RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) head football coach Travis Bush announced on Thursday the hiring of Chris Brasfield, who has nearly 20 years of coaching experience and additional high level recruiting experience, as the wide receivers coach.
Brasfield served in roles including running backs coach, assistant head coach and special teams coordinator, and senior analyst and special assistant to the head coach at SMU (2018-20), associate athletics director of student-athlete recruitment & experience (2015-17) and director of high school relations for football (2014) at Nebraska, running backs coach at Oregon State (2011-13), defensive graduate assistant at Oregon (2010), running backs coach at Samford (2007-09), Chicago Hope Academy head coach (2005-06), Fort Worth County Day School head coach (2002-04), offensive graduate assistant at TCU (spring 2001), assistant coach at All Saints Episcopal School (2000), assistant wide receivers coach at Texas State (1999), and wide receivers coach at Midwestern State (1996).
Brasfield’s time at Texas State coincided with Bush’s senior season as a wide receiver in 1999. They also worked together at TCU in 2001.
“I have known Chris for 25 years now,” Bush said. “In fact, he was one of our receiver coaches my senior year in college at Southwest Texas. We also spent some time together again as graduate assistants at TCU. Coach Brasfield is an outstanding football coach, and he always gets the most out of the guys he coaches. He has been at some of the top FBS programs in the nation, in multiple roles, and will make an immediate impact for UTRGV Football. He has even been ranked as one of the top recruiters in the nation in FBS. I can’t wait for him to get on campus and get to work.”
During his time as special teams coordinator at SMU in 2020, Brasfield coached kicker Chris Naggar to American Athletic Conference Special Teams Player of the Year honors. Naggar was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award and on the watch list for the Ray Guy Award, finishing the season as the conference’s leader in scoring (9.4; 17th in the NCAA) and field goals per game (1.70; 12th in the NCAA) and was one shy of the SMU single-season record for field goals made at 17. Naggar was selected to play in the NFLPA and Hula Bowls.
As a team, SMU ranked ninth nationally in kickoff return defense at 16.95, with Tyler Page finishing the season fourth nationally in punt returns at 15.2 yards per return.
In 2019, Brasfield mentored Doak Walker semifinalist and all-conference selection Xavier Jones to top FBS statistical honors for points per game (11.5) and rushing touchdowns (23). Jones was also second nationally in total touchdowns with 25 and third nationally in total points scored with 150. His rushing yards (1,276) and rushing yards per game (98.2) were also in the FBS top 25. Jones’ season points, rushing touchdowns and total touchdowns were all SMU records. Jones went on to sign with the Los Angeles Rams in 2020.
In his first season at SMU, Brasfield mentored Paul Hornung Award Watch List member Braeden West, who led the Mustangs with 138 carries for 589 yards and six touchdowns and finished his career 10th all-time at SMU with 2,519 career-rushing yards and seven career 100-yard games.
Brasfield has also built a reputation as a dynamic recruiter, voted as one of the top 50 recruiters in the nation by 247 sports during his time at Oregon State. That led to Brasfield following head coach Mike Riley to Nebraska, where Brasfield took on a recruiting-specific role.
A member of the NFL Minority Coaching Internship Program, Brasfield spent time with the Tennessee Titans in 2009. He also served as an intern with the Oakland Raiders in 2000 and was an area scout for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2001-02.
Brasfield has also coached at the high school level in Texas and Illinois.
“I am ecstatic to be a part of the UTRGV football family,” Brasfield said. “Knowing Coach Bush, his character and commitment to excellence, seeing the collaboration between our university and athletics leadership, in conjunction with an ever-growing donor base that wants to establish a football program the Valley and state of Texas will be proud of, is a winning formula. I’m grateful to Coach Bush for the opportunity. Go Vaqueros!”
Originally from Fort Worth, Brasfield earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Master of Liberal Arts from TCU in 1996 and 2001, respectively.
