Oregon State Hires Bray As Defensive Coordinator
Feb. 24, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Craig Bray, 48, defensive secondary coach the past six years at Washington State University has been hired as defensive coordinator at Oregon State University, it was announced Thursday by Dennis Erickson, the Beavers' head coach.
For Bray, it will represent a reunion with his former boss, Erickson. Bray previously has been an assistant coach on Erickson's staff's at Idaho, Wyoming and Washington State. Bray also has close ties with present OSU assistant coaches Tim Lappano, Gregg Smith, Dan Cozzetto, Eric Yarber and Jim Michalczik.
"We are fortunate to get a coach of Craig's caliber to be our defensive coordinator," said Erickson. "Craig has coached on my staff at Idaho, Wyoming and Washington State and he understands our philosophy. He has coached in the Pacific-10 Conference for a number of years (eight) as a secondary coach and has been very successful."
Bray replaces Willy Robinson as defensive coordinator on the OSU staff. Robinson was recently hired as the secondary coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League.
The hiring of Bray now completes Erickson's staff as Oregon State prepares to open spring drills on April 4.
With the addition of Bray, Erickson also announced position assignments for his staff. On the offensive side, offensive coordinator Tim Lappano will coach quarterbacks. Cozzetto, who was hired in January, will coach running backs, while Yarber will move from running backs to wide receivers coach. Smith, assistant head coach, will continue to coach the offensive line and Michalczik will coach tight ends and special teams.
Defensively, Michael Gray continues with the defensive line, Greg Newhouse with the linebackers and Matt Lubick, who also serves as recruiting coordinator, will coach the secondary. Bray as coordinator will also assist with the secondary.
Bray is a 1975 graduate of UNLV, where he earned two letters as a wide receiver (1973-74). Following his graduation from UNLV, Craig served as a graduate assistant for the Rebels and coached wide receivers.
Craig quickly entered the collegiate ranks as a full-time coach in 1976 as an assistant coach at Nevada-Reno. With the Wolf Pack, Craig coached wide receivers for two years and moved to the secondary for his final two seasons (1978-79) with Nevada.
Craig moved to Northern Arizona as the Lumberjacks' secondary coach from 1980-83.
In 1984, Craig joined Erickson's staff at Idaho as secondary coach. Bray followed Erickson to Wyoming in 1986 as secondary coach and to Washington State as secondary coach from 1987-88. The 1988 Cougar team won the Aloha Bowl.
Bray joined Idaho head coach John L. Smith as the Vandals' defensive coordinator in 1989 when Smith left WSU to take over the Idaho program. He coached the safeties for five years and the 1990 Vandal secondary led the Big Sky with 29 interceptions and 39 takeaways. In 1992, Idaho had the best defense in the Big Sky and ranked seventh in the nation.
Bray returned to Washington State under Mike Price in 1994 as secondary coach, a position he has held the past six seasons.
In his first season with Price, the Cougars' noted "Palouse Posse" led the country in defense, while Bray's secondary led the Pac-10 in pass efficiency defense. In Bray's six years at WSU, the Cougars twice led the Pac-10 in pass efficiency defense and finished lower than fourth just once.
WSU was second in the Pac-10 to OSU in pass efficiency defense in 1999. The Cougars surrendered just 14 touchdown passes in 1999, trailing only the Beavers (8) and Washington (12).
Bray coached numerous WSU standout defensive backs who went on to sign professional contracts in either the NFL or Canadian Football League, including James Hasty, Robert Turner, Torey Hunter, Singor Mobley, John Rushing, Brian Walker, Shad Hinchen, Ray Jackson, Duane Stewart and Dee Moronkoia.
Bray is a native of Yreka, CA. He attended Yreka High School, earning three letters as a wide receiver and defensive back. He earned All-Northern California honors as a senior wide receiver. He also earned four letters in basketball and was an All-Northern California pick as a senior in 1970.
Craig is married and has two sons, Josh, 19, and Trenton, 17.. His wife, Kaprice, was Washington State's volleyball coach in 1985. His youngest son, Trent, was an all-state linebacker at Pullman High School as a junior in 1999.
