Colorado University Athletics
Football
Nov 1 (Sat)
5:00 p.m.
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
Bray, 53, has 29 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, including 26 years coaching defense with an emphasis on the secondary, with seven as a coordinator. He worked as the linebackers coach in 2003 at the University of Arizona, where he was on the same staff as current CU defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz.
Craig Bray is in his second year as a member of the Colorado staff, as he was named secondary coach on June 4, 2004.
Prior to his one year in Tucson with Arizona, he was the defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Oregon State University for the 2000 through 2002 seasons. His 2000 defense at OSU ranked as the best in both total and scoring defense in the Pacific 10 Conference, as well and ranks of 20th and 16th, respectively, in the NCAA. His 2001 squad was the third best defensively in the Pac-10, with the 2002 Beavers ranking ninth nationally in rushing defense and 11th in total defense in 2002. He directed a multiple scheme with a 4-3 base defense at Oregon State, similar to what Hankwitz installed at CU this past spring.
Bray also coached eight seasons in two stints at Washington State, in 1987 and 1988 and from 1994 through 1999. He joined Dennis Erickson’s staff at the University of Idaho in 1984, serving as defensive backs coach in addition to recruiting coordinator, and went with Erickson to the University of Wyoming in 1986 (solely as the secondary mentor). He then moved on to Washington State in the same capacity in 1987, and when Erickson left for the University of Miami for the 1989 season, he again followed. But after working the spring as the DB coach, he returned to the Pacific Northwest to take a coordinators’ position under John L. Smith at Idaho, where he was both the defensive coordinator and secondary coach.
He then joined Mike Price’s staff at Washington State in 1994, and was reunited with Erickson at Oregon State in 2000.
His first full-time position in the profession came as wide receivers coach at Nevada-Reno in 1976; he coached the running backs there in 1977 and then switched to defense for the first time in 1978, as he coached the secondary there for the next two years (1978-79). He spent the next four seasons (1980-83) as the secondary coach at Northern Arizona.
Bray started his coaching career as a student assistant receivers coach at UNLV in 1975, the same year he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education. He attended the College of the Siskiyous from 1970-72 and played two years before transferring to UNLV, where he started two years as a wide receiver in 1973 and 1974 (the Rebels were 20-4 in his two seasons there in Division II ball).
He was born on December 18, 1951 in Yreka, Calif., and graduated from Yreka High School where he lettered in football, basketball and track. He is married to the former Kaprice Rupp, a former Washington State University head volleyball coach. The couple has two grown sons, Josh and Trenton; Josh recently graduated from Oregon State, while Trenton is a senior middle linebacker on the Beaver’s football team.
