WSU cornerbacks coach Ray Brown leaving for same job at Boston College

PULLMAN – Washington State will be looking to replace two position coaches in the weeks ahead.

Cornerbacks coach Ray Brown is taking the same job at Boston College, according to 247 Sports and confirmed to The Spokesman-Review by multiple sources, which comes on the heels of offensive line coach Clay McGuire’s departure for the same gig at Texas Tech.

Brown, who also spent the 2013 season as a WSU graduate assistant, worked the past two seasons as the program’s cornerbacks coach. He helped develop players like cornerback Chau Smith-Wade, a two-year starter who should get selected in this spring’s NFL draft, and safety Jaden Hicks, a redshirt sophomore who had two interceptions last season, one a pick-six and the other an acrobatic grab in the Apple Cup.

In 2022, Brown helped Smith-Wade earn All-Pac-12 honorable mention honors for the Cougars, whose defense allowed 22.9 points per game, third in the conference that season. Also a key recruiter for WSU, Brown led the charge coaching a WSU secondary that ranked sixth in coverage among Pac-12 teams last season, according to Pro Football Focus.

Under Brown’s instruction, several Washington State cornerbacks blossomed last fall. The list includes junior college transfer Jamorri Colson, who burst onto the scene with a key interception against Stanford, and Kapena Gushiken, who had an 88-yard pick-six in the Cougs’ loss to UCLA last October.

Brown, an Oklahoma native who has also made stops at Abilene Christian, Arizona State and Troy, spent the 2021 season on staff at Utah State. That’s the same year the Aggies came to Pullman and sprung an upset on WSU – and the same year he coached Cam Lampkin, a consistent cornerback last fall for the Cougs.