Bray Making a Difference at Iowa State

AMES, Iowa - When it comes to the collegiate football recruiting experience, Iowa State defensive ends coach Curtis Bray knows it from both sides. He has been an assistant coach for 17 years and recruited players for four different schools, including several who played in the National Football League. But Bray knows the other side of the coin. In 1987, he became the first defensive player to be honored as the Gatorade National High School Football Player of the Year and was a first-team USA Today All-American.

Bray grew up 10 minutes outside of Pittsburgh, in suburban Monroeville, where he attended Gateway High School. The school made the title game three of the four seasons Bray played for the Gators. All the big schools were after Bray. His final choices were Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Penn State, Stanford and Michigan State. He eventually chose to stay close to home and play at Pitt. For Bray, the recruiting process was a double-edged sword.

"It's an overwhelming experience," Bray said. "Having been on both sides of it, it's really difficult to describe unless you go through it. You're very flattered by it but it also becomes very wearisome. It wears on you. There is a lot of pressure but it's also fun at the same time. If you were older you probably couldn't handle it but since you're in high school you really don't worry about it too much. The high school kids are probably the right ones to handle it actually."

The recruiting experience is more regulated today and Bray said that is good.

"It's better now for the players because back then it was unlimited phone calls," Bray said. "Coaches would call all the time, show up at the school and recruiters would be in the school a little more. The big difference now is obviously that the internet is a bigger part of it. Everyone knows exactly where you're going and you can't really go under the radar. Back then I could go visit somewhere or go to a Pitt basketball game and no one might know except for the people that saw me at the game, if they knew who I was. But now if kids do that it's on the internet before they even get home. I think the biggest difference is that the national scope of recruiting now and how people follow the rankings."

Bray has great memories of his playing years.

"We beat Penn State my freshman year, and I had a really good name," Bray said. "I got to play with some great teammates. It was real competitive."

Bray graduated on time from Pitt with a bachelor's degree in economics and took a short break from the game.

"I worked for a development company in Baltimore, Md., for about six months," Bray said. "I really took a year off and was just working in the real world. I decided to get back into football so then I coached at a junior high school in Pittsburgh. You've got to help the kids put their knee pads on but it was fun. They were good kids and I will always remember those guys."

He then took a graduate assistant coach job at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, working part-time at a juvenile prison to make ends meet. From there it was off to Western Kentucky to work under Jack Harbaugh, father of former NFL quarterback and current Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh.

"The biggest thing with Jack was his emphasis on the team," Bray said. "The team, the team, the team, that's what he used to stress all the time. He can just see the maturation of players as they come along. He tells a story about guys their freshman year, they are worrying about their stats or when they call up their parents they're saying 'well I rushed for this.' As seniors they call home and say 'we won.' Their parents might ask them how they did and they say 'I'm not sure exactly how many yards I had, but we won.' Jack's biggest emphasis was the team. He was a really good football coach."

Bray worked three years at Villanova in Philadelphia. In 2000 he joined the Pitt staff as defensive ends coach under head coach Walt Harris. It was there he worked under current Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads, then the Panthers' defensive coordinator. Bray recruited several current NFL players to Pitt, including San Francisco 49er linebacker Scott McKillop, Arizona Cardinal wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, Baltimore Colts quarterback Joe Flacco and Indianapolis Colts linebacker Clint Session.

"Scott McKillop was a physical player, a smart player," Bray said. "He had great balance and was very coachable. Clint Session was a missle. He was fun to coach because he played with great intensity. He played and practiced at 100 miles an hour."

Bray's first bowl game at Pitt was the 2000 Insight.com Bowl, in which Iowa State beat Pittsburgh, 37-29. Bray and current ISU head coach Paul Rhoads were on the opposing sideline.

"I thought it was a good game," Bray said. "I thought the difference in the game was that Iowa State had a senior dominated team that was able to carry a little bit more on its shoulders. (Iowa State's) seniors rose up to the occasion and (Pitt) was a little bit younger team. Our guys may have been a little bit happy just to be there."

The Panthers competed in five bowl games during Bray's coaching tenure, winning the 2001 Tangerine Bowl and the 2002 Insight Bowl, while competing in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl after winning the 2004 Big East title. He was linebackers coach at Pittsburgh from 2003-2006. In 2003, he participated in the NFL Minority Fellowship program for the Denver Broncos and worked with defensive coordinator (and former ISU defensive coordinator) Larry Coyer during training camp. Bray worked at Temple as linebacker coach for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

When Rhoads took the head coaching job at Iowa State, he called Bray.

"It was a chance to go into the Big 12 in a different part of the country," Bray said. "Most importantly, it was just a chance to work with coach Rhoads and help him develop this program. It's good to get in on the ground floor of anything you do. You really feel like a part of it and take ownership in Iowa State."

Bray played a major role in Iowa State's 2009 Insight Bowl season, which ended with a 14-13 win over Minnesota in Tempe, Ariz. A major benefactor of Bray's coaching last season was defensive end Chris Lyle. Lyle became a force in the trenches for the Cyclones in his senior season, making 69 tackles. Lyle led the team with 13 tackles for loss and five sacks. He was the defensive MVP of the Insight Bowl as ISU beat Minnesota 14-13.

"Chris was a guy who improved so much from game one to game 13," Bray said. "He loves the game and I'm sure he'll be in an NFL camp."

Bray coached a Cyclone defense that forced eight Nebraska turnovers to lead Iowa State to a 9-7 win over the Huskers last season. It was ISU's first victory in Lincoln, Neb. in 32 years.

"It's funny because that whole game I just remember holding on and holding on," "Bray said. "I never look at the clock because you kill yourself looking at the clock. But once we dodged a couple bullets early, I felt we were going to win the game. I honestly believe that if they would have scored our offense would have found a way to score or we as a team would have found a way to score. I felt that way because of how our guys were ready to play that day; they were going to do whatever it took to win that game."

Bray is excited about spring football and looking forward to the 2010 football season.

"I look at the Big 12 North and we will be ready to compete," Bray said. We're not someone's little brother in this conference. The bottom line is that the best team is going to win. As long as we keep striving to be the best team that we can be, we'll be fine."

Iowa State University Athletics

Bray Making a Difference at Iowa State

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors