Troy University Athletics
Football
- Title:
- Cornerbacks
- Email:
- jmorgan@troy.edu
- Phone:
- 3682
Ray Brown begins his second season coaching the Troy cornerbacks following three seasons at Abilene Christian where he coached the defensive backs.
In his first season with the Trojans, Will Sunderland finished fourth in the Sun Belt with four interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown against South Alabama. Sunderland went on to earn All-Sun Belt First Team honors before signing a free agent deal with the Green Bay Packers. With the exception of Sunderland, 66.2 percent of Troy’s snaps at cornerback were taken by freshmen during Brown’s initial campaign.
While at Abilene Christian, the Wildcats were among the best in the nation defensively in 2018 and set a school record for interceptions.
Abilene Christian finished in the top 30 nationally in 2018 with a school-record 13 interceptions paced by All-Southland Conference Adonis Davis’ four picks. The Wildcats knocked off No. 11 Nicholls State as the Abilene defense held Nicholls to just 12 points.
In 2018, the Wildcats ranked sixth nationally in fourth-down defense (26.3 percent), 15th nationally in third-down defense (30.3 percent) and 16th nationally in rushing defense (113 yards per game). Additionally, Abilene ranked third in the Southland Conference in scoring defense and red zone defense.
In his second season at Abilene, Brown’s secondary posted the top passing defense in the Southland Conference allowing just 196.7 yards per game, an improvement of 81.8 yards per game from the previous season.
Prior to his stint at Abilene, Brown spent a pair of seasons as a graduate assistant at Arizona State working with the Sun Devils’ cornerbacks. Arizona State won the 2015 Sun Bowl and completed just the second back-to-back 10-win seasons in school history, while cornerback Kareem Orr earned Freshman All-America honors. The Sun Devils ranked 23rd nationally in interceptions during his second season and 29th his first season.
Brown also played a key role in Arizona State signing the No. 1 and No. 2 rated junior college cornerbacks in the country and Orr, who led the Pac 12 in interceptions as a freshman. Additionally, Brown coached Demarious Randell who was selected by the Packers in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft.
Brown began his Division I coaching career as a graduate assistant working with the safeties at Washington State in 2013 where the Cougars made their first bowl appearance in 10 years. Safety Deone Bucannon earned All-America honors, was rated the top strong safety in the country by NFL.com and was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft with the 27th selection.
Following his playing career at East Central as a four-year starter at cornerback, Brown served as the running backs coach and run game coordinator at his alma mater for two years (2010-11) before taking over as the special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach at Oklahoma Baptist for the 2012 season.
Brown received his bachelor’s degree in business marketing from East Central in 2009 and his master’s degree in sports administration from East Central in 2011.
He is married to the former Amber Gatlin and the couple has three children, Gavin, Rylin and Peyton.
