TicketsVeteran coach Jon Tenuta joined the University of Cincinnati staff in January 2017 currently serves as the senior defensive analyst after coaching the safeties form 2017-19.
With 37 seasons of collegiate coaching, Tenuta has a wealth of FBS coaching experience, including being the defensive coordinator at various BCS stops: Kansas State, Ohio State, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame and Virginia. Tenuta also served Marshall and SMU as defensive coordinator as well during the 1980s and has been a defensive coordinator in 19 of his 37 seasons as a collegiate coach.
Tenuta has been part of a UC staff which coached the Bearcats to back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2018 and 2019, the 2019 American Athletic Conference East Division Championship and consecutive bowl-game wins in the 2018 Military Bowl and 2019 TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl.
The Bearcats finished atop the 2019 AAC ranks in scoring defense for the second-straight season and ranked among the league's top three in rushing and total defense.
The 2018 Black Cats Defense led the American in rushing defense, scoring defense and total defense and ranked among the Top-15 in the NCAA FBS in all three categories.
He wrapped up his third season as the associate head coach for the defense and the defensive coordinator at Virginia in 2015.
His 2015 defense was led by first-team All-ACC honorees Quin Blanding and Micah Kiser. It’s the first time UVA has had two sophomores earn first-team All-ACC honors since Terry Kirby and Chris Slade in 1990. The duo finished the regular season No. 1 and No. 2 in the ACC in tackles, the only set of teammates across the 10 FBS conferences to accomplish the feat. Through the regular season, Kiser led the ACC with 117 tackles, while Blanding finished No. 2 for the second year in a row with 115 tackles. Defensive tackle David Dean earned All-ACC honorable mention in 2015 after concluding his career No. 4 all-time among UVA’s defensive tackles with 25.5 tackles for loss.
In 2014 Tenuta's defense featured seven starters that earned All-ACC honors. Highlighting the defensive was one of the ACC's best safeties units. Blanding, a Freshman All-American, was No. 2 in the ACC with 123 tackles and Anthony Harris was No. 6 with 108 stops. No other safety duo in the league combined for more tackles. Blanding led the nation's freshmen in tackles and was named the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year for his exploits. Blanding and Harris earned All-ACC honors along with Maurice Canady, Henry Coley, David Dean, Eli Harold and Max Valles.
During Tenuta's first season on Grounds he oversaw a defense that featured Harris, a first-team All-American, who led the nation with eight interceptions. The All-ACC first-team honoree was third on the team with 80 tackles in 2013. Under Tenuta's tutelage defensive lineman Brent Urban led the nation in pass breaks for a defensive lineman, despite missing four games with an injury.
Prior to UVA Tenuta came from NC State, where his defense included David Amerson, who led the nation in 2011 with 13 INTs.
Tenuta has coached in 17 bowl games during his career and served as the interim head coach for Georgia Tech at the 2007 Humanitarian Bowl. After he arrived at Notre Dame, he helped the Irish defense improve in all defensive categories and coached 2012 Heisman Trophy runner-up Manti-Teo to a freshman All-American season.
While at Georgia Tech, 18 Yellow Jacket defenders earned first- or second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference recognition and 18 players from his first four units were either drafted or signed to NFL free-agent contracts. in the six years Tenuta was in Atlanta, his defenses were ranked nationally in total, scoring and rushing defense, including 20th or better against the run the last five years.
In 2001, Tenuta guided the ACC's top-rated defense at North Carolina during his only season in Chapel Hill.
Tenuta spent five seasons at Ohio State and he helped develop several All-Americans and first-round NFL draft picks. Ohio State's pass defense was consistently ranked among the nation's best during that span. He was on the defensive staff during UC Head Coach Luke Fickell’s senior year, mentoring the defensive backs.
In 1989, he was an assistant coach at SMU, where he helped Forrest Gregg rebuild the program. Tenuta also has had stops at Maryland (graduate assistant), Vanderbilt (DBs) and Oklahoma (DBs).
Tenuta has coached more than 30 players who went on to play professional football.
A three-year letterwinner as a defensive back at Virginia (1978, `79, `80), he won the team's John Acree Memorial Football Trophy and Kevin Bowie Award. Tenuta graduated with a degree in physical education and health in 1982.
He met his wife, Dori, while at UVA. They have three sons: Zach, Matt and Luke. Son Matt is a left-handed pitcher in the Kansas City Royals' organization and spent the 2016 season with the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Class-A Advanced Carolina League.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born: Feb. 25, 1957
Hometown: Columbus, Ohio
Wife: Dori
Children: Zach, Matt, Luke
Education: Virginia (1982, B.S.)
Year in Coaching: 37th
PLAYING CAREER
1978-80: Virginia (Defensive Back)
COACHING CAREER
YEAR: SCHOOL - POSITION
1981-82: Virginia - Graduate Assistant
1983: Maryland - Graduate Assistant
1984-85: Vanderbilt - Defensive Backs
1986: Marshall - Defensive Backs
1987: Marshall - Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs
1988: Kansas State - Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line
1989: SMU - Defensive Backs
1990: SMU - Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers
1991-94: SMU - Defensive Coordinator
1995: Oklahoma - Defensive Backs
1996-99: Ohio State - Defensive Backs
2000: Ohio State - Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs
2001: North Carolina - Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs
2002-07: Georgia Tech - Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs
2008: Notre Dame - Assistant Head Coach/Linebackers
2009: Notre Dame - Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers
2010-11: NC State - Linebackers
2012: NC State - Assistant Head Coach for Defense/Linebackers
2013-14: Virginia - Associate Head Coach for Defense/DC/Linebackers
2015: Virginia - Associate Head Coach for Defense/DC/Safeties
2017-19: Cincinnati - Safeties
2020-: Cincinnati - Senior Defensive Analyst
BOWLS COACHED IN
YEAR: SCHOOL - BOWL
1983: Maryland - Citrus
1987: Marshall - I-AA National Championship
1997: Ohio State - Rose
1998: Ohio State - Sugar
1999: Ohio State - Sugar
2001: Ohio State - Outback
2001: North Carolina - Peach
2002: Georgia Tech - Silicon Valley Classic
2003: Georgia Tech - Humanitarian
2004: Georgia Tech - Champs Sports
2005: Georgia Tech - Emerald
2006: Georgia Tech - Gator
2007: Georgia Tech - Humanitarian
2008: Notre Dame - Hawai‘i
2010: NC State - Champs Sports
2011: NC State - Belk
2012: NC State - Music City
2018: Cincinnati - Military
2019: Cincinnati - Birmingham