Jalon Bibbs comes to Iowa State as one of the three defensive position coaches to come from Washington State, alongside new Cyclone head coach Jimmy Rogers. 

Bibbs started his collegiate career as a defensive lineman at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota, logging 64 total sacks across his four-year career, alongside seven tackles for loss, four sacks and four blocked kicks. 

In Bibbs’ first year coaching, he served as the outside linebacker coach for St. Cloud State in Minnesota, where he stayed until 2017, when he returned to his alma mater, Northern State, to serve as the defensive line coach. 

In 2018, he moved to Grand Valley State in Allendale, Michigan, where he retained his position as the defensive line coach. Bibbs stayed at GVSU for five seasons, where the Lakers made it to the Division II college football playoff three times and won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in his final season in 2022. 

In 2023, Bibbs made the jump to the FBS to join Rogers at South Dakota State, retaining his position as D-line coach. That same season, SDSU went on a perfect 15-0 and beat Montana to win the Jackrabbits’ second National Championship ever. 

After the 2024 regular season, the Jackrabbits played in the playoff semifinal to their arch-rivals, North Dakota State. 

In 2025, Bibbs joined Rogers and the rest of the defensive coaching staff in a move to Washington State. The Cougars went on to 6-6 during the regular season in a two-team Pac-12, going 1-1 against their only conference opponents, the Oregon State Beavers. 

Under Bibbs’ vision, Washington State ranked seventh in the country in fourth down conversion defense, only allowing opponents to convert on 33% of attempts. Wazzu also had the 11th-best red zone defense in the country, only allowing touchdowns on 72% of red zone visits. 

Defensive end Isaac Terrell recorded 12 tackles for loss and seven sacks, putting him 32nd in the country in sack total. 

On Dec. 5, 2025, Rogers announced he would make the move to Ames, meaning the rest of the Cougars’ coaching staff would be filling in the gap that Rogers left in their bowl game matchup versus Utah State in Boise, Idaho. 

Washington State beat the Aggies 34-21, giving the Cougars a victory in the famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Defensive linemen Buddha Peleti and Soni Finau would both record a sack in the bowl matchup.

On Dec. 31, 2025, Bibbs announced that he would be joining Rogers once more, in Ames, alongside multiple other defensive coaches from Wazzu. 

Bibbs spoke on the fact that he has been with safeties coach Pete Menage and cornerbacks coach Mike Banks since their time at SDSU.

“Back in Pullman, I actually lived right across the street from coach Menage, coach Banks, our corners coach, was my next-door neighbor,” Bibbs said. “We all are extremely close, and I think that being able to have an opportunity to be able to live together like we did, it just enhances the relationships, right?” 

With Bibbs moving to Ames brought along multiple defensive line recruits who were planning on going to Washington State. Three-star defensive lineman Jake Jones, as well as three-star edge rusher Tyler Burnstein, both decommitted from the Cougars on Dec. 3, 2025, before committing to the Cyclones at the end of December. 

Bibbs also brought along six defensive linemen and edge rushers from Washington State. Notably bringing along the Cougars’ sack and TFL leader, as well as Pac-12 defensive lineman of the year, Isaac “Bobby” Terrell. 

“Bobby [Terrell] had a phenomenal season for us this year at Washington State,” Bibbs said. “You know he was the Pac-12 defensive lineman of the year. You talk about disruption in the run game and as a pass rusher, that’s it.”

Another notable transfer for Washington State was Max Baloun, who joined South Dakota State in 2020 and has followed Bibbs since he arrived in 2023, joining him in moves from SDSU to Washington State and now to Iowa State. 

“[Baloun] is the old head in the room,” Bibbs said. “Me and Max [Baloun] were probably the only position coach, play duo in the history of college football that will have been together at three different spots.”

Alongside the six players from Washington State were players from three other Division I programs, alongside Blake Hawkins, who comes as a JUCO from Iowa Western. 

Kaleb Bilal-Jones comes as the lone transfer from the FBS that didn’t attend WSU, coming from Big 12 foes in the Arizona Wildcats. 

“[Bilal-Jones] just redshirted this past year, but he’s a really good young guy that’s going to be able to bring us a lot as far as the run game and base situations,” Bibbs said.

Another notable transfer is Caden Crawford, who in 2025 played for the South Dakota Coyotes. Before he was in South Dakota, though, he played for the University of Iowa. 

“Interestingly enough, [Crawford] started his career at Iowa,” Bibbs said. “So I think he’s got a little bit of added fuel to his fire right now.”

The final non-Washington State transfer is Jareb Ramos of the University of Montana, a team that appeared in the FCS Playoff Semifinals just a season ago. 

“You know [Ramos] is a guy who’s played a lot of snaps,” Bibbs said. “He was in a three-down structure previously, so I know he’s excited to be able to get to a four-down.”

With six defensive line transfers that Bibbs is familiar with, come four more from new programs and five high school recruits but Bibbs has a plan for these recruits to mesh together. 

“I think you have to manifest different opportunities for guys to be able to build relationships,” Bibbs said. “We’re doing one thing right now, which we call our DNA teams, where we’re splitting up the entirety of the team so that guys are with people within different positions and we’re not really talking about football at all. We’re talking about their backgrounds, their lives, their aspirations.”