Jason Tarver

Jason Tarver (born August 28, 1974) is an American football coach, and currently the defensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders. Previously, he was co-defensive coordinator and inside linebacker coach for the Stanford Cardinal football team.

Early life and playing career
Tarver attended Foothill High School in Pleasanton, California and graduated in 1993. After graduating from high school, he attended Santa Clara University from 1992 to 1997. Since Santa Clara had cut their football team after the 1992 season, Tarver decided to play defensive back at West Valley College for the 1994–1995 seasons. He graduated from Santa Clara with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1997.

Coaching career
After his playing career ended, Tarver served as outside linebackers, defensive backs, and special teams coach at West Valley for the 1996 and 1997 seasons, and as a graduate assistant at UCLA for the 1998 through 2000 seasons, while pursuing his masters degree. Tarver was hired as an Offensive Quality Control coach for the 49ers in 2001, and served as outside linebackers coach until 2010.

In 2011, Tarver was named co-defensive coordinator on David Shaw's staff at Stanford.

In February 2012, Tarver was hired by new Raiders head coach Dennis Allen to replace former defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan. In Jason Tarver's first season as Raiders Defensive Coordinator the Raiders defense improved from 29th overall in 2011 to 18th in 2012.

Personal
Tarver and his wife Katie have two sons.