Tyson Maeva enters his second season in 2026 as coach of the defensive tackles at North Dakota after the Fighting Hawks went 8-6 in 2025 and won a FCS road playoff game for the first time in program history. Maeva's unit helped UND produce the best rushing defense in the MVFC, surrendering only 102.7 yards per game and second best scoring defense as only two teams held their opponents under 20.0 ppg.
Maeva arrived in Grand Forks after serving as a defensive graduate assistant coach at San Diego State in 2024 and a defensive graduate assistant at Washington from 2022-23 when he also worked with head coach Eric Schmidt.
While with the Aztecs, Maeva assisted the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach and actively evaluated and recruited linebacker and defensive prospects. He generated weekly install, scouting and gameplan reports for position players. At Washington, he coordinated the scout offense and service teams and performed opponent breakdowns and assisted the defensive staff with game planning.
Before coaching, Maeva spent six years playing linebacker at three different institutions. He began his playing career at Boise State from 2016-18 and then transferred to Florida International for the 2019 and 2020 seasons before concluding his career at Fresno State in 2021. He was named the Newcomer of the Year with the Bulldogs in 2021 and was twice an All-Mountain West performer with the Broncos.
Maeva graduated from FIU with a bachelor's degree in communications in December of 2020.
