Washington State Hiring Florida Analyst Allen Brown to Coach Cornerbacks
Washington State is hiring Florida analyst Allen Brown to coach the Cougars' cornerbacks, according to Matt Zenitz of 247Sports.
Brown spent the 2023 season as a defensive backs quality control analyst with the Gators, under former Florida secondary coach Corey Raymond, who was dismissed from the program last November.
Prior to his one-year stint in Gainesville, Brown occupied roles at California as a quality control analyst (2022), at Eastern Washington University, his alma mater, as a cornerbacks coach / defensive pass game coordinator (2019-21), and at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo as a cornerbacks coach (2015-18). He also operated as a defensive intern at EWU in 2014.
From Tacoma, Wash., the appointment will return Brown to his home state. He starred as a safety with Eastern Washington from 2009-13, accumulating 237 tackles, 15 pass breakups and four interceptions over 51 games.
A defensive back coaching pipeline of sorts has been created between the University of Florida and the state of Washington this offseason.
Before Brown's imminent hiring by Washington State, UF brought in former University of Washington defensive backs coach Will Harris to replace Raymond and oversee the Gators' secondary moving forward.
Harris spent the 2023 campaign with the Los Angeles Chargers but found great success with the Huskies between 2018-21. He was promoted to supervise the UW secondary from an assistant position in 2020, and the unit ranked No. 1 in both the Pac-12 and FBS in passing defense in his second season in the role, 2021.
Four Husky defensive backs — Elijah Molden (2021, third round), Keith Taylor (2021, fifth round), Trent McDuffie (2022, first round) and Kyler Gordon (2022, second round) — were selected in the NFL Draft after multiple years of development under Harris.
In an exclusive interview with All Gators, Harris emphasized his approach to bonding with the athletes he coaches in order to unlock their confidence and fullest potential.
"When you connect with someone on a certain level, that's when the special things happen. That's when, as people will say, he'll run to the wall for you and you'll run through a wall for him," Harris said.
"And ... you've got to be able to build the confidence so they can go out there and execute at a high level. I got this from [former Washington head coach] Chris Petersen as well, I believe confidence is cash. The more confidence you have, the more cash you've got."
Harris, and other new members of the Gators' coaching staff, will make their on-field debuts when Florida's 2024 spring football training camp begins, on Thursday, March 7.
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