How Bray's recruiting connections helped build the Wazzu defense

Apr. 10—Among the 1,125 listed fans at Bailey-Brayton Field on Tuesday to see the Washington State baseball program's 7-6 midweek upset of Oregon State sat a man with unique ties to both the orange and black and crimson and gray.

WSU defensive coordinator Trent Bray grew up in Pullman, graduated from Oregon State and launched a coaching career that included a collective decade in Corvallis, Ore. — spending the last two years as the Beavers' head football coach.

Now, he's back home, molding this new era of college football on the Palouse and on occasion enjoying baseball games with his colleagues.

OSU fired Bray in October after an 0-7 start. Two months later, Bray got a call from WSU's first-year coach, Kirby Moore.

"It was a little bit out of the blue," Bray said Tuesday after the Cougars' seventh spring practice. "Went up to the bowl game and met with him. It kind of happened fast when it did happen; it seemed like a great fit. Really enjoyed talking to coach (Kirby) Moore at that time, felt like a good fit for what I was looking for, for what he was looking for and then coming back home is always great."

The call brought a return to a familiar job in a familiar town for the Pullman High School grad. His brother, Josh Bray, is a Pullman police officer.

Defensive coordinating is also where he found the most success. In 2023, his Beaver defense allowed just 104 yards per game, good for No. 15 nationally.

It's a job that will also take him back to Corvallis this year.

There is a potential for not just one, but two matchups with his alma mater on the Cougars' 2026 football schedule because of a "flex game" scheduled for the last week of November, with the likely opponent listed as Oregon State.

However, before the Cougars can worry about their opponent across the field, they are first focused on each other during spring football, where Bray, Moore, offensive coordinator Matt Miller and the remainder of the staff are zeroed in on installing their schemes and laying a foundation for the rest of the year.

Bray is the son of the late coach Craig Bray, who was an assistant to coaches Dennis Erickson and Mike Price at WSU and a defensive coordinator at OSU.

Craig Bray died in February of a heart attack.

"It's the reason I do what I do is because of him," Trent told the Oregonian in February. "It's why I got into coaching, why I first started loving football. I was always at practice and around the office. He was very instrumental in shaping who I am right now."

Who Trent Bray is has defined his relationships with players, including one of WSU's first to announce their return to Pullman, Keith Brown.

Bray and Oregon State were the first to offer the Lebanon, Ore., native a scholarship, Brown said.

"My mom and I talked about it too," Brown said of his full-circle relationship with Bray. "It is cool. I started my career in the Pac-12, I'm ending it in the new Pac-12 and I'm also ending it with the first coach that ever (offered me). He's the reason why I'm a college football player in the first place."

Instead of Bray and OSU, Brown chose Oregon in 2021 before transferring to Louisville after two years and then to WSU in 2024.

He sat out all of last season with an unspecified arm injury.

"It was long," Brown said of his recovery. "First thing was just mentally getting back into it. You prepare so hard for your last year and then it gets taken away from you and then you've got to go through that all again."

Back in playing shape, Brown faced a decision, the bones of which are common in modern college football, yet particularly extreme for Pullman: Work with his third WSU coaching staff in as many years or transfer.

Brown said he was looking at his options before the new staff's swift outreach paid off.

"Coach Moore and coach Bray reached out to me very quickly and we had great conversations," Brown said. "When it came down to it, I really didn't want to move again, it's not very fun, so they made it super easy for me to want to stay and we got it done right there on the spot."

Senior cornerback Jalil Tucker and senior wide receiver Darrius Clemons followed Bray from OSU to WSU.

Junior linebacker DJ Warner, who played edge at Kansas and SMU, visited Bray at OSU on June 2, 2023, according to 247sports.com.

Warner's relationship with Bray helped him find his way to the Palouse, Bray said.

One of WSU's best prep commits, Lance McGee, out of Sumner High School (Wash.), originally committed to Bray and Oregon State.

McGee found great success as a linebacker at A.C. Davis High School in Yakima and won the 4A state championship as a running back at Sumner.

Bray said that McGee is comfortable with the way that he conducts the defense and wanted to be a part of that.

"There's a number of guys who I recruited out of high school — DJ (Warner) being one of them," Bray said. "And now you're coaching them, so you've already got a built-in relationship, which really helps the process."

The WSU defense will run a 4-2-5 scheme (four defensive lineman, two linebackers and five defensive backs) in 2026, capitalizing on its secondary and defensive line depth while perhaps covering for its lack of experienced linebackers. However, a veteran leader like Brown and a promising prospect like Warner could turn Bray's natural position — he was a 2005 All-Pac-10 linebacker at OSU — into a strength.

Beyond the Xs and Os, Bray said that the more connected a team is, the more committed to a common cause they will become.

In the modern age where guys are at different schools year to year, that quality connection can be difficult to nurture.

"It's how fast and how close can we become as a team and trust each other and believe in each other, and so that's where it all starts," Bray said. "And then once you've created those connections and trust, now you can start working with each other, and that real work can start happening."

Almost halfway through spring ball, WSU will conduct the first of three scrimmages at 11:45 a.m. Saturday in Pullman and wrap with the annual Crimson and Gray Spring Game at 2 p.m., April 25 at Gesa Field.

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.