progress our defense has made the past four seasons.”

For the past three seasons, Olson has been the eyes in the press box on game day for former defensive coordinator Joe Gillespie.

A native Tulsan, Olson enters his 11th season on the Tulsa football coaching staff and has been a part of the defensive staff that transitioned the Hurricane from a base 4-man front to a 3-3-5 alignment beginning in 2018. He spent the past four seasons coaching the nickel safeties and coordinated Tulsa’s punt return unit in 2019. Olson first came to Tulsa as a graduate assistant coach in 2012 and then spent four years as defensive quality control coach before becoming nickel safeties coach in 2018.

Olson said, “I was a part of the initial installation of this defense four years ago with Coach Bill Young and Coach Joe Gillespie and I take great pride in making sure we continue to head in the right direction. Coaching beside them has been invaluable on so many levels.”

Olson has been involved in every aspect of helping prepare the Tulsa defense from directing the offensive scout team, film break down, defensive signal-calling, coordinating the punt return team, assisting with coaching the defensive line and secondary and coaching STAR linebacker and the nickel safety positions.

Olson has helped lead Tulsa to five bowl games, including the 2012 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, 2015 Camping World Independence Bowl, 2016 Miami Beach Bowl, 2020 Armed Forces Bowl and this past season’s Myrtle Beach Bowl. Olson also helped lead the Hurricane to two conference championship games during his tenure.

“Luke is one of the bright young minds in college football. I have full faith and trust in his ability and in that of our defensive staff to put our young men in the right situation to make plays and be a top tier defense not only in our conference but in the nation,” added Montgomery.

The 2021 Tulsa defense ranked among the top-5 in the American Athletic Conference for scoring defense, rush defense, total defense and interceptions. The Hurricane held the opposition to 369.8 yards per game to rank 56th among 130 teams nationally for total defense.

Tulsa’s 2020 defense was ranked second in The American for total defense, scoring defense, rushing defense, pass defense and pass defense efficiency.

Before coming to Tulsa, Olson was a four-year starter (2008-11) at Southern Nazarene University, where he played free safety and linebacker. Olson was an Academic all-Central States Football League (CSFL) selection each year, while earning all-conference accolades in 2009.

Olson earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Southern Nazarene in 2012, while receiving a master’s degree in May 2014 from Tulsa in Methods in Educational Research.

Olson, 32, played prep football at Tulsa’s Union High School.

Coach Jesse Williams

Tulsa Defensive Line Coach Jesse Williams has been given the responsibilities of run game coordinator for the Golden Hurricane defensive unit, Montgomery announced.

A college coaching veteran of 33 years, Williams is in his second season as Tulsa’s defensive line coach after joining the Hurricane coaching staff last February. He has coached the defensive line for all 33 of those seasons.

“Jesse has done a great job in his time here at Tulsa. The impact he’s made with his experience and leadership has led to this expanded role as our defensive run game coordinator,” said Montgomery.

In 2021, Williams coached a Tulsa defensive front that was the first line of defense in limiting opposing offenses to 142.3 rushing yards per game to rank 48th nationally for run defense. His linemen combined to total 196 tackles, 41 stops for lost yardage and 17.5 quarterback sacks.

Williams began his coaching career at his alma mater, Sonoma State (1988-91), and has also coached at Portland State (1992-94), Eastern Washington (1995), Holy Cross (1996-97), San Jose State (1998), Colorado State (2007), Nebraska-Kearney (2007-08), New Mexico State (2009-11), Ohio (2012-16), Kansas (2017-18) and his most recent stint at Eastern Kentucky (2019).

During his career, Williams has coached in 11 bowl games, including helping Tulsa win the championship at the 2021 Myrtle Beach Bowl. He played collegiately at Riverside City College and Sonoma State University.

Coach Steve Farmer

Steve Farmer has joined The University of Tulsa football coaching staff as offensive line coach.

Farmer brings 23 years of collegiate coaching experience to the Hurricane, including nine seasons as an offensive coordinator. He comes to Tulsa following three seasons (2019-21) coaching the offensive front at Texas Tech.

Five different Texas Tech offensive lineman earned six All-Big 12 honors in three seasons under Farmer’s tutelage. In his first two seasons at Tech, the Red Raider offensive line ranked among the top 30 nationally for fewest sacks allowed.

Two of Farmer’s linemen went onto the NFL – Terence Steele signed as an undrafted free agent with the Dallas Cowboys following the 2019 season and Jack Anderson was selected in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills. Steele became only the fourth offensive tackle in the Super Bowl era and the ninth in NFL history to start at least 14 games as an undrafted free agent when he started at right tackle for the Cowboys in 2020.

Previously, Farmer spent three seasons at Utah State (2016-18) in a similar capacity before moving to Texas Tech with Head Coach Matt Wells.

Under his guidance, Utah State boasted one of the top offensive lines in 2018 with an FBS national ranking of fourth place for fewest sacks allowed, giving up only 10 sacks despite attempting 465 passes on the year. USU was one of only three teams in the country to rank in the top 10 for fewest sacks allowed and the top 30 for pass attempts. The Aggies scored 47.5 points per game in 2018 to rank second in the nation behind No. 1 Oklahoma.

Prior to joining Utah State, Farmer spent six seasons as the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Louisiana-Monroe from 2010-15, which was his second coaching stint with the Warhawks.

In between his two stints in Monroe, Farmer returned to his alma mater, Illinois State, where he served as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach in 2009.

Farmer had his first offensive line coaching position at Eastern Illinois for two seasons (2001-02), as his unit allowed only 17 sacks in those two years. He then moved to coach the offensive line at Eastern Michigan for the 2003 season.

Farmer began his coaching career at his alma mater following graduation.

Farmer was a first-team All-Gateway Conference performer at center for Illinois State in 1998 and a member of the Redbirds’ 1998 FCS playoff team. He began his collegiate career at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, where he was a two-year letterwinner and team captain in 1996.