Former Oregon State All-American and assistant coach Avery Roberts has joined the Vandal football coaching staff as the edge rushers coach.
"I am ecstatic about this great opportunity to join the staff at Idaho," Roberts said. "I believe in the vision Coach Ford has laid out for Idaho Football and I am fired up to be a part of it. I cannot wait to get to Moscow and get to work with our players."
Roberts comes to Moscow from Corvallis where he was a defensive graduate assistant for the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He joined the staff in the spring of the 2023 season and worked with linebackers. In 2024, he shifted to edge rushers.
He worked directly with Ford, who was the running backs coach for the Beavers in 2024, but the relationship goes back to Roberts' playing days at OSU.
"I've known about Avery Roberts since his playing days," Ford said. "He was one of the best defensive players I scouted during my time at UW and he coaches just like he played. Avery is a fierce competitor that comes to the office every day with a lunch pail and hard hat mentality. He has a great understanding of defensive football from all three levels and is a tireless worker. I have no doubt he will do a great job building relationships with our players and will continue to push them on both the technical and physical side of Edge play. We're incredibly fortunate to get such a young talent coach to Moscow"
As a player he was a standout, earning Phil Steel Third-Team All-American honors in 2021 after recording a Pac-12-best 128 tackles, the fifth-most in a single-season at OSU. He racked up 280 career tackles, 19 tackles for loss and five sacks during his playing career at Oregon State. Roberts was also named an All-Pac-12 First-Team selection in 2020 and 2021.
He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Seahawks and played one season with the USFL's Philadelphia Stars.
