Super Bowl in Arizona runs deep with Pac-12 ties

The Super Bowl is back in Valley of the Sun for the fourth time ever and third in the last 16 years.  Fitting with the game returning to the Phoenix metro area that it would have a heavy Pac-12 influence as the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles match-up on Sunday.

Washington State leads the way for the conference with three players on active rosters for the Super Bowl, covering both teams. 

Chiefs cornerback Jaylen Watson went from a 7th round pick in the 2022 Draft to a rookie starter in the Super Bowl.  Watson started six games during the regular season including Week 2 against the Chargers when he returned his first career interception 99 yards for a touchdown.  A two-time honorable mention selection on the All-Pac-12 team while in Pullman, Watson has started each of Kansas City's two playoff games including a 4th quarter interception of Trevor Lawrence to help seal their win over the Jaguars.

The Eagles have a couple of former Cougars in key reserve roles.  Quarterback Gardner Minshew started two games this season when MVP candidate Jalen Hurts was injured, throwing for 629 yards and four total touchdowns in those two games.  2019 first round pick Andre Dillard has been coming off the bench since he was activated off injured reserve, fracturing his forearm just before the team's season opener.

USC also three players representing this weekend with two of them on active rosters, their most since 2019.

Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster is making his first Super Bowl appearance in his first season with Chiefs.  A second round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2017, Smith-Schuster was second on the team this year in both receptions and receiving yards behind Travis Kelce.

Running back Ronald Jones is re-united with his college teammate in Kansas City, serving as one of the team's reserve running backs.  It's the second Super Bowl appearance in the last three years for Jones, running for 61 yards for Tampa Bay in a win over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.

Defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu has been on injured reserve for the Eagles since Week 10 when he tore his meniscus in his first career start.  A 2020 first team All-Pac-12 selection, Tuipulotu was a sixth round pick by Philadelphia in 2021.

Two-time defending Pac-12 champion Utah will be represented on both sidelines on Sunday.  Undrafted rookie Britain Covey has found a home with the Eagles as a punt & kick returner, which is not a surprise after being named 1st team All-Pac-12 three times as a returner with the Utes.  Covey was tied for second in the NFL this season with 33 punt returns.

Brian Johnson, the winningest quarterback in Utah history, has thrived as the Eagles QB coach as he's helped Jalen Hurts become a legitimate MVP candidate.  In just his second season on the Eagles staff, Johnson has become one of the hottest names for both NFL and college teams looking for new offensive coordinators.

On the other sideline, Alex Whittingham is in his fifth season on Andy Reid's Chiefs staff.  A former walk-on linebacker under his father Kyle at Utah, Alex will be going to his third Super Bowl in five seasons as a defensive quality control coach for the Chiefs.

Last year, Washington cornerback Trent McDuffie was on the opposite sideline from Jaylen Watson in the Apple Cup.  This year, the 21st overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft will be lined up next to Watson in the Chiefs starting secondary.  McDuffie started 11 games in which he appeared this season while missing six games early in the season with a torn hamstring muscle.

Fellow former Husky Danny Shelton will be looking for his second world championship ring after helping the Patriots beat the Rams in Super Bowl LIII.  A first round pick out of Washington in 2015, Shelton played in one game this season and has spent the majority of the season on the Chiefs practice squad.

While he never played at Washington, Chiefs outside linebackers coach Ken Flajole was a young grad assistant under Don James on the 1979 team.  Flajole was previously on the Eagles staff from 2016 to 2020 and was their linebackers coach when they won Super Bowl LII while also being on the Carolina Panthers staff for Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Former Stanford safety Justin Reid gives the Chiefs a heavy Pac-12 presence in the secondary alongside McDuffie and Watson.  Reid started every game in his first season with the Chiefs after four seasons with the Texans.

Eagles wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead is a former grad assistant at Stanford under both Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw and won a championship as a player for the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI

Four former members of the Oregon Ducks program are part of the game on Sunday including two on practice squads.  Safety Ugo Amadi signed to the Chiefs practice squad in November but was actually a member of the Eagles during training camp.  Wide receiver Devon Allen is on the Eagles practice squad after originally retiring from football in 2017 to pursue a track career, reaching the finals of the 110m hurdles of the Summer Olympics in both 2016 and 2021.

Former Oregon linebacker Michael Clay is in his second season as the Eagles Special Teams Coordinator.  Clay had over 100 tackles in each of his final two seasons as a Duck and after signing with the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent, started his coaching career in 2014 when he re-united with his college head coach Chip Kelly in Philadelphia.

Eagles offensive quality control coach T.J. Paganetti is a former Oregon student intern and graduate assistant.  Paganetti worked under Chip Kelly with the Ducks and then followed him to the NFL and Philadelphia.  He was on the staff for Super Bowl LII when the Eagles won their lone title.

A consensus All-American running back at Colorado, Eric Bienemy has been on Andy Reid's staff since 2013.  After a two-year stint as offensive coordinator in Boulder (2011-12), Bienemy came to the Chiefs as the running backs coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2018.  He has both a national championship as a college player (1990) and Super Bowl ring as an assistant coach (LIV).  His current wide receivers coach, Joe Bleymaier, was a quality control assistant at Colorado from 2013 to 2015.  

Linebacker Davion Taylor, a third round pick of the Eagles out of Colorado in 2020, is in his third season with Philadelphia.  After playing 21 games with seven starts in his first two seasons, Taylor spent this entire season on the Eagles practice squad.

Eagles right guard Isaac Seumalo has played nearly every offensive snap this season and has been a key piece of Philadelphia's offensive line since being a third round pick out of Oregon State in 2016.  A freshman All-American with the Beavers, Seumalo was part of the Eagles Super Bowl LII championship team.

Fellow Beaver, tight end Noah Togiai, spent most of this season on the Eagles practice squad but did see action in two games.

Should one of these Pac-12 alums be named MVP of this year's Super Bowl, they will join a long list of former players from the Conference of Champions who took home the award.

In fact, in two of the previous three Super Bowl appearances by the Eagles a former Pac-12 player has won the MVP (Plunkett, Foles)

The Chiefs training staff also has some Pac-12 roots with both of their assistant strength and conditioning coaches, Tyler Judkins and Ryan Reynolds, having worked at UCLA in the Jim Mora era.  Reynolds, an Arizona State graduate, also worked for the Sun Devils program under Dennis Erickson.  Their Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance Rick Burkholder received his masters degree from Arizona.

Additionally....

• On the media front, former Arizona tight end Rob Gronkowski, a four-time Super Bowl champ, will be part of the FOX pregame broadcast crew while former Arizona State quarterback Mark Malone will be part of the radio game broadcast for Westwood One along sided former Stanford wide receiver James Lofton.
• The statistics for this game will be run by the Arizona State crew led by ASU's Assistant Director of Media Relations Jeremy Hawkes and Media Relations Assistant Connor Smith.  This crew also serves as the official stat crew for the Arizona Cardinals and was recognized as the highest-graded stat crew in the NFL for the second straight season.
• Longtime Arizona State lead groundskeeper Brian Johnson, who retired after the 2021 season, will once again help paint the logo on the field for Super Bowl LVII.  Johnson has helped paint the logo for every Super Bowl since 1996.
• Colin Denny, a research assistant in the College of Education at Arizona, will perform a sign language interpretation of the song "America the Beautiful" during the Super Bowl pregame show.