Cody vonAppen joined the UC Davis football staff shortly after the end of the 2025 season, joining the Aggies in February of 2026 set to take over as special teams coordinator.
With over 13 years of coaching experience at the collegiate ranks and a deep understanding of Big Sky football, vonAppen brings tons of experience to the special teams unit filled with incoming and returning talent poised for a big season.
vonAppen comes to Davis after spending the previous five years at Cal Poly serving as an assistant coach before taking over the defense as the defensive coordinator ahead of the 2022 season, a role he held until conclusion of the 2025 season. While under his command, the Cal Poly defense produced four first team All-Big Sky members and two All-Americans in Elijah Ponder and Mikey D’Amato.
vonAppen coached the defensive backs at Boise State for the 2019 season. The Broncos posted a 12-1 mark during the regular season, capturing the Mountain West Conference title before falling to Washington in the Las Vegas Bowl. vonAppen was an assistant coach and graduate assistant at Northern Arizona from 2014-18. He spent his first two seasons in Flagstaff (2014-15) as a defensive graduate assistant, working primarily with the Lumberjack defensive line in his first season and the linebackers and nickels in 2015.
vonAppen was promoted to a full-time assistant coach role ahead of the 2016 season and oversaw the Northern Arizona safeties. He was part of a Lumberjack staff that helped lead Northern Arizona to the FCS playoffs in 2017, the sixth FCS/I-AA playoff appearance in program history.
While in charge of the Lumberjack safeties and nickels, vonAppen oversaw the development of a pair of All-Big Sky performers in Kam’ron Johnson and Wes Sutton. Sutton was named to the All-Big Sky First Team in 2017 and the Second Team in 2018, while Johnson was a second-team selection at the end of each campaign.
During his time as a graduate assistant, he helped guide defensive tackle Siupeli Anau to a pair of All-Big Sky honors, including a first-team selection in 2015, as well as linebackers Delvin Batiste and Josh Bamrick being named honorable mention that same season.
vonAppen began his coaching career at his alma mater, Western Oregon, in 2013, where he coached the quarterbacks during the spring season before taking over the running backs group for the fall. He spent two seasons as a quarterback at Western Oregon (2011-12). He played his first two seasons at Eastern Arizona College, where he was a two-year starter at quarterback before transferring to Western Oregon.
vonAppen earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Western Oregon in 2014, and received his Master’s of Education in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona in May 2016.
