Luke Olson joins Rich Rodriguez’s staff at Jax State as the Gamecocks’ Defensive Coordinator and brings more than a decade of experience at the FBS level with him.
Olson comes to Jax State from TCU, where he was a senior defensive analyst during the 2023 season after an 11-year stint on staff at Tulsa. He served as the Golden Hurricane’s Defensive Coordinator in 2022.
He spent the 2023 season working as an analyst for TCU Defensive Coordinator and former Tulsa DC Joe Gillespie. He joined Gillespie in Fort Worth after working under him for seven years at Tulsa.
A Tulsa native, Olson started his coaching career with the Golden Hurricane in 2012 as a graduate assistant and worked his way up before being named the defensive coordinator in 2022.
During his time at Tulsa, the Golden Hurricane earned spots in five bowl games, including the 2012 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the 2015 Camping World Independence Bowl, the 2016 Miami Beach Bowl, the 2020 Armed Forces Bowl and the 2022 Myrtle Beach Bowl. Olson also helped lead the Hurricane to two conference championship games. They won the 2012 Conference USA Championship with a 11-3 record and a 7-1 mark in league play.
He spent the 2012 season as a graduate assistant working with the defensive line, when that unit ranked among the nation’s leaders for quarterback sacks, while his defensive linemen totaled 32 of the team’s 53 sacks.
Olson then assisted with the team’s cornerbacks in 2013 and 2014 and spent four years as defensive quality control coach before becoming the nickel safeties coach in 2018.
A 2012 graduate of Southern Nazarene, Olson was a four-year starter at safety and linebacker from 2008-11. Olson and his wife, Keisha, have two sons – Lane and Wells.
