AJ had a 45-year successful college and professional coaching career that included being defensive coordinator for 18 seasons at six colleges and having a Top 20 defensive ranking in 10 seasons as defensive coordinator/secondary coach. He was on the coaching staff for teams that made 14 bowl games and won conference championships in the SEC, Pac 12, Conference USA, and Big Sky.
AJ played offensive and defensive line at the University of Idaho during the mid-1960s after a successful prep career at Ritzville High in Washington. After earning his education degree in 1967, he started his college coaching career when he was hired by his old Vandal coach Dee Andros at Oregon State University as an assistant in 1969. He earned his Masters degree there with a perfect 4.0 GPA. In 1970, he joined the Idaho staff and was the secondary coach when the Vandals won the league title in ’71 and had their best season in 67 years. He then moved to New Mexico State as secondary coach and recruiting coordinator for two years.
AJ returned to Idaho to coach for another two years as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator before being hired by Rich Brooks at Oregon, where he was outside linebackers coach for two seasons and then defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach for four years.
In 1983, AJ accepted the defensive coordinator position at Stanford and a year later, he was selected defensive coordinator at Notre Dame where he spent two seasons. He was later defensive backs coach at Georgia Tech (1986), Alabama (’87-89), UCLA (1990-94) and Colorado (‘95-98),
where he was also defensive coordinator for a program that produced back-to-back 10-win seasons and a Cotton Bowl victory.
In 2000, he coached linebackers at USC and then spent two years at Cincinnati as defensive coordinator. He returned to Stanford in 2003 for two seasons as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach before stepping into the NFL as the San Francisco 49ers defensive back coach.
AJ has a strong connection to the North Idaho Hall of Fame. He was coached by three, coached with eight, coached five, and played with 15 members of the HOF.
While AJ was at Alabama, the Crimson Tide won the SEC for the first time in seven years and played in the Sugar Bowl. At UCLA, the Bruns won the Pac 12 title for the first time in nine years and played in the Rose Bowl. And Cincinnati won the Conference USA title for the first time in 37 years.