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Washington State announces hire of safeties coach, ex-Utah State assistant Kendrick Shaver

WSU takes to the field during the first half of college football game on Friday, September 29, 2017, at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Wash. (Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
By Theo Lawson theol@spokesman.com(509) 459-5584

PULLMAN – The 2018 defensive coaching staff at Washington State is finally complete.

The Cougars on Saturday announced the hire of their new safeties coach, Kendrick Shaver, who comes to WSU after seven years at Utah State – two of which were spent as the Aggies’ co-defensive coordinator.

“Kendrick Shaver is an outstanding coach that has coached several different positions along the defense in his career,” Leach said in a school press release. “He called the defense at Utah State for the past two years, he brings constant energy to practice, and has the reputation of being a tremendous recruiter. We are fortunate to have a coach and person of his caliber join our program.”

Shaver is a former FootballScoop.com Co-Defensive Backs National Coach of the Year who’s helped lead Utah State to six consecutive bowl games and a 2012 Western Athletic Conference championship.

The team feats are partially due to Shaver’s work with USU’s defensive secondary. Each of the last two seasons, the Aggies have ranked inside the top 20 nationally in passing yards allowed. Last season, they checked in at No. 19 with 182.5 yards per game.

USU checked in sixth nationally with 29 turnovers, one better than WSU, which forced 28 in the same number of games.

Shaver has also mentored and coached two All-Americans – Will Davis (2012) and Nelvin Lawson (2013) – and had both of the same players drafted: Davis in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft (Miami) and Lawson in the fourth round of the 2014 Draft (Detroit).

Before USU, he logged four years (2007-10) as the secondary coach at Northern Colorado of the Big Sky Conference. Shaver was also the secondary coach and recruiting coordinator at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (2006), where he also played from 1998-99 before transfering to Missouri State.

In addition to Shaver, Leach has hired a new defensive coordinator, Tracy Claeys, and promoted former defensive quality control assistant Darcel McBath to assistant coach. McBath and Claeys will also coach individual position groups, but neither has been determined yet.