Kodi Whitfield was hired as the safeties coach at Sacramento State in January of 2022. Whitfield comes to the Hornets from UCLA where he served as a graduate assistant for the past two seasons.
Whitfield played collegiately at Stanford where he was a wide receiver and safety between 2012-15. He appeared in 27 games as a wide receiver during his first two seasons, totaling 18 catches for 183 yards and a touchdown. His 30-yard one-handed score against UCLA during the 2013 season earned national notoriety.
After moving to safety prior to the 2014 season, Whitfield was credited with 55 tackles at safety. As a senior in 2015, he had 50 stops, including a career high eight against Arizona. He had three or more tackles in 12 games.
The Cardinal won three Pac-12 titles during his career and twice played in the Rose Bowl.
Whitfield earned his bachelor’s of science in engineering product design from Stanford in 2016 and then a master’s degree in sports product design from Oregon in 2018. He began working for adidas in 2018 before opting to return to football and begin his coaching career at UCLA in 2020. He will complete his master’s in transformative coaching and leadership from UCLA in 2022.
With the Bruins, he assisted with the defensive backs during the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Quentin Lake and Qwuantrezz Knight both earned second team all-Pac-12 honors following a 2021 season which saw the team finish with an 8-4 overall record.
Whitfield prepped at Loyola HS where he was a three-year varsity football player and a four-star recruit. He was named the 17th best high school receiver as a senior and was the Serra League Offensive Player of the Year. His father, Bob, was an All-American at Stanford and a first-round pick (eighth overall) of the Atlanta Falcons in 1992. He played 12 years in the NFL where he started 176 games and was selected to the Pro Bowl in 1998.
